"Here. Your car keys."
Dante flopped down onto Nick Fury's overpriced leather couch, stretched like a cat, then melted into the cushions.
"Nothing you wanna say to me?" Fury tossed the keys aside like a spent cartridge. "You go out to find a car, and end up in the middle of a reality distortion event I've never heard of... Should I say you're lucky? Or cursed?"
"I'm not sure about lucky," Dante muttered, "but I've definitely got main character troublemaker energy."
Putting everything else aside, just having a system like his guaranteed one thing—wherever he went, chaos followed.
"Alright. Enough small talk. After this Storybrooke Town incident, we're adding reality distortion events to our regular threat matrix." Fury sat down beside him. "When I was sunbathing with Dr. Jack Bright, he mentioned events like this once, but I always chalked it up to fringe science. Guess you never really get it till it's knocking on your door."
This whole distortion event had left Fury drenched in cold sweat.
Especially after the distortion lifted and his memory of Dante and Bruce Wayne returned. Only then did the true horror of it hit home.
A reality distortion could completely erase someone or an entire team without leaving a single trace.
Especially Dante.
Don't let the constant bickering fool you, if Dante asked to borrow Fury's car, Fury gave it. If Dante said he wanted to ride Fury to work, Fury would probably say, "Sure, just give me a minute."
That's how whipped he was.
And Dante could feel it.
He wasn't your typical overpowered protagonist and hadn't read enough self-insert power fantasies to lean into the ego trip.
It made things awkward.
So the current vibe between him and Fury came from mutual adaptation.
Honestly? Fury was a good guy once you got past the paranoia. Knew when to pick his battles, and didn't throw his weight around when it wasn't necessary.
Only thing was, he still never gave a straight answer about how he lost the eye.
"Maria already briefed me. Your containment method was clean. The storybook characters don't have anything game-breaking in terms of power sets, so no need to worry about them rampaging."
"But it's a whole town of them," Dante shrugged. "We'll need some admins to help them at first. But after that, they'll be self-sustaining. I mean, they've got princes and princesses who've run kingdoms. As long as nobody gets lost in a 'true love' spiral, we'll be fine. That said, how exactly are they planning to explain a whole fairytale town just popping up?"
"I already gave the government a heads-up," Fury said, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. "They've dealt with weird zoning requests before."
"Storybrooke Town can be treated like a reservation. They'll get open borders and local governance… but technically, it's still federal land. Gotta maintain appearances."
Even though Fury was American, after years running the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an arm of the World Federation, he could view national issues like an outsider.
That neutral stance was exactly why the Bureau kept getting into pissing matches with the U.S. Government, the military, and the FBI-CIA complex.
The moment the U.S. military sent Hal Jordan to deliver the Aether Particle to the Bureau? It meant they'd run out of moves.
"Say whatever you want. As long as you can manage the government side, I'll bet Storybrooke's up and running in no time."
Dante stood and headed for the nearby workstation.
Ada Wong and Ingrid Hannigan were absolutely buried in data, hands flying across terminals as they processed intel nonstop.
The amount of information from this distortion was absurd. Hundreds of displaced fairytale characters, each needing a full profile...
Meanwhile, Dante and Fury had just been lounging on a sofa.
The dagger stares from Ada and Ingrid? Absolutely earned.
Dante glanced at them, smirked.
Hannigan was a walking flamethrower. And Ada? Cold outside, chaos inside. A walking temptation grenade.
Dante had the sneaking suspicion that if he summoned the Red Lantern Corps right now, he'd end up with two new members.
"Hey Ada. Long time no see."
"We saw each other yesterday."
"A day without you feels like three autumns."
Dante strolled over and, with absolutely no shame, reached over and closed the FBI terminal in front of Ada.
Then, before either Ada or Hannigan could process what was happening, he opened a portal behind Ada, spun her chair around, and rolled her straight into it.
With one last cheeky wave at Fury and Hannigan, he quipped, "If I never see you again, good morning, good afternoon, and good night."
And stepped through.
The portal sealed behind them.
Ingrid Hannigan stood frozen. Completely blanked out.
After a long pause, she turned to Fury, her voice flat.
"Director. Did they just dump everything on me?"
"Uh… probably. Maybe. Yeah." Fury wiped the sudden sweat off his bald dome. "Calm down, Agent Hannigan. I'll pull a few Internal Affairs staff to back you up on paperwork."
Fury had been in this job too long not to recognize a ticking time bomb.
Ingrid closed her eyes. Breathed deep. Once. Twice. Third time.
