Marvel: From the Void and Back Again, Part 3
Chapter 23: Cyber-Earth-2990, Part 2
…
The neon-lit SHIELD headquarters of Cyber-Earth-2990 buzzed with activity as its agents scrambled to adjust to the new mission parameters. Inside the main tactical command center, holographic displays flickered to life, showcasing the recent battle footage from the mutant district, the footage of the Machine-Knull's symbiotic constructs corrupting cybernetic systems at will.
Sitting around a circular briefing table, representatives from SHIELD and Soul Society reviewed the details.
"This mission just became a hell of a lot more complicated," a cybernetic SHIELD operative muttered as he finished replaying the footage. "If this thing can corrupt cybernetics, it means none of our infrastructure is safe."
Rangiku Matsumoto, leaning back with her arms crossed, exhaled heavily. "Yeah, no kidding. And we just so happen to be in a world that's basically one big walking cyber-brain." She flicked her eyes to Rukia Kuchiki, who had been dead silent up until now.
Rukia finally spoke, her tone quiet yet sharp. "Machine-Knull… if what Peter-Knull and Logan said is true, then we're not just dealing with a variant of Knull that thinks differently. We're dealing with something that shouldn't even be possible."
Across the table, Ikkaku Madarame ran a hand over his shaved head, a deep scowl on his face. "Yeah, I've been trying to wrap my head around that, too. Knulls are beings of the Void—they just wake up there, with no past, no creator, no reason other than existing. How the hell does that work with a robot? Machines don't wake up. Machines are built."
Rukia clenched her jaw. "Exactly. So the real question is: What is he?"
One of the SHIELD agents, a heavily cybernetically enhanced woman with a glowing visor, leaned forward. "Here's what we do know: This Knull isn't just corrupting systems—he's integrating them into himself. Every piece of technology he infects becomes a part of him. He's spreading, evolving." She tapped the display screen, which showed a city-wide heat map of recent data spikes. "We've been tracking erratic system behavior across Cyber-New York since last night. It's subtle, but it's spreading."
Ikkaku exhaled sharply. "Great. So we're not just fighting a guy who's got a symbiote—we're fighting a walking computer virus."
The room fell silent as the implications set in.
Rukia shook her head. "This thing isn't a virus. It's a full-blown technological entity. And it's not just growing stronger, it's learning."
Across the table, one of the younger Shinigami, a fresh recruit from Squad 5, swallowed nervously. "Then how do we even fight something like this?"
Before anyone could answer, the doors to the room slid open, and in walked Peter-Knull, Logan, and Gabriella. All eyes immediately turned toward Peter-Knull, the only Knull variant they had ever encountered who wasn't actively trying to consume reality.
Peter-Knull took a seat at the head of the table, his expression unreadable.
Logan exhaled. "Alright. What's the plan?"
The room fell into an uneasy silence. No one had a clear answer.
And that was the problem.
Peter-Knull leaned forward, his crimson eyes glowing faintly as he laced his fingers together on the table. The entire room quieted. There was something in his posture, something calculating, something that suggested he was piecing together a puzzle that no one else had fully seen yet.
"This whole thing is off," he finally said. His voice was calm, but there was an edge beneath it. "And not just because this Knull is different from my other variants."
The Shinigami, the SHIELD operatives, even Logan and Gabriella turned their full attention toward him.
Rangiku raised an eyebrow. "You mean besides the fact that he's a machine?"
Peter-Knull exhaled. "No, not just that. It's his behavior. If you've ever dealt with my variants before, you know how we operate. A Knull doesn't play around. If one of my kind sets their sights on a world, that world is either assimilated or destroyed. There's no in-between."
Ikkaku, who had been silent, crossed his arms. "Yeah, that tracks. The Knulls we fought before didn't exactly hold back."
"Exactly," Peter-Knull said, nodding. "And yet, look around. This planet isn't swarming with technological symbiote matter. The entire system should be covered in it. The sky should be darkened, the stars devoured, and yet..." He gestured vaguely toward the windows of the SHIELD HQ, where the neon-lit skyline of Cyber-New York still stood, untouched.
"That doesn't make any sense," Rukia muttered, frowning. "If he wanted this place, he could've already taken it."
"Exactly," Peter-Knull repeated. "Which means… he doesn't want this world."
