Chapter Sixty, Part Two

"What is it that you desire?" White light surrounded her, body numbed as a voice whispered at the back of her skull. "What is the ideal that you hold closest to your heart?"

May frowned. Open or closed, her eyes showed the same white expanse. Empty of all but the luminous glow, the infinity around her trembled in rhythm with the unknown voice.

"You must decide… choose your path," the light flickered, interspersed with the deepest black. "Who are you? What is your purpose? What do you live for?"

The radiance around her condensed, drawn into the shape of voluminous clouds. The space above was lost to shadow, while May stood upside down amongst the heavens eyes fixed into a terrible abyss.

Her purpose? The clouds trembled, shifted from side to side by an unseen force. She had goals, things that she would die for, but her heart told her that this was not what the voice wished to hear.

"Who are you?" May extended her senses, only to discover that her magic failed her. The biofield that she'd become accustomed to also refused to respond, the power of her body drained away. "What is this place?"

The clouds ahead parted, thrust aside as an obsidian stairway sprouted forth and reached into the emptiness beyond. Highlighted by a silver glow, May glimpsed impossibly dense runes within the unknown stone.

"This is the beginning, or the end," the clouds around her rose in waves, disturbed by the sound of the voice. "A place that all who seek the truth of things will reach, provided they can survive the first steps on the path… now who are you, May-EL? The Empress of Krypton? A master of Magic? What face lies beneath the masks?"

"I am all of those things, and I don't wear any masks," May steadied her mind with a practised series of breaths, focused on the few details within her surroundings. "You still haven't answered my questions…"

Laughter echoed from the silver-white clouds, a mockery that was mirrored by the voice in her mind. The feather-light wisps shuddered, disturbed by something hidden within.

"I am one who's path has long ended," a wall of cloud stretched upward, a vast tide that split to reveal a familiar draconic figure. Serpentine and sleek, with pure white scales that pushed back the darkness of the endless abyss above. "A fragment of a being who once ascended the stairs of heaven without fear."

"The stairs of heaven…" May let her gaze slip from the gigantic beast and to the luminous black stairway. Even the effort to focus on the structure levied a great pressure against her mind, a suppression that screamed for her to bow. "Do you expect me to climb that thing?"

"I expect you to fail," the dragon's lips turned upward in an unconcerned grin. It swept around her, a vast presence that transformed the peaceful clouds into a storm. "Only those who truly know themselves may step onto the stairway and survive. The faintest whisper of doubt will call the wrath of heaven and cleanse the challenger from existence."

May smiled as she stepped closer to the raised pathway, unconcerned as the dragon brushed past her side. One foot followed the other, until she stood at the base of the vastly oversized stairs. She appraised the way upward, eyes filled with an inner fire.

"You expect me to choose a singular purpose? I refuse…" May took the first step, accompanied by the rumble of thunder. The pressure doubled the moment her foot contacted the stone, ignored as she gave the condescending dragon a feral grin. "You expect me to fail, to bow my head and cleanse away my doubts? I reject that too!"

The second step carried more weight than the first, a world on her shoulders as she left the clouds behind. This new life had shown her that even the highest of Gods could fall. The path forward was not singular, and she would not walk to the tune of some ancient dragon.

"I don't know what this place is, but my heart tells me the way out lies atop these stairs," warmth spread from her heart, a flame that flickered from under her skin. Infused with familiar runes, it forced back the veil between her and her power. "I travel the path of my choosing, and nothing will stand between me and the things I've chosen to protect."

May advanced against the pressure, one step at a time, while the dragon floated behind on a trail of clouds. Her death waited for her if she halted her way forward, as it did if she'd chosen not to walk at all. The knowledge came from the same place as the fire on her skin, a core of flame and magic that refused to bend the knee.

"Then you walk the hardest path of all, young goddess," the dragon's laughter filled the cloudbanks below with the echo of thunder, a trace of lightning within the silver-white. It remained a step behind, on her heels as she pushed past waves of intangible force. "To give nothing up is to defy the will of heaven, to choose everything is to demand the obedience of creation…"

"Heaven is subjective and creation exists to serve," with every step, her power slowly returned. The pressure roared in her ears, demonic wind that hooked at her spirit with bladed talons and threatened to halt her progress. "It's going to take more than a broken down dragon and some divine stairs to redefine who I am and what I stand for."

The clouds that ascended at her back shivered, swept into a frenzy as countless branches reached out from their depths. The dragon dodged to the side, a flash of light in its eyes as Yggdrasil illuminated the void above. Emerald and gold, a beacon that challenged the expanse of heaven.

May's joints creaked as she took another step, then another. The hand of the World Tree at her back, she forced a path against the hurricane. Far above, a faint point of light flickered. The smallest wisp of a star, alone in the shadowed black. Runic scripture wrapped her body, lifted it from the obsidian stairway and towards the distant sun.

"Well done, little one…" the dragon's laughter boomed out from her wake, almost childlike in its joy. Blinding light expanded to cover her perceptions, a glow that banished all else. "Fearless as a dragon, filled with rebelion and fire. You will do…"

– – – –

"The storm is approaching too quickly," Dr. Richards let his fingers dance over the station controls, gaze fixed on the viewscreen that dominated the centre of the station's laboratory. "Hurry up and get back inside!"

Dan shook his head as the video feed of Ben Grimm in a full spacesuit flickered, an image destabilised by the oncoming wave of cosmic energy. Things were progressing as planned, with the shielding disabled and a series of 'malfunctions' that rendered the shuttle unusable.

"I'll handle things here, Reed," Dan stepped up to man the controls and waved Richards toward the door. "Go help Johnny and Sue, we're running out of time!"

The Doctor nodded and darted for the exit, on a course that would lead him and the others to a new life. The cosmic storm billowed against the background of stars, a chaotic glow that hid all but the brightest within a rainbow of light.

A few taps of his fingers and several energy collectors extended from the 'damaged' shuttle, pointed at the heart of the anomaly. The unusual cloud was worth the time to study further, given its ability to create empowered humans.

"Hmmm?" Dan frowned as an emergency signal from the Fortress echoed in his skull. A call from the Primes that drew his gaze back to the surface of the Earth. "Of course he picks the worst possible time…"

Dan let his disguise fall away, body gone from the station in a blur that outpaced the light of the sun. Intruders had infiltrated the Fortress, En Sabah Nur and a small group of unknown mutants.

"Gotta hurry, Howard and his family are still inside the laboratory…"