The Helicarrier Deck
Domino gasped as the final crimson string detached from the Death Stone, and the artifact went dormant in her hands, lost of all its colour and power. The weight of what had just happened, hit her all at once.
More than 41,000 resurrections completed, a conversation with Death herself that might have lasted microseconds or hours, and an offer that would change everything about her existence if she accepted.
She collapsed immediately, legs giving out as if someone had cut the strings holding her upright, and Jay caught her before she hit the deck. His arms wrapped around her with desperate strength, his voice cracking with worry. "Dom! Talk to me, are you okay? Please tell me you're okay, please…"
"Define 'okay,'" she wheezed while her voice sounded like she'd swallowed sandpaper and gargled glass. But seeing Jay's worried face, seeing the fear in his eyes that he was trying so hard to hide, the way his hands trembled while holding her and remembering the life-changing conversation she'd just had, all she could do was smile despite the exhaustion. "No need to make that face, babe." She reached up with a shaking hand to touch his cheek, feeling the stubble he hadn't had time to shave, and the warmth of his skin. "I knew it would hurt at least a little using something called the Death Stone, but you were here, weren't you? You're always here when I need you most."
Jay's expression crumpled with relief, and he pulled her closer against his chest. She could feel his heart hammering, could feel how scared he'd been. "You just brought back 47,000 people using the Death Stone. Do you have any idea how terrified I was, that I'd made the wrong call asking you to do this, that I'd lose you because I was too weak to do it myself? That something would go wrong?"
"About as terrified as I was when you disappeared for hours to fight that FURY?" Domino shot back, though her voice carried more affection than accusation. "We're even now. You don't get to play the 'I was so worried' card when you regularly do things that give me heart attacks."
Jay laughed despite himself, the sound carrying a slight hysterical edge. He activated his technoforming to cancel the global broadcast, the connection severing as screens worldwide went dark and returned to their normal programming.
Steve Rogers and Maria Hill approached cautiously, both visibly shaken but trying to hide behind composure. Steve's tactical mind was clearly cataloged Domino's condition, trying to assess if medical intervention was necessary while his blue eyes carried awe. "Ms. Thurman, are you alright? We have medics on standby if you need medical attention. What you just did was..." His voice trailed off, and for the first time since Domino had met him, Captain America looked genuinely at a loss for words.
"Impossible?" Domino supplied helpfully. "Yeah, I'm getting used to that. I'll be fine with some rest and probably a bottle of whiskey. Or three."
Hill nodded respectfully, already pulling up information on her tablet. "We'll have a resting quarter ready for you both within five minutes. Meanwhile, Director Fury is making landing preparations and will arrive in approximately twenty minutes." She hesitated, then added with rare vulnerability in her tone, "For what it's worth, what you did today saved people I care about. SHIELD agents who died in the field are back and already running...thank you."
Jay's expression tightened slightly at Fury's mention. "What about the raid against HYDRA? I remember it was being carried out just before all this Sentinel shit began."
Steve's entire demeanor shifted, and profound relief crossed his features, which came from a weight carried for decades finally being lifted. "The operation was a success across all fronts. We've got thousands of HYDRA agents in custody, their leadership detained and enough evidence to bury them in courts for decades." His voice gained strength, became more Captain America. "Pierce, Zola, Sitwell, all of them. The World Security Council's corruption is being exposed as we speak. HYDRA's infiltration of SHIELD is being cut out root and stem."
He paused, and his expression softened into something deeply personal. "Jam…Logan got Bucky. He's bringing him back alive. The Winter Soldier programming is going to take time to break, but Charles Xavier has already agreed to help with the deprogramming process." His voice cracked slightly on Bucky's name. "After seventy years, I'm getting my best friend back."
Hill added quietly, "Seven hundred and sixty-four confirmed HYDRA casualties during the raid. All of them resurrected by what you just did, Ms. Thurman. Even our enemies got second chances today."
Domino processed that, thought about souls trapped in limbo, thought about Didi's offer, thought about what it would mean to guide even HYDRA agents to peaceful rest rather than leaving them suffering. "Everyone deserves to die with dignity, even the bad guys. Death shouldn't be torture."
The words came out before she'd consciously decided to say them, and she realized they weren't just hers. Some of Didi's philosophy had seeped into her during that conversation, had changed something fundamental in how she viewed mortality.
Jay nodded, his focus already shifting to getting Domino somewhere she could rest properly. "We should go. Dom needs to recover, and I need to check for any side effects from channeling that much death energy. Bringing back 41,000 people is exponentially harder than my 1,200, and I still don't fully trust Death of the Endless' modifications to the Death Stone. There could be quantum entanglement effects, probability cascade failures, reality degradation..."
"Jay." Domino put a hand on his chest, feeling his heart still racing beneath her palm. "Stop. I'm fine. Didi wouldn't have given you something that would hurt me. Trust me on this."
He looked at her, and something in her expression made him pause. "Dom, how do you know Didi? What happened while you were channelling?"
Domino opened her mouth to explain about the garden, about Didi's offer, about the choice, but before she could form the words, a call came through on all four of their communicators simultaneously.
The emergency tone made everyone tense, and Hill answered first, her professional demeanor snapping back into place. "Agent Hill, go ahead."
Xavier's voice came through, and hearing him sound tired and strained sent alarm bells ringing through everyone present. "Jay! Jay, are you there? We need you. Eric says this is a matter of absolute priority that cannot wait, that every second we delay makes the situation exponentially worse."
Jay felt a knot in his stomach. Nothing good came from that combination. "I'm here, Professor. What's the new emergency? Please tell me it's not more Sentinels because I don't think anyone has the energy for round two."
But it wasn't Xavier who answered. Eric Lehnsherr's voice came through, rough with pain and fear from a man who's never shown both. "Jay, listen to me very carefully. The Cabal, has a clone. A clone combining Nathan and Franklin's genetic material into a single being."
His breathing came harsh through the comm, clearly still in agony from his injuries. "You need to get to their location quickly, before they can fully awaken the clone. Once it's conscious, once it has Nathan's power and Franklin's ..."
Steve's voice interrupted. "It will be unstoppable. Even you might not be able to..."
Jay sighed now bone deep tired, "Don't worry about it, Eric. I've…"
The communication cut off mid-sentence with silence that spoke of something catastrophic happening on the other end.
For one heartbeat, the Helicarrier deck was completely still, everyone frozen in that terrible moment of anticipation where you know something awful is about to happen but can't yet see it.
Then the entire northern horizon ignited like someone had set the sky on fire.
The explosion erupted from deep in the Atlantic Ocean as a pillar of light and heat that climbed toward the heavens. The blast cloud formed a mushroom shape that dwarfed anything Earth had seen since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, expanding outward in concentric rings that turned water to steam and air to plasma.
The Helicarrier rocked violently from the shockwave despite being miles away, throwing people to the deck while alarms shrieked warnings about radiation spikes and structural damage. The sky itself seemed to split with energy discharge that painted everything in shades of orange and white.
"No," Steve screamed!
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