The realization made the room go still.
Logan raised an eyebrow.
"Then what's he doin' here?"
Peter-Knull sighed, rubbing his temples. "I had the same question. So I dug deeper." His symbiotic tendrils coiled and shifted over his arm, accessing the remnants of the machine-symbiotes he had absorbed earlier.
"And based on the data-laced memories of the symbiotes I consumed," he continued, "I found my answer."
He looked up, his crimson gaze sharp.
"He's strip-mining this planet."
That sent a ripple through the room.
Gabriella blinked. "Wait, what?"
Peter-Knull tapped his fingers on the table. "Think about it. If he wanted this world, it'd be gone by now. But instead, he's been careful, almost surgical in how he's operating. He didn't send an overwhelming force after us, he only sent a handful of symbiotes, just enough to keep us occupied. Almost like… a distraction."
Rangiku exhaled sharply. "You're saying… he doesn't care about controlling this world?"
Peter-Knull nodded. "Not in the way my kind usually do. He's deliberately not leveling this solar system. He doesn't want to consume it—he wants to harvest it."
Rukia looked visibly disturbed. "Harvest it for what?"
Peter-Knull's voice was grim.
"Artifacts. Resources. Technology. Things that don't exist in the neighboring reality." He leaned back. "Based on what I pulled from those symbiotes… he's not just hoarding these things for himself." He exhaled slowly, letting the weight of his words settle.
"He's sending them to Aizen."
The room froze.
Ikkaku's expression darkened. "Son of a bitch."
Rangiku's jaw clenched. "So that's why he's here."
Peter-Knull nodded. "It explains why he's been so selective. He's only targeting specific materials, not just high-tech cybernetic components, but mystical artifacts, energy sources, things with power that shouldn't exist in a world like this."
Gabriella's expression hardened. "If he's stockpiling those and sending them to Aizen… then what the hell are they planning?"
Peter-Knull didn't answer immediately. He simply stared at the holographic projections, his fingers tightening into a fist.
Because he already had an idea.
And it wasn't good.
Peter-Knull's fingers flicked across the console, his tendrils snaking into the holographic interface as he pulled up a list of stolen artifacts, genetic samples, and classified technology. The room's lights dimmed, casting an eerie glow over the faces of those watching as a rotating holographic projection of stolen materials filled the air above the table.
The list was long, far too long.
But it was what was on the list that made everyone fall silent.
Rangiku's breath hitched. "What the hell…"
Peter-Knull's jaw tightened as he scrolled through the database of stolen goods. Nimrod Sentinels, deactivated but salvageable. Ancient runes from Asgard, etched into the floating stone of what once was an Odin-enchanted vault. A living form of Adamantium, gold in color, the same material the Ten Rings were forged from. Bio-engineered alloys from Shi'ar black markets. And, most concerning of all, genetic material.
Genetic material that didn't belong in Soul Society's neighboring reality.
Gabriella narrowed her eyes. "Those… those aren't just random samples."
"No," Peter-Knull confirmed, his voice low and grim. "They're looking for two things: genetic profiles of the gods of this world… and knowledge of rituals that can absorb a god's power."
A weighted silence filled the room.
Ikkaku's face twisted in disbelief. "Are you serious?"
Peter-Knull nodded. His symbiote pulsed faintly, mirroring the unease in the air. "Aizen isn't just stockpiling weapons. He's looking for a way to integrate them into himself. And his forces."
Rukia's expression darkened. "You're saying he wants to turn himself into… what? A god?"
Peter-Knull's crimson eyes flashed. "That's exactly what I'm saying."
Logan's fists clenched as he stared at the list of biological data strands, each labeled with a corresponding god or celestial being.
Anunnaki. Aesir. Olympians. Even a handful of obscure, forgotten pantheons.
And buried in the classified sections of the hologram were rituals dark rituals, extracted from ancient eldrich texts.
Gabriella exhaled. "So what, he's trying to… fuse himself with divinity?"
Peter-Knull crossed his arms. "He's not just looking to become a god. He's trying to manufacture them. If he succeeds in creating hybrids with these genetic profiles, or worse, if he modifies himself, then Soul Society won't just have a rogue Shinigami problem."
His voice dropped, heavy with finality.
"They'll have a pantheon of god-tier beings to deal with."
