"Easy there, Goddess," he said, his usual humor tempered with genuine concern. "You just did the impossible. You're allowed to collapse a little."
"Not done yet," Domino managed, though her words slurred with exhaustion. "Still need to... need to make sure..."
"Everything's fine." Hank's voice carried absolute certainty. "The systems are stable, Tiamut is secure, and Earth is saved. You can rest now."
Domino's eye fluttered closed as consciousness finally fled.
But she was smiling.
The celebration that followed was subdued but genuine, marked by relief so profound it felt physical.
The Eternals embraced each other with relief that years of tension finally releasing. Sprite cried openly, her tears falling on Tiamut's containment field as she whispered apologies for intending to let it die to a god who couldn't hear her yet. Thena and Gilgamesh held hands, their future no longer overshadowed by planetary genocide.
Even Ikaris, stubborn and devoted to the end, managed a smile that transformed his stern features.
"We saved them," he said quietly, looking at Earth's core chamber with wonder. "Humanity gets to live. And we didn't have to choose between our purpose and our conscience."
The mercenaries began packing up their equipment, professional even in victory. Deadpool took approximately seven hundred selfies with the infant Celestial, promising to send them to Domino when she woke up.
Karun's camera finally stopped rolling after running continuously for nearly four hours. He ejected the memory card with trembling hands, already knowing this footage would change everything.
"This is going to win every award," he said to himself. "Every single one. And if it doesn't, the judges are blind."
They were preparing to return to the surface, to begin the complex process of explaining to the world what they'd done, when the temperature dropped enough to give all of them chills.
The ceiling of the core chamber itself, the space above Tiamut's resting place, rippled like water disturbed by a thrown stone. Red light began bleeding through the distortion, not the warm glow of Tiamut's dreams but something older, vaster and impossibly ancient.
Then a face appeared.
Arishem the Judge manifested as a projection that filled the entire core chamber, his form so vast that his eyes alone were larger than mountains. Six orbs of cosmic fire blazed with light that made Tiamut's golden radiance look dim by comparison, each one capable of perceiving truths that mortal minds couldn't comprehend. The sheer scale of him made everyone feel like insects, his presence carrying weight that bent reality itself around his consciousness.
[Eternals.]
His voice was thunder made word, cosmic authority that vibrated through their synthetic cores like a tuning fork. Every Eternal felt the compulsion to kneel, to prostrate themselves, to acknowledge the absolute hierarchy that placed Celestials so far above them that the gap might as well have been infinite.
[You stand before me to be judged.]
Domino jerked awake from the oppressive presence, her quantum senses screaming warnings. She tried to summon her crimson strings, to create some kind of barrier against Celestial judgment, to do anything that might protect the people around her.
They fizzled uselessly, her power guttering like a candle in a hurricane.
Her powers, so effective against everything else, meant nothing against a being of Arishem's magnitude. It was like trying to stop a tidal wave with a paper fan.
"Damn it," she cursed, reaching for the Death Stone. "Not robots again. Why is it always fucking Clankers?"
Machine Man snaps, "Hey, that's racist!!"
But Domino ignored him as she was about to activate the stone when Arishem's voice softened marginally.
[Neena Thurman, bearer of death's authority. There is no need for such measures. I come not as destroyer, but as judge. To understand before I decide. This is my function, my purpose across countless worlds and civilizations.]
Everyone froze.
Arishem recognized her. More than that, he recognized what she carried and treated it with respect rather than dismissal.
[The situation before me is... unprecedented. In my travels across the multiverse, in my observation of ten thousand Emergences across as many worlds, I have never witnessed an alternative to the necessary sacrifice. I would understand it fully before deciding consequences.]
His six eyes focused on the Eternals as a whole.
[Explain your actions. Why did you deviate from your programmed purpose? Why did you interfere with the Emergence that would have given birth to Tiamut as designed?]
Ajak bowed her head, her voice steady despite the fear coursing through her. "Great Arishem, we did not fail our purpose. We succeeded in a way that exceeded original parameters. Tiamut lives. He will awaken as planned. But through innovation and cooperation, we ensured his birth would not require Earth's destruction."
She gestured at the infant Celestial floating peacefully in his containment field.
"We found a third option. One that serves both humanity and the Celestials. One that proves intelligence can solve problems that power alone cannot."
Arishem's eyes tracked to the laboratory equipment, studying it with focus that felt like being examined under a microscope. He observed Hank and Janet still standing at their stations, analyzed the complex quantum harness that had made the impossible possible. The silence stretched for what felt like hours compressed into seconds.
[Who designed this technology?]
His voice carried genuine curiosity now, the tone shifting from judge to scholar. This was new, and in his cosmic existence, new was rarer than supernovas.
"I did," Hank said, his voice carrying pride despite his fear. He straightened his spine, meeting those cosmic eyes as best a mortal could. "The Pym Particles are my life's work. Decades of research, thousands of failures, all leading to this moment."
Arishem studied Hank for a long moment with focus that seemed to peer into his very soul, reading the history of his achievements, his failures, his determination. The weight of that gaze should have crushed a mortal, but Hank held firm.
