Mark crouched down until his eyes were level with the small girl in front of him. Terra's blue eyes were wide, bright with the same innocent curiosity he'd seen before in children he'd saved or helped as Invincible, but this time it hit a little differently. This moment felt more personal, even if he shouldn't be feeling like this.
He smiled warmly. "Well, honey," he said softly, "I'm technically your father… but from a different dimension. You could think of me as your dad's twin, basically."
Terra blinked, the gears turning behind her big eyes. She tilted her head slightly, her hair bouncing. "So… does that mean I have another uncle? Or another daddy?"
Eve, standing nearby, let out a small, nervous laugh. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to find words that would make sense to a four-year-old about dimensional variants. "Uh… it's kind of… both?"
Terra looked back at Mark, face scrunched in confusion. "That's weird."
Mark chuckled, reaching out to gently boop her nose. "Yeah, it's a little weird. But while I'm here, you can treat me as another uncle, and if you need anything from me, you can ask."
Eve folded her arms, half amused and half touched by the exchange. She wished her Mark were the one actually interacting with their daughter. It was strange, hearing the same voice she remembered, but more confident and slightly more mature.
"But I'll bring your daddy back," Mark said suddenly, his tone more serious but still soft enough not to scare her.
Eve's eyes widened. "You really think you can?" she asked, voice low.
Mark nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure of it."
Terra's brows furrowed. "How?"
Mark thought for a second, then smiled. "With magic." Before showcasing a small ball of water in his hand.
Terra gasped and clasped her hands together. "That's so cool!"
Her childlike wonder made Eve smile despite herself. She looked down at her daughter, then back at Mark. He looked so confident, seemingly sure of his ability to bring her '...babydaddy?' back. A small part of her, the part that still believed in miracles, wanted to believe in him.
XXXX
The next morning came quickly.
Dust rolled across the barren landscape. Shattered metallic ships jutted out from the ground like the ribs of a long-dead titan. These were the old remnants of the battle between the Coalition and Thragg.
Mark touched down on the jagged ground first, boots sinking slightly into the grass-covered surface. His cloak billowed behind him in the harsh wind as he scanned the surroundings with narrowed eyes.
"This is it," Oliver said, landing beside him with a grim expression. "This is the planet where my brother disappeared."
There was a distant sadness in his voice. He tried to hide it, but Mark heard it anyway. Oliver kept his arms crossed tightly as if bracing against more than just the cold. When Mark had mentioned that his version of Oliver didn't exist because Nolan never went to Thraxa, he'd gone quiet. That kind of knowledge wasn't easy to swallow.
Nolan descended next, the air swirling around him as he hovered for a moment before landing. He walked forward, testing the brittle ground with each step. "After Mark disappeared, Thragg and his army came to attack, assuming there was something important that Mark was searching for."
Allen continued. "We managed to repel him after he found no signs of Mark," he said. "Thragg probably assumed Mark died here."
Eve landed last; she looked around with worried eyes. "When he was reported missing, I spent months searching for any sign of him." Her voice wavered slightly. "…eventually I lost hope."
"Don't worry," Mark assured her, confidently. "I'll bring him back."
Oliver stepped forward, gesturing toward a jagged cavern opening a few yards ahead. The wind howled through it like air sucked through broken teeth.
"This is the entrance," Oliver explained. "His last signal came from inside."
The group walked together toward the cave. The open air gave way to a cold stillness once they crossed the threshold.
The opening was dark, seemingly pitch black, which was creepy. Though when Mark stepped in, he felt something no one else could. There was a subtle distortion in space in the cave, like static crawling over his skin.
Mark was curious. "Hmmm... the surrounding space here feels… thin. Like something tore through it."
Mark stopped before walking further in. "You guys should stay here," he said. "I'll go on ahead."
Eve stepped forward, looking uneasy. "Are you sure?"
"I'll be fine," he said. "If something happens, I'll open a portal to come back."
She didn't argue, but her hand lingered on his arm for just a moment before she let go.
He made his way inside. The deeper he went, the more a buzzing sensation grew. It was soft at first, then thrumming, like an echo vibrating through the bones. The walls pulsed faintly with a strange bioluminescent residue, blue streaks flowing like veins under the rock. It wasn't natural. Whatever had been here had left a few traces in this dimension.
The path opened into a wide cavern, the walls carved smooth by unnatural means. The air shimmered faintly, rippling like heat waves. In the center, the rock floor dipped slightly, and the gravity seemed slightly heavier there.