The weight of his words sank in like a stone.
Even the hardened warriors in the room went pale.
This was worse than anything they'd anticipated.
And they were already running out of time.
The room trembled violently, the metal walls groaning under unseen force. Dust rained down from the ceiling as the tremors intensified.
For a moment, the Shinigami forces thought it was just another quake, an aftershock from Peter-Knull's earlier battle. But then-.
CRASH!
The floor erupted, a red blur of metal and symbiotic flesh exploding upwards. Debris scattered as a monstrous form burst from below, its clawed, cybernetic tendrils whipping through the air like serrated whips.
Before anyone could react, the creature drove a crimson, blade-like appendage straight through Logan's gut.
The sickening squelch echoed across the war room. Logan choked, eyes widening in shock as the blade of Cyber-Carnage punched through him, lifting him slightly off the ground.
A metallic snarl followed.
"AHAHAHA! Miss me, Wolverine?"
…
Rangiku's POV
The moment Cyber-Carnage's tendrils slashed outward, Rangiku barely dodged, twisting back as the monstrous entity whipped around, a wicked grin stretched across its face.
"The hell, that is one ugly symbiote!" she shouted.
She had fought monsters, Hollows, and abominations beyond reason, but nothing like this. The way it moved, the sheer chaos in its attacks, the way its symbiote writhed and snapped like a living thing separate from its host, it was unnatural.
Her blade lashed out, a quick, fluid strike, but before her sword could even reach its target, Cyber-Carnage's head twisted, a full 180 degrees, locking eyes with her.
Her stomach dropped.
"AHHHH-!"
Cyber-Carnage ROARED, the sound inhuman, metallic, echoing with rage as its symbiotic mass shuddered, bubbling outward like it was laughing at her terror.
"Oh, I'm going to have SO MUCH FUN WITH YOU!"
Rangiku could barely react before a serrated tendril slashed toward her neck.
…
Ikkaku's POV
Ikkaku reacted on instinct, his blade already swinging before his brain fully processed the sheer horror of what he was looking at.
"What kind of MONSTER is this?!"
He had fought stronger foes, sure—but this thing… it wasn't just brutal. It was wrong.
It wasn't fighting like a warrior. It wasn't fighting like a Hollow.
It was playing with them.
He gritted his teeth and charged, but Cyber-Carnage's symbiotic mass surged forward, forming hundreds of tiny, chattering mouths with razor-sharp teeth.
Ikkaku slashed through them, only for the mass to reform instantly.
Cyber-Carnage tilted his head, that unnerving grin never fading.
"Nice swordplay. Let me show you something BETTER!"
The symbiote lashed forward, growing spikes mid-strike. Ikkaku barely twisted away, but the edge of the tendril cut into his arm. The pain burned.
It was like being eaten alive.
…
Rukia's POV
Rukia's fingers shook on her blade as she watched Cyber-Carnage's form shift.
She had fought countless horrors. She had faced death itself more times than she could count. But the more she thought about it, they've only encountered Knull's before, and every one was taken out by Peter-Knull, not them. The only symbiotes they've encountered were the benevolent ones that Peter-Knull brought with him. They've never encountered one of these disgusting variations before.
And when Peter-Knull reached Cyber-Carnage and ripped the symbiote from the psycho's body and threw it to the ground…?
It didn't die!
It was mutating.
She saw it expand, saw it grow, saw its tendrils stretch like living wires, fusing into new shapes, spines, blades, pincers.
Then, the screaming started.
"RRRAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!"
A mass of writhing, metal-laced symbiote tendrils twisted on the floor, flailing wildly.
At first, she thought it was dying, but then it stood up.
And kept growing.
5 feet… 10 feet… 15 feet…
The thing—the symbiote, no longer attached to a host—had evolved.
Rukia could barely breathe as its monstrous, toothy form turned toward her.
Its blood-red eyes gleamed, and for the first time in her life, she truly felt powerless.
…
Then it moved.
Not just in some monstrous, lunging way, no, it twitched, jerking, its appendages shifting in chaotic, unnatural patterns.
A high-pitched, multi-layered hiss escaped its twisted mouth, followed by an eerie clicking sound, like an insect's mandibles grinding together.
Rukia's pulse pounded in her ears.
