Jay's vision stabilized.
The ordinary room dissolved around him and the cosmic arena returned. Oblivion lay separated from Lady Death's remains. The Earthen heroes had stopped fighting. They'd seen the gap in power between Jay's family and Oblivion and understood their combat had been theatre.
Jay saw his son.
And he finally saw his wif…. Well, she wasn't his wife yet.
He needed to fix that.
Domino caught his expression. "What's up with that silly smile?"
Jay didn't answer.
The Living Tribunal was rising from his throne, all three faces turning toward the field with the measured authority of a supreme court reconvening. Ready to exercise jurisdiction now that ROB's constraint had lifted. Ready to render judgment.
Jay looked at him for one second.
Then he crushed the reality marble.
White light blazed so intensely that even Master Order and the Watchers had to shield themselves. When it faded, Jay and everyone on his side were gone.
They arrived on an endless green plain.
Fresh grass under clean air. The sky was blue in a way that suggested this universe was deciding what blue meant. No atmosphere had filtered this light before. No eye had seen this green.
It was a universe that had been waiting.
Thousands of heroes, mutants, mystics, and abstract beings stood looking around in confusion.
Luv tugged Jay's sleeve. "Dad, where are we? We still need to fight..."
Jay went to one knee and gathered him up. He just held him. Not checking for injuries, not battle-ready. The other kind. The one with no tactical function. Luv's face pressed against his shoulder, and Jay could feel him breathing. He kissed his head, his temple, his cheek. The parents' inventory to confirm via touch that their child was whole.
Luv understood in three seconds that his father wasn't going anywhere.
The five-year-old who had built a galaxy-scale mecha out of love and grief grabbed Jay's collar with both fists and held on.
"I missed you so much, Dad. I was so afraid, I..."
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
Domino joined the hug and smoothed Luv's hair. "We're good, bae. We're done. And if anyone ever deploys this kind of operation against this family again," her voice carrying the level register of someone who had become Death itself, "I will personally guarantee they never draw breath in any reality I oversee. Mama, promises."
Jay laughed. "You don't need to worry about anyone causing problems anymore."
Domino pulled back, still combat-ready. "You're going to explain that right now. This is not the moment for cryptic."
Jay stood with Luv against his hip and turned to address the thousands watching. He amplified his voice.
"Everyone. First, I want to thank each of you. During our biggest crisis, you chose to side with us. You put your lives at risk to save our son." He bowed his head. "Thank you."
Luv, surprised by his dad's sudden action, wobbled into his own bow. Domino gave a curt nod, mindful of her new station as Death.
The Marauders, the Cult of the Lightbringer, and others whose lives Jay had changed immediately protested the bow.
"It was the right thing to do," they said. "They were paying him back."
Sue Storm raised her hand. "I hate to be a downer while everyone's in a cheerful mood, but where are we? And what happened to Oblivion's forces? Last I knew, we were still engaged. Shouldn't we get ready for incoming attacks from the remaining survivors of his camp?"
Jay gave her a respectful nod, acknowledging her question. She'd earned the question after all. She'd been terrified for Luv and had deployed into a cosmic killing field anyway.
Eternity interjected before Jay could explain.
"Don't worry about them, child. I can sense it. This ground is not under my jurisdiction. It stands outside the structural framework of our multiverse entirely."
The Queen of Nevers tilted her head with the attention she gave to outcomes that had collapsed from potential into actual. She had never seen this moment before and for her, this was all but certain of a single possibility.
"You met him, didn't you?" she asked Jay. "Without his express intent, what you have built here belongs to no jurisdiction I know. It is genuinely new." She paused. "I have not encountered genuinely new in some time."
Infinity ran the calculation in two seconds and confirmed it. The Phoenix Force extended its awareness and found no ceiling or boundary. Eternity listened for his own resonance and heard nothing. This universe didn't know his name yet.
Jay shrugged with both hands. "I can neither confirm nor deny."
A few laughs rippled through the group.
Jay explained that this was an isolated universe outside the scope of cosmic entities and their rules. Finally free to be with his family without constant danger looming.
"And most importantly, I can bring people here or send them back anywhere I want."
Sue and Jean relaxed visibly. Luv was partially their son, and they'd hated the thought of him growing up without his siblings or human connection.
The crowd murmured. The logistics of a new universe settling over them like field orders: what do we do? where do we go? what does this mean for everything we left behind?
Jay smiled. "No need to worry, everyone will be returned to their home, but first, celebrations are in order. But before that, I have a very important question to ask."
The crowd went silent.
Future Nate Grey and Franklin Richards remembered what this moment was and how important it was to the history of the universe. "We are absolutely not missing this," he said as both Franklin and Nate got their cameras out.
Jay turned to Domino.
He opened his hand and, surprisingly, the Death Stone sat in his palm, violet and black, pulling light toward itself. Domino's hand went to her Ankh necklace before she'd consciously decided to. The weight wasn't there.
"How did you..."
He reached into his other pocket. The ring was black in the same signature as the Death Stone energy. Jay had commissioned it during his second visit to Vormir. He had been carrying it since. He fitted the stone into the slot now and watched Domino mind still catching up to what was happening.
"Jay, is this really..."
Her voice had gone quiet. Not soft. Domino's voice didn't go soft. But soft, now understanding when the stakes were high enough that every word needed to carry its exact weight.
Jay went down on one knee and extended his hand.
He looked up at her.
"Neena Thurman. You're the mother of my child and the love of my life. We've had one hell of a ride together, haven't we? All those adventures, the crazy times, the hard times too. We've fought, we've fallen apart, but somehow we always find our way back to each other. You keep me grounded when everything else goes to hell. You remind me what it means to be human, to feel something real. I don't want to lose that again. I don't want to lose you. So... will you marry me?"
Domino's face changed as she finally processed what and where this was happening.
She was shaking when she said it.
"Yes."
Jay stood and slipped the ring onto her finger.
Meanwhile, the crowd erupted in the register of thousands who had fought through a cosmic killing field alongside this family and were now watching the thing they fought for actually happen. It was loud in a way a new universe had never heard. The sound had nowhere to echo yet, so it filled everything.
Future Franklin snapped his fingers. Flowers rained from the sky while little cherubs made of solid golden light appeared overhead as heroic and cheerful music swelled across the plain.
Future Nate used telekinesis to transmute atoms and produce champagne for every person present. Where he wasn't sure of biology, the glass adjusted. Where the entity didn't have hands, the glass floated at the right height. Nate Grey had grown up with too much diversity for it to even be a bother.
The Ancient One moved through the crowd with the authority of a mother who had watched Jay fight, bleed and make impossible choices across her son's life, and realised somewhere along the way, that he was hers to be proud of. She used transmutation to create food for the feast.
As tables filled with the heartiest feast appeared in neat rows at the edge of the crowd.
Domino jumped on Jay the second the ring was on her finger, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him. "Yes," she said between kisses. "Yeah. Obviously. You absolute disaster."
Jay kissed her back and pulled Luv into his arms.
The kid had watched the whole thing with focused gravity, both hands pressed flat against his own cheeks. When Jay pulled him in, he made a snorting sound that was indicative of his relief and joy. He grabbed hold of both of them at once.
Jay turned to the crowd with both Neena and Luv in his arms and yelled while beaming:
"She said yes!"
The crowd roared.
"Congratulations!!!"
And in the back of it, if you were listening for it, Domino's voice: small, unguarded and belonging only to the three of them:
"Yes."