"There's definitely a spatial fissure," Mark muttered to himself. Angstrom's abilities and his own magic abilities allowed him to sense anomalies in dimensions, and he was clearly sensing a hole in this dimension.
He raised his hands, focusing his powers. His palms began to glow with a neon green-blue light, a mix of his magic and ability. The hum intensified.
Mark's face scrunched up, and he strained himself slightly, having to use both abilities at the same time.
"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be," Mark said as he struggled to look beyond the fissure. It took a few moments, but with enough effort, the fissure began ripping itself open.
A portal tore itself into existence. It was not a smooth neon green ring like the ones he's made before, but a jagged oval of swirling neon green and blue energy. The air pulled inward, bending light around it. Mark steadied himself, adjusting his footing against the pull. Inside the rift, he saw nothing at first, just an endless white expanse.
Then something moved.
At the center of that whiteness floated a tangled mass of glowing blue tendrils, radiating light like living threads of energy. Between the tentacles was a pulsing crystal sphere; it was transparent, but had images flickering across its surface.
He stepped forward and crossed through the portal.
The white space swallowed him whole. For a moment, there was no sound, no temperature, only light. Then his boots met solid ground, or something close to it. The air around him was thick and fluid, like walking underwater without resistance.
The mysterious entity ahead of him was massive. Its luminous tentacles were shifting, coiling, and unfurling all around it as if they had a mind of their own. The light coming from it was soothing and overwhelming all at once.
Mark's eyes adjusted, and with his enhanced sight, he caught glimpses of a body within the center of the tendrils. It vaguely resembled a humanoid, though the tentacles covered it thoroughly. He tried focusing harder, activating x-ray vision, but his powers met resistance. He couldn't see through the glowing tentacles.
He frowned slightly. 'Somehow it can block my x-ray vision without lead', he thought. 'Or maybe it's just a being of a higher order that even my Kryptonian mind can't process'.
He could tell it wasn't just energy. The resistance had a feeling, something akin to magic, maybe they were similar, but more developed.
His voice echoed softly in the expanse. "So you're the one keeping Mark Grayson from his family."
The being's tendrils shifted slightly, and a soft, feminine voice filled the space. "I'm surprised," it said. "You shouldn't be here. You should be inside my alternate timeline. How are you standing in front of me?"
Its voice wasn't spoken so much as placed directly into his mind, every syllable gentle but carrying the pressure of something powerful. The being's tendrils curled toward the crystal ball and then back to Mark. "You're still within my branch. My reality. So how are you here?"
Mark's eyes flicked toward the sphere. Within it, images flickered of a different Mark moving through life slowly.
'Mark is inside that sphere.' And this thing didn't seem to understand what was happening and what he was doing here.
Two things clicked in his head at once: First, the entity wasn't omniscient. If it had to ask how he got here, then its knowledge wasn't infinite. Second, the crystal ball wasn't symbolic. It was a dimensional container, holding his counterpart in an alternate timeline.
"My name is Mark Grayson, aka Invincible. But I'm from another dimension. Not from your timeline. Basically, I crossed over and came to bring back the Mark Grayson you kidnapped."
That seemed to catch its attention. The tendrils shifted in a slow, graceful motion, like waves stirred by wind. "...Kidnapped," it repeated softly. "I brought him here to make a choice that'll make the world better. Once he accepts staying in this new timeline, I can use it to replace this timeline."
Mark shook his head in disappointment. "But he won't accept because this isn't what he wanted. Because you're trying to prevent his daughter from being born."
There was silence for a few seconds. He could feel the entity studying his words. Though it didn't seem like it wanted to listen.
Then, the voice asked the same question once again. "How did you get here? And why are you here?"
Mark looked at the glowing sphere again. "I have the ability to cross dimensions and noticed the fissure in space, and like I told you before, I came to bring Mark back.
The tendrils froze for a brief instant, seeing that Mark was serious about taking Mark away. The light pulsing from the tendrils dimmed just slightly, then surged again. "You cannot interfere," it said, tone firmer now but not angry yet. "This is for the sake of the universe. To reverse all the death surrounding this boy..."
Mark cut it off with a blunt wave of his hand. "I don't care for your reason. I'm bringing him back whether you like it or not."
Silence again. Only the faint hum of the crystal sphere filled the air.
"No! I will not let you doom the universe!" It said beginning to get angry.
Mark's eyes glowed slightly red. "I'm not asking for permission."