"It's… twitching."
Her breath hitched when she realized it wasn't just twitching—it was moving like a bug. Its elongated limbs skittered, folding inward before launching out again, jagged metal-tipped tendrils stabbing at Logan and Gabriella like an insectoid predator.
Logan snarled, his claws slashing through one of the lashing appendages, but the severed limb didn't fall.
Instead, it curled inward, its jagged metal tendrils reassembling into smaller, writhing appendages, splitting into multiple razor-sharp whips that struck at him like a swarm of striking vipers.
"What the HELL?!" Logan growled, twisting away as one of the symbiotic tendrils nearly sliced across his eye.
Gabriella was a blur, her blades dancing in defense, but even she was getting pushed back.
Peter-Knull's entire body tensed, his symbiotic armor flaring out, his crimson gaze burning.
"Contain it before it breaks out of the facility!"
The facility walls groaned under the sheer weight of the chaos. SHIELD operatives were barking orders over the comms, alarms blaring, and the entire room felt like it was shaking.
"Reinforce the security doors!"
"All personnel, evacuate the lower levels!"
"Get the sonic emitters online, NOW!"
And then.
Peter-Knull snarled and lunged forward, his void-forged blade flashing through the air.
With a single cleaving motion, he sliced the entire symbiote mass in half.
A moment of stillness followed. Then Both halves twitched, then convulsed, then stood up.
Rukia's breath caught in her throat as she watched both halves suddenly sprout new appendages, new jagged teeth, new lashing tendrils.
"Oh. Oh no."
The two separate masses twisted unnaturally, their forms jerking and clicking like an infected swarm.
Peter-Knull's expression darkened, his muscles tensing as his gaze flicked between the two growing horrors before him.
Then, he did the only thing he could think of.
His jaw unhinged.
Four rows of razor-sharp, nightmarish teeth stretched into view, jagged, serrated like something that belonged in the deepest abyss of the ocean.
And then.
CHOMP.
The first writhing symbiote mass was ripped into his maw, the inhuman, nightmarish mass flailing and screeching as he devoured it whole.
Rukia's stomach twisted.
She froze, her fingers locked around her Zanpakutō, unable to look away.
Ikkaku's jaw clenched, his usual cocky demeanor utterly absent.
Rangiku—who had faced Hollows, Arrancar, even beings like Aizen's Espada—couldn't breathe.
"What... the actual hell?" she whispered.
Logan grimaced but didn't flinch. Gabriella, though wary, didn't even react beyond a sharp exhale.
They had seen him do this before.
But the Shinigami… had not.
Rukia could hear Ikkaku gulp audibly.
The rows of nightmarish teeth crushed the writhing, metallic-red symbiote mass into pulped, black-streaked tendrils as Peter-Knull's throat flexed, his symbiotic body absorbing the mass like it was consuming raw energy.
It was gone.
Rukia felt sick.
Ikkaku actually took a step back.
"Nope. Nope. I'm out. I'm done," Ikkaku muttered. "That's it. That's the worst thing I've ever seen."
"He's not done," Rangiku muttered as she saw what happened next.
Peter-Knull's glowing red eyes snapped to the other half of the symbiote, the still-growing mass hissing and writhing in the corner, jagged wire-like tendrils flaring outward like a cornered predator.
And then he lunged again.
His massive maw clamped down—
CHOMP.
The final wailing scream of the thing that should not have existed was drowned out by the alarms and SHIELD operatives yelling across the comms.
And then there was silence.
Rangiku didn't speak.
Ikkaku's face was pale.
Rukia's hand tightened so hard around her sword's hilt that her knuckles went white.
Peter-Knull wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist, his expression unreadable.
Logan exhaled sharply. Gabriella let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"Jesus," Logan finally muttered. "I forgot how damn unsettling it is to watch you eat."
Peter-Knull rolled his shoulders, his muscles relaxing. "Yeah, yeah. It's over. Crisis averted."
Ikkaku blinked. "That was… that was crisis mode?"
Peter-Knull shrugged. "I mean, yeah."
Rukia's stomach churned now at just how gruesome that whole scene was.
Rukia barely had time to register the movement.
One second, Klasidy was collapsed against the ground, twitching from the sudden loss of his symbiote.
The next-.
"YOU FILTHY REAPER WHORE-!"