Then slammed her hand on the desk and rose to her full height.
"You insane jackasses! I swear, you better watch your backs at night! I'll fire both of you one day!"
Hell hath no fury like an overworked fed abandoned mid-paperwork.
Meanwhile, Dante and Ada couldn't hear any of that. They were already thousands of miles away in Finland.
"Lake Inari. Prime aurora-watching spot," Dante said, draping his jacket over Ada.
It wasn't quite winter, but in northern Europe, nights still carried a bite.
Ada blinked once, then just leaned back in the chair, snuggled into the coat.
"Good thing I didn't wear a skirt or qipao today. That'd be less romantic and more sniffly."
Dante didn't reply. Just stood beside her, silently taking in the shared warmth.
They stood in silence for a long while before Dante finally broke it.
"Actually... I've had some questions."
"Questions?" Ada looked up at the calm sky. "You're the most important Captain at the Bureau, a top Agent. What kind of question could possibly stump you, dear Dante?"
"Don't dodge it, Ada."
Something about her had always felt off.
Too familiar.
If it were just her personality? Fine. But Ada was famously cold, even with literal gods. Always warm on the outside, ice inside.
Yet with him? She was different.
She let him know he was different.
And that bugged him.
He never doubted the closeness between him and Harley, he'd helped reconstruct her psyche. Her attachment, while unexpected, made sense.
Same with Hela. He'd broken Odin's seal and stuck by her side since. She'd gradually become more human, less goddess. The "King and Queen"? Started as a misunderstanding. He never corrected it.
But Ada?
He couldn't explain it.
He knew he was good-looking. But he wasn't the kind of overpowered protagonist who made women swoon just by breathing.
And yet...
Every time he remembered the way Ada had ever-so-slightly brushed her pinky across his hand while handing off a file...
Tingles.
"Dante, I get it," Ada said, watching him with something like amusement. "But this time, I'm choosing to be a Riddler."
She said it with a mischievous smirk, then darted off a few steps like a teenage girl.
"Hey! Riddlers are a bad habit!" Dante took two strides and caught her hand, pulling her gently back into his arms. "You vixen. Did you know something from the start? Did we meet before?"
He didn't hold her too tightly. But Ada didn't pull away. Instead, she leaned in closer, adjusting to a more comfortable spot.
Her full weight rested against him.
"You said... we'd meet in the future," she whispered. "And you didn't break that promise. When I saw you walk into the Bureau building, you had no idea how happy I was…"
"Ada, I'm positive I never said that."
"Of course not. You haven't said it yet. That was a promise you'll give me."
Before Dante could even process that, Ada suddenly gasped.
"Aurora! The aurora!"
She dashed to the edge of the lake like an excited kid.
Dante followed her gaze.
Above them, the northern lights painted the sky. Green streams flowed like a celestial river through the stars.
And then, a familiar voice echoed in his mind—boyish, but no longer weak.
"You like the gift?"
"Ion Shark, since when were you this nosy?"
Dante got it now.
Those auroras weren't just natural. They carried Will.
"Hey. I'm part of the Emotional Spectrum, you know. Just because I'm the Will Green Lantern Beast doesn't mean I don't feel other emotions," Ion Shark said, smug. "The violet light around Ada? Please. You'd have to be blind not to notice it."
Dante's lips twitched.
Yeah, he saw it.
And that was exactly why he was even more confused.
Because the level of violet light radiating from Ada could have crowned her as a Star Sapphire Queen.
If she got possessed by the Violet Lantern Beast, the Predator, and became a Raider? He wouldn't even be shocked.
"Ada. What did you really mean by that promise?"
Dante forced himself to stay grounded.
He'd already patched his incomplete memories using the Republic's database.
And he was sure—his past self had never met Ada Wong.
She swore he'd made her that promise.
But she wasn't surprised that he didn't remember.
Which meant...
There was only one possible conclusion.
"Ada. When did you first see me?"
"Don't you know?"
Ada tilted her head with faux innocence, her acting so bad it circled back to being cute.
"Ada. Listen to me." Dante gently grabbed her shoulders, leaned close, and asked again, "I asked when did you first see me, not when I first saw you."
This wasn't nitpicking.
As Sherlock Holmes once told Watson in The Sign of the Four:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Dante trusted her. Trusted his own skills.
Which left one answer:
His future self had gone back, and met Ada in her past.
Ada looked at him for a long time.
Then, under the light of the aurora shaped by Ion Shark's Will, she stood on tiptoe.
And kissed him.
"I've waited ten years for this kiss."
(To be continued.)
***
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