The moment the cross-realm gate stabilized, the world inside the frame rippled—beautiful for a heartbeat, then wrong the next.
At first, Silvanna thought it was just energy adjusting.
But then the ground inside the window of light shattered like glass.
The twilight field Rebecca stood in buckled and twisted. Flowers of starlit glow snapped into spirals, and the sky fractured into shards of purple lightning. A wave of distortion rippled outward, turning the horizon into a storm of collapsing geometry.
Bruce's eyes widened.
"That's not Rebecca's power— that's the Between reacting!"
Tony's hands flew over the controls. "The readings just spiked! The dimensional pressure is going critical— the portal is destabilizing the whole realm!"
Silvanna pressed her hand against the shimmering surface. She could feel it — the Between was awakening, not like a living creature but like a defensive system older than any universe.
The realm was trying to erase the interference.
Erase the portal.
Erase everything touching it.
Natasha shouted over the rising hum, "If that wave crosses into our side, what happens?"
Bruce swallowed. "Worst case? The collapse wave duplicates here. Two realities implode."
"Best case?" Tony asked without looking up.
Bruce grimaced. "It only takes out this building."
The floor vibrated.
The portal's light flickered violently—cracks of energy crawling across the frame like glowing fractures.
---
Inside the Between
Rebecca staggered as the ground beneath her ripped apart and re-formed under her feet. The Between was always shifting, but this… this was violent, unfocused—raw.
She looked up and saw it:
A tear in the sky, a shimmering shape—
the portal.
Silvanna's world.
But around it, the Between twisted into an enormous vortex of collapsing reality, spiraling like a hurricane made of starlight and broken dimensions.
Rebecca clenched her fists, her eyes blazing gold.
"No… no, not now!"
The Between had always tolerated her.
But a doorway? A bridge?
A foreign energy anchoring itself into its fabric?
The realm saw it as a threat.
The vortex screamed, and a shockwave shot toward her.
Rebecca thrust both hands outward, summoning a barrier of pure cosmic energy. It held—barely—shattering into fragments of gold.
The Between didn't care who she was.
It only cared that something was invading.
She forced her voice across the collapsing boundary, shouting toward the portal:
"Silvanna! Close it! You'll destroy yourselves!"
---
Stark Tower
Her voice came through—distorted but unmistakable.
Silvanna's heart froze. "No. No! We just reached you!"
The portal flared more violently, the metal frame glowing red-hot. A burst of energy threw sparks across the lab.
Tony cursed. "She's right— if we don't shut it down, both sides get wiped!"
Silvanna grabbed his arm.
"If we close it now, we lose her! She's trapped in there while it collapses!"
Bruce shouted, "We can try to stabilize it from her side— but only she has the power to interface with the Between's core!"
Silvanna's jaw tightened.
"I'm going through."
Tony spun around. "Absolutely not— this thing is barely holding together!"
The portal flickered again, its light dimming then surging brighter than before. The room trembled like a heartbeat off rhythm.
Thor stepped forward, gripping Mjolnir.
"The realm calls for her. Silvanna's presence may steady her sister. Let her pass."
Tony stared—angry, scared, calculating—but the readings on his display didn't lie.
She was the only one who wouldn't be erased instantly.
He exhaled shakily.
"…Fine.
But you have sixty seconds before this thing collapses completely."
Silvanna didn't hesitate.
She sprinted.
The portal flared white—
the world bent—
and she vanished inside.
---
The Between – Collapse Zone
Silvanna slammed into a world made of unraveling stars.
Gravity twisted sideways. The air tasted of lightning and dust. The ground was a field of flowers one moment and raw cosmic fire the next.
Rebecca saw her crash land and her breath caught.
"Silvanna— you idiot— why would you—"
Silvanna struggled up, hair whipping wildly in the collapsing wind.
"You think I'm letting you die alone? Absolutely not!"
Rebecca stared at her— eyes wide with emotion, fear, relief— before she shouted:
"Then help me stabilize it! The Between is acting like a living defense system— it's trying to purge both worlds!"
Silvanna nodded. "Just tell me what to do!"
Rebecca pointed toward the swirling heart of the storm, where threads of broken reality spiraled like a vortex.
"That's the nexus— the core. I can hold it back, but not alone!"
Silvanna summoned her energy, letting her aura flare bright.
"Then you're not alone!"
She grabbed Rebecca's hand.
The moment their powers touched—
the Between changed pitch.
Lightning turned gold.
The vortex slowed.
The collapsing geometry froze— held back by an unfamiliar force.
Rebecca gasped. "Your power— it resonates with mine?"
Silvanna smirked despite the chaos. "Of course it does. Sisters, remember?"
Rebecca squeezed her hand tighter.
"Then let's save two universes."
They stepped toward the vortex together.
And the Between screamed.