A blade flashed.
Rukia's instincts screamed. She flash-stepped on pure reflex.
The razor-sharp edge of Klasidy's knife sliced through empty air where her throat had been mere milliseconds before.
He missed, but his wild, bloodshot eyes remained locked on her, his lips stretched in a crazed, snarling grin. His entire body convulsed, like something was still writhing inside his skin, his veins bulging in unnatural pulses as his cybernetic implants sparked.
"YOU TOOK IT FROM ME! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!"
Peter-Knull's eyes narrowed, his hand already tightening into a fist, preparing to slam Klasidy into the ground.
"Don't even try it, freak," Logan growled, popping his claws. "I ain't in the mood for your bullshit."
Klasidy giggled.
And then-.
His head unhinged.
A wet, metallic rip echoed in the air, and Rukia barely had time to process what she was looking at before Klasidy's entire skull twisted off his shoulders, sprouting metallic, spider-like legs from his exposed, twitching vertebrae as he launched himself straight at Ikkaku's face.
"OH SHI-!"
WHAM!
Ikkaku was slammed backward as the metallic, gnashing head latched onto him, his razor-lined cybernetic teeth snapping at his throat.
"GET THIS PSYCHOTIC LITTLE SHIT OFF ME!"
At the same time, Klasidy's limbs fell slack.
For a fraction of a second, the room seemed still.
Then.
"Uh… his arms."
Rangiku's voice was quiet, uneasy.
Peter-Knull turned his head just in time to see.
Both of Klasidy's severed arms TWITCH.
Then twist.
Then snap backward as they SPROUTED metallic appendages of their own.
"Oh, what the fu-!"
The disembodied, cybernetic limbs LUNGED forward, one latching onto Rangiku's waist, its metallic tendrils tightening like a viper, while the other flailed wildly, catching a SHIELD agent by the throat and dragging him into a table.
Klasidy's head screeched as his metallic mandibles spread apart, revealing another row of grinding teeth underneath.
"RRRRAAAAGGHHHH-!"
Logan let out a low grunt, unimpressed.
"Yeah…" he sighed, watching the absolute chaos unfold.
"Klasidy's a bit of a Cyber-Psycho. Like you can see."
Rukia, still horrified, barely dodged as the thrashing, severed limbs flung themselves toward her like rabid mechanical beasts.
She landed beside Rangiku, who was busy PUNCHING one of the flailing arms like it was a wild animal.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Rangiku yelled.
"A bad joke," Peter-Knull muttered, already moving.
"Logan!" Gabriella asked looking at him. "Are we still calling this a cyber-psychosis case, or are we at 'some twisted demon bullshit' level yet?"
"We passed that five minutes ago, kid," Logan grunted.
Peter-Knull sighed, his expression unreadable as he kicked aside the sparking remnants of Klasidy's head. He watched as the last remaining metallic twitches faded, the shredded cybernetic tendrils still trying to move despite having nothing left to control.
"Yeah… people can do that to themselves in this world," he muttered, flexing his claws as residual sparks flickered off them. "If they have the right mechanical know-how and the money to back it up."
Rangiku rubbed her temples, still trying to process what the hell they'd just witnessed. "You're telling me this is normal?"
Peter-Knull didn't answer immediately. Instead, he walked over to the severed arms, his void-forged claws flexing before he brought his foot down on one with a crushing force. The impact sent shredded circuits and sparking metal flying as the twitching appendage was reduced to nothing but scrap. He turned to the other, grabbing it mid-twitch, before clenching his claws, effortlessly crushing it into twisted metal and sparks.
"Only Cyber-Psychos make themselves at least 90 percent mechanical." His voice was matter-of-fact, almost bored as he reached for Klasidy's torso, gripping it with one hand before his fingers dug in like steel cables, and he ripped it in half. Wires snapped. Metal screeched. Sparks showered the ground like dying fireflies.
"They're what happens when someone swaps out too much of their body for machine parts," he continued, stepping forward to the still-twitching remains of the other arm. "The human brain wasn't built for it. The cybernetics override their reasoning. The body rejects the parts, and the parts reject the body. They go feral." His claws flexed again, and he brought them down, tearing the last remnants into scrap metal and wires.
