Tony felt no hesitation about leaving the Three-Body Universe. After all, he had never felt truly at home among its humans. If Malrick hadn't promised that visiting this Universe would bring him into contact with higher civilizations, he never would have agreed to come. After all, his little princess at home was still waiting to say, "I love you three thousand," before bedtime.
That's right—Tony and Pepper's daughter had been born. Her name, the one Malrick had originally given, was Olivia Stark.
When Malrick traveled across other Universes before returning to the Marvel Universe, he didn't jump timelines. He simply used the differences in time flow between worlds to accelerate his own growth. After traveling through hundreds of worlds and parting ways with Eriyi, more than three years had passed by the time he returned. By then, little Olivia was already two and a half years old.
When she was born, Malrick had briefly returned to give her a Rejedo transformation necklace, but had not seen her since. Now, after more than thirty years apart, Tony was eager to return.
"Malrick, you can't mess this up! Remember, it's a time jump—back to the exact moment we left!" Tony emphasized repeatedly in the mansion on Three-Body Earth. He didn't want to return and find Olivia grown, or worse, a teenager or thirty years older. Missing the most precious years of her childhood was unthinkable.
"Got it. It'll be the exact moment we departed—you won't be out of little Olivia's sight for more than ten seconds," Malrick reassured him, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder and activating his traversal ability.
They passed through the chaotic void between worlds, through the barrier of the Marvel Universe, until familiar surroundings appeared: the seaside mansion in Los Angeles. When Malrick had taken Tony away, the family had been vacationing there. Outside, the sea shimmered beneath the cliff, bathed in the afternoon sun.
"Tony, we're back, precisely at the moment before we left, absolutely no—" Malrick paused as Tony collapsed, asleep again during the traversal process. Smiling, he carried him toward the bedroom.
At the doorway, he half-squatted, smiling as he greeted a familiar head of chestnut hair peeking from the stairs.
"Hi, Olivia, long time no see."
Olivia's curious eyes widened. "But we just saw each other a minute ago, Malrick," she said, biting her index finger in her soft, two-year-old voice. "How is Daddy… how is Daddy on your… your… shoulder?"
"You mean Tony? Your Daddy stayed up too late last night and suddenly fell asleep. I need to take him to bed so he can rest," Malrick explained gently, showing a rare tender side.
"Is… is that so?" Olivia's big eyes sparkled with curiosity as she stumbled forward.
"That's right. Hmm, Olivia, how about you say goodnight to your Daddy?" Malrick ruffled her hair and lifted her in his arms.
"But Daddy is already asleep," Olivia said.
"No problem. You tell me, and when he wakes up, I'll tell him," Malrick replied. Olivia tilted her head, unsure how a goodnight could be relayed, yet nodded obediently.
"Okay then, goodnight, Daddy… Malrick, you have to tell Daddy for me."
"I will, but not just that one sentence," Malrick smiled, prompting her again.
"How did you say goodnight to Daddy last night?"
Olivia cupped her cheeks thoughtfully. "I said—I love you three thousand."
"Haha, do you only love Daddy, and not your dear Uncle Malrick?"
Olivia blinked. "Also… also love!"
"And how many times?"
"Hmm… also three thousand times!" she answered seriously, pointing at her fingers, though she barely recognized the numbers. Tony had first heard a parallel Iron Man say "three thousand times" and been envious, so after Olivia's birth, he'd repeated it nightly. Olivia learned it by heart.
Malrick's mischievous smile widened. "To Uncle Malrick, you must say—I love you five thousand times!"
"Five… five thousand…?" she repeated, chewing on the unfamiliar number before nodding. "Love Daddy three thousand times, love Uncle Malrick five thousand times!"
Malrick laughed heartily, laid Tony on the bed, and carried Olivia downstairs. He had already imagined bragging to Tony when he woke.
"Olivia is so well-behaved. Let's go find your Mommy."
"Hmm… can I have an ice cream?" Olivia asked, tugging at her lip with a cunning glint in her eyes. Though only two, she was already perceptive. Seeing her uncle happy, she made a small request.
"Ice cream?" Malrick poked her forehead. "You little clever one. Alright, Uncle will take you, and it's cloud ice cream!"
From his world ring, he produced a floating, cloud-like ice cream, eliciting Olivia's delighted gasp.
Once Tony woke and saw the exchange, he smiled, yet also rolled his eyes at Malrick's playful bragging: "Love Daddy three thousand times, love Uncle five thousand times."
Three years had passed. Earth had changed dramatically, and the Multiverse had shifted tremendously. Although Malrick had scattered hundreds of millions of m-bodies across various Universes, he rarely acted personally. Typically, he chose a single human host or left behind a cosmos or Justice transformation device.
He acted only when a Universe-level crisis arose. Such events were rare, yet in the past three years, crises began appearing with increasing frequency. Every time, the pattern was the same: world collisions.
Malrick traced the source, discovering a common thread: Doctor Stephen Strange. Yet even in Universes where Malrick had taken control of Strange, collisions still occurred. It was as if an invisible hand manipulated the entire Multiverse, moving worlds at will.
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