Later that day, in a place far above the clouds, the sleek, glass-walled penthouse had grown quieter.
Frank, Lucy, and Rachel now sat in the sprawling living room. The view outside was stunning, but none of them were looking at it.
Frank sat on the couch with his arms resting on his knees, expression unreadable.
Rachel sat close to Frank — too close, glued to his side like a shadow that refused to leave. Her hand rested over his, fingers intertwined.
Frank stared forward, his smile long gone. His usually confident eyes had shifted into something colder. More resolute.
"No matter what you say," he said finally in a deep and serious tone, "I'm not going back. Not yet. I still have things to do here."
Rachel said nothing.
She didn't argue, didn't flinch. She just leaned closer into him.
Lucy let out an exasperated sigh from across the room, arms crossed. "Frank, you can't just hang around this timeline like a tourist. You know what this does. You're a literal temporal anomaly, and if you stay here much longer—"
She trailed off, tapping the device strapped to her wrist. It was sleek, silver, and glowed with faint glyphs — much like Ethan's Omni-Watch, but custom-modified for temporal enforcement. A pulsing number sat at its center: 97%.
Lucy's frown deepened. "...We're running out of time. We only came to drag your dramatic a** back to our timeline. You've already messed enough."
Frank reclined a little, unfazed. "I wonder about that. I changed this world. For the better."
Rachel stirred at that. "You've already changed his fate, haven't you?" Her voice was soft but carried weight.
Frank turned his head toward her and smiled faintly. "Yeah. It was one of the things I promised myself I'd do."
Lucy blinked.
She didn't get it — didn't want to. Messing with time wasn't her favorite sport. That was their other sister's obsession.
But she was here now.
And Frank was crossing the line.
"Don't make me repeat myself, Frank," Lucy warned. She stood up. Shadows gathered beneath her feet as her aura pulsed — a black, ominous haze that shimmered like spectral smoke. "You can't just sit here like some omnipotent babysitter. You know this isn't safe for others. I'm serious, Frank. If I have to drag you back myself, I will."
Frank didn't even glance at her. His gaze stayed on Rachel.
Rachel met it with understanding. "I know what you're trying to do, Frank. And I'm with you. But..." she exhaled, her voice lowering. "You're too powerful. Being here for too long, even if you suppress it, creates ripples. You're not just bending the timeline — you're punching holes in it."
Lucy slowly reined in her aura. Her face grew more serious.
"She's right," Lucy said, turning toward the wide windows. The clouds outside had begun to shift. "If I'm not wrong… Dad's still learning temporal manipulation at this point in this version of the timeline."
She turned her head just enough to look at Frank, her voice firm. "If he senses you here… it'll blow everything up. Past, present, and future."
Frank clenched his jaw.
That much was true.
Still… he had two things left to do.
Before he could speak, Rachel reached over and gently placed her hand on his cheek.
"Trust me, Frank," she said softly. "I know how you feel. But we don't belong here. Guests should always return home eventually."
But just when the mood softened—
Frank's voice cracked, sharp and raw.
"You don't understand, Rachel." His body stiffened. "You had a loving father. I didn't. I came back to stop him from becoming the monster he's destined to be."
Rachel's expression shifted. Her breath caught.
Frank's voice continued, rougher now. "But that wasn't enough. Mom's not happy with him… she will suffer, Rachel. So I broke them up and their wedding. I—"
Rachel's eyes widened.
Lucy whistled, her hand raised halfway to her face. "Oh you've really done it now."
Frank stopped.
The air grew heavier.
"I know he's an a**hole," Frank muttered before looking down. "But I just... I don't want him to die like that. Maybe he earned that fate—but Mom didn't."
Lucy snapped, "And Rachel also lost her mom, Frank. But you don't see her hopping through timelines like a cosmic toddler throwing tantrums."
Frank winced. The memory of Madelyne Pryor — Rachel's birth mother — flickered in his mind. A complicated woman with a tragic fate.
"…Sorry, Rachel," he said before looking into her eyes.
She simply smiled — soft and sad. "It's fine."
She leaned in, her forehead brushing his. "We'll come back, Franky. I promise. But not now."
Frank exhaled, his eyes closing for a beat. Her voice anchored him more than the whole multiverse ever could.
He turned to Lucy with a half-smile. "You brought her along just to make sure I'd cave. Clever little sis."
Lucy smirked. "Well, I did learn from the best."
"I hate that it worked."
Rachel chuckled. "Then stop being so damn predictable."
Lucy snorted. "You're too good for him."
Then she narrowed her eyes at Frank. "Frank, even if you do change things here, it won't change our timeline. It doesn't work like that."