"It's not just psychosis," Gabriella muttered, eyeing the destroyed remains. "They lose their sense of self. They stop being human."
Peter-Knull finally looked up, his crimson eyes dimming slightly, the tension in his shoulders easing now that the fight was over.
"That," he said, "is why they're called Cyber-Psychos. And that lunatic? He was one before he ever put a metal plate in his body." He dusted off his hands, the final remnants of Klasidy's body no more than a heap of smoldering wreckage. "And let's be real, this was just a distraction."
Rukia, still gripping her Zanpakutō tightly, exhaled shakily, her fingers twitching against the hilt.
…
Later, inside the data-center…
Screens flickered with streams of digital data, tactical feeds from all over Cyber-Earth-2990's networked surveillance grid, and high-priority alerts marked in red. The glow of neon-blue holograms illuminating the gathered SHIELD operatives faces as they worked, their cybernetic enhancements glinting under the ambient lighting.
Nick Fury, this world's version, stood at the center of it all, his cybernetic eye scanning the tactical feeds with cold precision. His expression was unreadable, but everyone in the room knew the situation was bad. The last time they'd faced a Knull, it was the kind that dripped with eldritch horror, a monstrous god of symbiotic darkness.
But this? A Machine-Knull?
That was a whole new nightmare.
Peter-Knull leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. He was listening, but his mind was already working on the next step.
"Tell me you got something," Fury muttered, his mechanical fingers tapping against the table.
One of his tactical officers, a sleek-looking cyborg with multiple ocular implants, pulled up a holographic display, showing various dead zones across the city, areas where even the most invasive tracking software couldn't get a read.
"He's hiding," the officer said, voice modulated through his cybernetic vocalizer. "We've got nothing on him. Not a single trace. He's moving between black zones, places where surveillance doesn't reach."
Fury sighed, rubbing his metallic temple. "Son of a bitch knows how to cover his tracks."
"Of course he does," Peter-Knull finally spoke, his crimson eyes flickering with calculation. "He's not like the others. The usual Knull variants? They thrive on consumption, spreading, corrupting everything in sight. But this one? He's playing the long game."
Nick Fury exhaled sharply. "Alright, listen up. We need a way to flush this bastard out, and right now, he's staying ahead of us. The last time we dealt with a Knull problem, it was easier, he came to us. This one's different. He's smart. He's got patience. And he's running operations beneath our noses." He looked toward Peter-Knull. "That's your expertise. How do we track him?"
Peter-Knull rolled his shoulders, his symbiote tendrils subtly writhing beneath his jacket as he formulated a response. "We can't."
Silence.
Logan, arms folded, raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's comforting."
Peter-Knull shot him a glance before continuing. "We don't track him—we lure him out. We know what he wants. Every single piece of data we've pulled says he's mining this world for artifacts, tech, and knowledge that Aizen can use in the other reality." He tapped the holo-screen, cycling through the stolen items list. "You want to catch him? We don't chase. We make him come to us."
Gabriella exhaled. "And how exactly do we do that?"
Peter-Knull smirked. "We give him what he wants."
Fury raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
Peter-Knull expanded the list of black-market artifacts that had been traded or stolen recently. Nimrod Sentinel parts. Vibranium-infused A.I. cores. Data on ancient eldritch rituals. Even forbidden Asgardian runes. Every single item Machine-Knull had been gathering pointed to one goal, integrating himself, Aizen, and Sinister with divine or cosmic power.
"We set up an exchange," Peter-Knull continued. "Through our contacts in the underground networks, we establish a high-profile auction for 'rare artifacts', the exact kind of things Machine-Knull has been stealing. He won't be able to resist. The moment he shows up, I take him out."
Rukia frowned. "You make it sound easy. What if he doesn't take the bait?"
Peter-Knull cracked his neck. "Then I hunt him down the old-fashioned way. But trust me—he'll come. His type always do."
Nick Fury leaned back, considering. "It's risky. We'll have to make real purchases to keep our cover."
"We've already got operatives inside posing as buyers," Gabriella added. "They've had to buy a few artifacts already to keep from blowing our cover."
Fury grumbled. "And what exactly have we spent taxpayer money on?"
Peter-Knull swiped through the holo-display. "Shipment of Adamantium. A few crates of Vibranium. A couple of cybernetic A.I. enhancements. Some eldritch texts from a forgotten sect. Oh, and..." He paused, his crimson eyes narrowing as he pulled up the final auction lot.