Then he spoke words that would echo through history, that would be recorded in cosmic archives and spoken of for millennia.
[Hank Pym, mortal of Earth. Your intellect has achieved what Celestial science did not conceive. For eons, we have witnessed the Emergence as requiring sacrifice, the mother's life given for the child's birth. This was accepted as cosmic law, as inevitable as entropy itself.]
The core chamber shook with the weight of what came next.
[You have proven this law false. You have shown that innovation and compassion can transcend what was thought absolute. This is worthy of recognition across the cosmos.]
Another pause held pregnant with significance.
[I name you Scientist Supreme of Earth. Your genius is recognized across the cosmos. Wear this title with the knowledge that you have earned Celestial respect.]
Hank's mouth fell open. Janet grabbed his arm to keep him from collapsing.
"I... thank you?" Hank managed. "I mean, I accept. Scientist Supreme, huh? That's... that's has a nice ring to it."
Scott mutters in dismay, "Great! The last thing he needed was an ego boost."
But Arishem wasn't finished.
[Eternals, your deviation from protocol is forgiven. In fact, more than forgiven, it's a cause for celebration. You have demonstrated that synthetic life can exceed its programming through compassion and innovation. This pleases me.]
His massive hand reached down, and golden light bathed each Eternal in turn.
[I judge you innocent of betrayal. More than innocent, you are honored. And to those who have served with devotion despite personal cost, I grant gifts to acknowledge your sacrifice.]
Sprite gasped as her body shifted, growing and maturing. Her eternally child form finally achieved the adult shape she'd dreamed of for seven thousand years. now elegant and slender, at legs that were finally long, at her clothes that hugged her new curvaceous body in the best way, with wonder and immediately burst into tears.
"I'm me," she tears streaming down her face as she touched her cheeks, her neck, everything that was finally, finally right. "This body finally feels me."
Druig pulled her into an embrace, his own eyes wet with tears as he heard her voice for the first time in their millennia together.
Thena's eyes cleared as madness that had plagued her for centuries simply... left. The Mahd Wy'ry, the disease born from memories of wars that were never really hers, lifetimes of violence and trauma that had been implanted rather than experienced, evaporated under Celestial correction. The fog that had clouded her mind for so long lifted, leaving only clarity and the profound relief of finally, finally being whole.
"It's gone," she breathed, her voice breaking with emotion. "The voices, confusion and fear of losing myself. It's all gone."
Gilgamesh pulled her into a kiss that carried thousands of years of waiting and loving someone who sometimes didn't recognize him. Now she was here, fully present and fully herself.
One by one, Arishem addressed their deepest needs and granted what the Eternals had never dared ask for.
Finally, his six eyes turned to Domino.
[Bearer of Death's authority, wielder of quantum strings and mortal who steals from Lady Death herself.]
Domino met his gaze with as much courage as she could muster, which honestly wasn't much when facing something that large and powerful.
[There is nothing I can give you that you do not already possess. Your power approaches cosmic significance. You need no gifts from me.]
He paused.
[But I offer advice, if you will hear it.]
"I'll listen," Domino said quietly, having a bad feeling about where this was going.
[Gather the infinity stones. All six of them. You will need them if you wish to meet your husband and son again.]
The word was piercing, each one landing with sickening impact.
Domino's face went white. "What? Jay? Luv? What are you talking about?"
But Arishem was already fading, his projection withdrawing back to attend the infinitely greater judgement occurring elsewhere.
[That is all I may say. The future is yours to write, Neena Thurman.]
Then he was gone.
Domino stood frozen, her mind racing with implications she couldn't quite grasp. Jay and Luv in danger. Needing the Infinity Stones to save them. A threat so severe that even a Celestial felt compelled to warn her.
"Dom?" Wade's hand on her shoulder brought her back to the present. "You okay? It's gonna be alright, we are here." Pointing at Mercs for Money, Pym family and the Eternals.
"I'm fine," she lied. "Just... processing. We should get back to the surface. Hale open a portal to Kamar Taj. I need to check on my son."
But as they prepared to leave, as the Eternals celebrated their freedom and humanity's salvation, as Hank and Janet began the process of stabilizing Tiamut for transport, Domino's mind kept returning to Arishem's warning.
What could possibly threaten Jay badly enough that she'd need all of the Infinity Stones to save him? He was powerful, skilled, and had survived encounters with cosmic entities before. What had changed?
And what the hell was coming that would put their son in danger?
And what the hell was coming that would put their son in danger?
The questions haunted her as they rose through Earth's layers, leaving behind a newborn god and the laboratory that had delivered him safely.
Above them, the world continued turning, blissfully unaware of how close it had come to ending.
Below them, Tiamut dreamed of the life waiting for him, of the moment he'd finally wake and see the universe with his own eyes.
And somewhere in the Dimension of Manifestations, Arishem watched the Trial with satisfaction.
The Eternals had proven themselves worthy.
Earth had earned its right to exist.
And Domino had taken her first step toward a destiny that would shake the foundations of the cosmos itself.
The Emergence had been prevented.
But something far more dangerous was coming.
And she would need every ounce of power she could gather to face it.
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