Frank leaned back with a smirk that sent a chill down both their spines. "I already got that covered."
Rachel and Lucy blinked — simultaneously. Their eyes widened.
"What… did you do, Frank?" Lucy asked slowly.
"Don't tell me you—" Rachel began, but her words were cut short as a sudden shift hit the room.
Suddenly, Lucy's face went pale.
She turned back toward the window.
The sky outside had gone pitch-black. Clouds churned unnaturally. The air pressure dropped.
"...Damn," Lucy muttered, her body tensing. "I thought I held back enough of my power not to trigger anything. But I was wrong."
Frank stood up instantly. "You sensed it too?" he asked.
Lucy checked her watch again. Still 97%.
"We need to go. Now," she said sharply. "If she shows up, we're not just in trouble. We're f**ked."
Frank grunted. "You always bring drama with you. What else should I expect from the daughter of Death?"
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, go choke on a star, you golden-haired $#@%."
She snapped her fingers, and a portal swirled open — white light with shimmering green edges. The penthouse itself began to fade, transparency warping as its protections activated.
Frank turned to Rachel, grasping her hand.
"Next time we're here," he said, eyes intense, "your surname won't be Summers. It'll be Rachel Carter, Wife of Franklin Richard Carter."
Her eyes widened. "Frank—"
But he pulled her close and kissed her forehead.
Then, with a spin and a grin, he leapt into the portal with her in tow.
Lucy shook her head. "Insufferable idiot."
She followed right after, and the portal snapped shut behind her.
The penthouse vanished.
And then...
Stillness.
Seconds later, from above the clouds, a figure drifted down in silence — a woman in flowing black robes that shimmered like obsidian silk. Her face was mostly concealed by shadows, but the delicate shape of her jaw and the soft curves beneath the cloak hinted at her femininity.
She touched down where the penthouse once stood.
The aura around her was wrong — ancient, heavy, and cold. Time bent faintly around her.
She looked around… slowly lowered her hood and vanished.
---------------------
While the sky above shifted with ancient forces and timelines twisted quietly in the background, inside a quiet, softly lit room in the Carter Residence, things were... simpler.
Or at least, they seemed that way.
Sharon Carter sat upright on her bed, legs folded beneath her, arms gently resting on her lap. Her eyes followed the man seated across from her — the man everyone said was her cousin.
Ethan Carter.
He sat in a chair by her bedside, one arm resting on his knee, fingers loosely intertwined, the other hand idly spinning a pen. His expression was calm. But his eyes — those glowing, unreadable eyes — were distant.
She was still coming to terms with it all.
The Hydra lab. Her near-death experience. The fact that she had a cousin she'd never met — one who apparently held more power in his fingertips than most governments did in their arsenals.
Sharon broke the silence first. "I've been trying to make sense of it all. Everything with Hydra, what happened in that lab… I thought I was going to die in there."
Her voice was steady, but Ethan could hear the slight tremble in it. He said nothing at first. Just gave her a small nod.
"You don't have to worry about Hydra anymore," he said finally.
She blinked. "What?"
"You're safe," Ethan added calmly, "They're not coming back."
Sharon frowned slightly. "Fury didn't say much. And Natasha told me to rest. What happened to them?"
Ethan leaned back. "You'll probably see it on the news soon."
That didn't exactly put her at ease.
Still, she noticed something... off about his tone. Something that made her pause.
It had been a few hours since she'd been rescued — hours since that terrifying near-death moment on the cold metal table. And yet, now she felt perfectly fine, her body lighter, sharper. It was almost unnatural.
"What did you do to me?" she asked softly.
"I just helped your body recover," Ethan replied. "But you still needed rest."
Sharon narrowed her eyes. "That's… not normal."
Ethan didn't respond. He just offered a faint shrug.
And that silence? It dragged a little too long.
Technically… they were family. By blood, at least. That's what Fury and the test results had told her — that Ethan was her distant cousin. A Carter. But...
The man in front of her felt like a stranger.
She swallowed and said quietly, "You don't have to act like you care."
Ethan looked up, confused. "What?"
Sharon gave a small, sad smile. "I know we're cousins… but that's more of a technicality, isn't it? You don't owe me anything."
Ethan glanced away, his gaze settling on the nearby window.
He couldn't tell her or anyone the truth.
He wasn't the old Ethan Carter. That version of him — the original soul, the real cousin — had died in agony during Hydra's experiments. This body, this face, the memories in his mind... all remnants. But the soul?