A dwarf star.
Held in a containment bubble no larger than a human hand.
Everyone went still.
Logan narrowed his eyes. "You're shittin' me."
Peter-Knull leaned forward, staring at the screen. "...That's gonna be a problem."
The auction hall was humming with anticipation as the next round of bidding began. The neon glow of the cyber-enhanced venue reflected off the crowd of criminals, warlords, and corporate elites, each vying for weapons, artifacts, and technology that could tip the scales of power in their favor.
Machine-Knull sat motionless, his towering mechanical form hidden within the flickering distortion of his cloaking field. His optical sensors flickered, processing the rapidly changing figures on the screens, calculating the most valuable assets up for grabs.
For now, he was on a buying spree.
Lot 57: A Hybrid Mutant-Core Sample from a Fallen Omega-Level Being – Acquired. Lot 58: Cybernetic Augments Derived from Unstable Symbiote Matter – Purchased. Lot 59: Eldritch Runes from a Lost Asgardian Vault – Claimed.
The auctioneer's voice rang through the hall, announcing the next priceless artifact.
"Lot 60! An adaptive technology package containing components harvested from the remains of an interdimensional anomaly! Initial bid starts at twenty million credits!"
Peter-Knull, sitting at the far end of the room, his form obscured by the holographic displays, allowed a smirk to play at the corner of his lips.
This was it.
The trap.
The package wasn't just some random artifact. Inside, hidden beneath layers of metallic plating, his own symbiotic essence lay dormant—compressed, sealed, and ready to latch onto its prey the moment Machine-Knull laid its hands on it.
The bidding began.
Several corporate buyers and criminals raised their offers, but Machine-Knull was calculating in real-time, adjusting his bids precisely to avoid suspicion while securing what he truly needed.
Peter-Knull watched closely.
Machine-Knull never made reckless decisions. He was surgical, methodical, ruthless in his approach to power. That's what made him dangerous—he didn't think like the others. He didn't rage, consume, or destroy on a whim.
He plotted. He built. He evolved.
And then, he made his move.
The final bid came in.
A cold, distorted, synthetic voice rang through the silent hall.
"Fifty million credits."
Silence.
The auctioneer hesitated, scanning the room for any further bids. No one dared to challenge the price.
With a triumphant clang, the gavel slammed down.
"Lot 60, sold."
Peter-Knull exhaled slowly, his symbiotic tendrils twitching beneath his skin.
This was it.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
Machine-Knull's purchase would be delivered directly to his quarters, and the moment he unsealed the package…
Peter-Knull's essence would awaken.
And then?
Machine-Knull would become prey
…
SHIELD Command Center – Cyber-Earth-2990
Inside the SHIELD command center, holographic screens flickered, displaying data on every shipment, trade, and transaction moving through the auction. This world's Nick Fury stood at the head of the room, his cybernetic eye glowing with processing data, as agents scrambled across the floor, analyzing every incoming and outgoing shipment.
"We're tracking all of them," an operative reported, fingers moving across the console. "No chances, no slip-ups. Every last package is being scanned."
They weren't just here for Machine-Knull. They had stumbled onto something far bigger.
The auction wasn't just a black market tech sale, it was a full-blown intergalactic weapons bazaar, moving artifacts, genetic material, weapons, and technology from every corner of this universe.
The list of auctioned items was staggering.
…
Mutant & Superhuman DNA Strains
Omega-Level Mutant Gene Extracts – Samples taken from fallen mutant leaders, rumored to include remnants of Jean Grey, Magneto, and Apocalypse.
Inhuman Terrigenesis DNA Samples – Engineered Inhuman DNA capable of triggering new mutations.
Enhanced Super-Soldier Serum Variants – Derived from Captain America, Red Guardian, and even the Sentry Project.
Synthetic Symbiote Hybrid Serum – Allegedly designed to bond with cybernetic hosts, creating a new breed of bio-mechanical symbiotes.
Technological & Cybernetic Weaponry
Nimrod Sentinel Cores – Remnants of the next-gen mutant hunters, capable of adapting to any attack in real time.
