The next morning, the air in Stark Tower buzzed with the sound of machinery.
Every monitor flickered with strange diagrams — pulsing waveforms, shifting color-coded grids, and equations that even Bruce Banner found dizzying. The once-comfortable lounge had turned into a portal-labyrinth of cables and reinforced arc reactors. Tony Stark stood in the center of it all, half in his armor, half in a lab coat, his focus sharper than ever.
Across from him, Silvanna sat quietly at the edge of the room, hands clasped, her crimson eyes fixed on the holographic screens. For all her outward calm, her heart churned with unease. After Lala's revelation, nothing felt certain anymore — not even what she was.
Rebecca — her sister, her mirror, her other half — could be anywhere.
And yet, Tony had promised he'd find her.
"Status check on reactor output?" Tony called out, glancing at the floating display above his wrist.
Bruce responded without looking up. "Steady at ninety-seven percent. The new arc-phase stabilizers are holding. I've never seen energy readings like this, Tony. You're basically forcing an interdimensional signature to align across multiversal boundaries."
Tony smirked. "Yeah, well, if a fairy can pop into my office and drop an existential bomb about cosmic priestesses and universe-eaters, I'm not letting her outdo me in showmanship."
Natasha crossed her arms from the corner. "Showmanship's fine, Stark, but maybe we should slow down. You don't even know what that signal will connect to."
Tony turned to her with a wry grin. "We're not opening a wormhole to hell, Romanoff. We're just… calling someone who fell off the map."
Silvanna spoke softly, her voice carrying the quiet weight of centuries. "Rebecca isn't someone you just call. If her power reacted to yours, it might burn through your systems."
Tony looked back at her, his expression softening. "Then I'll just make stronger systems."
The room hummed louder as the circular ring in the center of the floor began to glow — the skeletal form of a portal gate, its inner edges spinning with rings of blue-white light.
Thor, watching from beside Bruce, muttered, "You mortals build such dangerous things for the sake of love."
Silvanna's gaze didn't move from the portal. "It's not love," she said quietly. "It's atonement."
Tony glanced at her but didn't interrupt. He knew that tone. It was the sound of someone who carried too much guilt for too long.
Minutes turned into hours. The Avengers moved with methodical precision — calibrating sensors, reading quantum fields, adjusting portal nodes. Outside, storm clouds gathered over New York, lightning crackling faintly in rhythm with the machine's pulse.
Finally, Tony stepped back from the console, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Okay… coordinates locked, energy stable, and dimensional barrier fluctuations under five percent. Not bad for a day's work."
Bruce nodded. "You're sure this will find her?"
Tony exhaled slowly. "If she's anywhere inside a stable realm — yeah. But if she's moving between them, or hiding inside a collapsed plane, this might take longer."
Silvanna stood, her boots echoing softly as she approached the ring. "I can feel her… somewhere distant. But faint. Like a heartbeat buried under mountains."
Tony looked at her curiously. "You feel her?"
"She's my sister," Silvanna said simply. "We were born together — our souls still echo. It's faint, but… she's alive."
That was all Tony needed to hear.
He turned back to the console. "Then let's find that heartbeat."
The machine roared to life. Blinding white light surged from the arc core, flooding the lab with heat and power. The entire tower trembled as the portal gate began to rotate, faster and faster, rings of light slicing through the air like halos.
"Energy spike at two hundred percent!" Bruce shouted over the noise. "She's pulling something — the system's reacting to a signal!"
Tony grinned despite the chaos. "She's out there. She's answering!"
But the power surged dangerously — the portal's edges flaring crimson. The lights dimmed, alarms blared, and Natasha braced herself against the console. "Tony, the readings are off the charts! Shut it down before it blows!"
"Not yet!" Tony barked, eyes glued to the data feed. "We're right on the edge — I can almost—"
Then, suddenly, the energy stabilized.
The swirling chaos became calm — a soft glow filling the lab like the dawn after a storm.
On the central screen, a faint image began to appear. The signal was weak, fractured — like trying to look through shattered glass. But there was no mistaking the figure within it.
A lone woman stood in a world of endless twilight, her golden-blonde hair blowing in a wind that wasn't there. Behind her stretched a vast forest of ancient trees, their branches glimmering with starlight.
Rebecca.
Silvanna stepped forward, her breath catching. "Rebecca…"
The image flickered, stabilizing enough for Rebecca to lift her head. Her eyes — deep violet, like Silvanna's but calmer — met hers through the distortion.
"Silvanna," she said softly, her voice echoing through the room like a ghost carried by wind.
Everyone froze.
Tony exhaled slowly, his expression caught between disbelief and awe. "Well, I'll be damned. It actually worked."
Rebecca smiled faintly. "Tony Stark… you never stop building bridges between worlds, do you?"
Tony grinned back. "Yeah, well, I had to make sure your sister didn't tear herself apart trying to find you."
The signal crackled again — energy readings spiking briefly — and Rebecca's image wavered.
Silvanna pressed closer, as if she could reach her through the screen. "Where are you?"
Rebecca's expression softened. "A realm between. It has no name. I've been… keeping the balance. The monsters here grow stronger every time another world falls."
Her voice flickered, fading. "Don't try to reach me yet. It's not safe."
The screen stuttered. Tony's fingers flew over the controls, trying to stabilize the feed. "Hold on, I can boost the signal—"
But Rebecca's voice grew distant, almost a whisper. "When the path clears, I'll find my way home. Until then…"
She looked directly at Silvanna.
"Protect our daughter."
And then the image vanished.
The light in the lab dimmed to nothing, leaving only the low hum of cooling circuits.
Silvanna stood silently for several seconds, her hands trembling. Then she exhaled, her eyes glistening. "She's alive."
Tony placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah," he said softly. "And now we know where to look."