The soul was someone else entirely. The only reason he saved her, Hill, and Coulson... was because he could. Because he didn't want innocent people to die. Not because of blood.
At least, that's what he told himself.
"I didn't do it because we're family," Ethan said finally in a clam voice. "I did it because I chose to."
Sharon nodded slowly. "Yeah… that makes sense."
She paused, then added, "Fury told me about you three years ago. Said there was a distant cousin named Ethan Carter making waves. I thought he was joking at first."
Ethan raised a brow. "You didn't know I existed?"
She shook her head. "Did you know I existed?"
He chuckled faintly. "Nope."
'At least not until I gained more powers,' he thought to himself.
"That makes two of us," she smiled. "So I didn't just want to show up and say 'Hi! We're cousins!' like some long-lost reunion. I figured… we're strangers. Tied by blood and a name."
He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "And you're not wrong."
Their eyes met. And despite the cold truth between them, there was no hostility.
Just honesty.
Maybe that was enough.
A few moments passed. Then Sharon tilted her head. "You know, I didn't expect my mysterious cousin to be a… what's the word…?"
"A womanizer?" Ethan offered with a smirk.
"Exactly," she said, laughing. "Dating two women? Really?"
Ethan leaned back with a smug. "Three now."
Sharon blinked. "Wait—what?!"
He nodded. "Diana joined the club."
"You're joking."
"I don't joke about women," he said seriously, then grinned.
Sharon buried her face in her hands. "Unbelievable…"
A while later, the living room saw a new wave of introductions.
Ethan brought Sharon out to meet the others. Anna, Jean, and Diana were already waiting.
To say the girls were surprised to meet someone related to Ethan was an understatement. Sharon introduced herself politely, keeping her cool, though she had questions... a lot of them.
Meanwhile, Anna and Jean's jaws dropped when they saw Fury, Natasha, Hill, and Coulson seated nearby. A reunion between them — but also a chaotic reminder of what had just happened.
Still, despite everything, Sharon and Ethan found a small understanding between them.
They weren't close. They weren't warm.
But they weren't hostile either.
Maybe friendship was possible — one step at a time.
Later, the truth about what had happened finally made its way to Anna and Jean.
Jean's phone buzzed constantly. Anna sat on the arm of Ethan's chair, scrolling through headlines on her own device. Diana and Didi huddled near the window, listening to the city's whispers.
Then Diana and Didi explained everything they saw, the Hydra agents burnt to ash, the worldwide shock, the public chaos, and of course — Mr. Sinister being blamed for everything.
Anna, wide-eyed and gleaming with pride, walked right up to Ethan and kissed him square on the lips.
Right in front of everyone.
Sharon's eyes widened.
Jean just chuckled before shaking her head. "Subtle."
Anna beamed. "What? My man just wiped out Hydra in seconds."
Jean smirked. "Yeah… and left me to clean it up."
Her phone buzzed non-stop.
"The media is already spinning conspiracy theories. And you—" she pointed sharply at Ethan, "—are just lounging here like you didn't just commit synchronized psychic arson."
She paced, clearly agitated. "The government's calling. Mutant affairs. Public inquiries. Everyone's panicking and I'm the face they want answers from," she groaned.
Everyone's in a panic, and guess who they're looking to for answers?" She turned to face him directly. "Me. And I can tell you have no intention of making a public appearance anytime soon."
Ethan leaned back, calm as ever.
"It's better if I don't show up right away. We need to play this smart—slow. You'll give an official briefing, keep things contained for now. I'll make my entrance later… when the timing's right."
He gave her a faint smirk. "How's that for a plan?"
"It sucks."
Ethan is completely unfazed. "You'll be fine, Jean. I believe in you."
Jean narrowed her eyes. "You made the mess."
"And you're the best one to fix it."
Anna patted Jean's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help. I've got ideas."
Ethan looked alarmed. "Wait… that might be worse."
Anna ignored him. "We just need the right narrative. Ethan discovered Sinister's plan to enslave the world using genetic manipulation. He stopped him. Boom. Hero story."
Jean sighed. "And the whole spontaneous combustion thing?"
Diana chimed in. "Symbolic karma?"
Didi added, "Global purification event."
Ethan raised a brow. "That makes me sound like an elemental god."
Anna winked. "You are one."
Eventually, they all settled around the table, brainstorming the 'public version' of what had happened — carefully crafting a legend that would protect the truth… and Ethan's name.
Fury, Natasha, Hill, and Coulson had left earlier, offering no commentary. Sharon had gone too, quietly processing everything.
And Ethan?
He just leaned back in his chair, arms behind his head, grin growing with each new detail added to his myth.