Stolen Stark-Tech Extremis Upgrades – Stark-level cybernetics, capable of integrating into living tissue, creating enhanced cyber-warriors.
Latverian Combat Drones – Doom-designed AI drones, programmed for autonomous assassination missions.
Kree Quantum Shields – Personal shielding tech, designed to withstand cosmic-level attacks.
Mystical & Cosmic Artifacts
Runes from Asgard – Extracted from ancient Asgardian temples, rumored to contain pre-Ragnarok divine knowledge.
The Blackheart Grimoire – A demonic tome believed to hold knowledge on binding and siphoning divine power.
Annihilation War Crystals – Leftover fragments of the Annihilation Wave, capable of manipulating negative-zone energy.
The Hand's Forbidden Scrolls – Knowledge on how to transfer immortality from one host to another.
A Mystic Containment Vessel – Containing a trapped Eldritch horror, theorized to be one of the lesser known Old Gods.
Exotic & Rare Materials
Golden Adamantium – A variant of Adamantium that is alive.
Vibranium Composite Armor – Refined Wakandan Vibranium enhanced with synthetic alloys, making it nearly indestructible.
Chitauri Neural Implants – Cybernetic tech stolen from Chitauri warlords, rumored to link minds across vast distances.
A Reality Shard – A fragment of a broken timeline, rumored to have been pulled from the ruins of a collapsing universe.
…
Nick Fury's cybernetic fingers clenched into a fist as he took in the sheer scale of what they were dealing with. "This isn't just some random market trade," he growled, his metal-plated jaw tightening. "This is a universal war chest. Aizen's stockpiling power."
And worse? They weren't just collecting weapons and artifacts, they were collecting knowledge. Knowledge that someone like Aizen could use.
…
The Auction – Machine-Knull's Private Chambers
Peter-Knull moved silently, his cloaking field up and running , rendering him invisible even to Machine-Knull's sensors. Every movement was calculated, fluid, tracking his mechanical counterpart as he left the auction floor, a sleek containment case in his grasp.
Machine-Knull moved with purpose, navigating through a secured corridor, past cybernetic guards, their bodies lined with metallic symbiote armor. Peter-Knull counted them. Four sentries, fully enhanced, no organic signatures left in their bodies.
Dead husks.
They weren't his concern.
The real prize was right ahead.
Machine-Knull entered a private chamber, its interior lined with pulsing data streams and floating holographic glyphs, his sanctuary of processed thought and collected knowledge. The moment the doors hissed shut behind him, he set the containment case down on a reinforced worktable, his fingers twitching with intrigue.
Peter-Knull watched from the ceiling, his body fused with the shadows. His crimson eyes glowed faintly beneath his mask. Almost time.
Machine-Knull ran a diagnostic scan over the package. Nothing out of the ordinary. No tracking devices, no anomalies. A perfect transaction.
Or so he thought.
The containment seal released with a hiss, the interior bathed in an eerie black-violet glow. Inside, a seemingly harmless, inky mass pulsed, dormant, waiting.
Machine-Knull's fingers hovered over the symbiotic material, analyzing it.
And then, it moved.
The moment his mechanical fingers touched it, the symbiote lashed out, moving with inhuman speed as it coiled up Machine-Knull's arm, slithering through the gaps in his metallic armor like liquid death.
Peter-Knull lunged.
From the ceiling, he dropped like a phantom, his Void-Fang blade materializing in his grasp, cutting through the holograms around him as he descended on his struggling counterpart.
Machine-Knull thrashed violently, his systems immediately detecting the intrusion as the symbiote burrowed into him, corrupting his circuits, overriding his synthetic consciousness.
"SYSTEM INTEGRITY, COMPROMISED!" Machine-Knull roared, his voice distorting, his form convulsing as the blackened tendrils of Peter-Knull's symbiotic mass burrowed deeper. "DEFENSE PROTOCOL ENGAGE!, GHHHHHRRAAAAGH!-!"
Peter-Knull didn't let up.
He drove his tendrils into Machine-Knull's chassis, amplifying the parasitic fusion, ensuring his takeover was absolute.
Machine-Knull spasmed, his mechanical limbs twitching as his body was being consumed, his systems screaming as his armor cracked apart, rusting like decayed metal under the weight of the void-forged symbiote.
"YOUR PATHETIC ATTEMPT TO PRESERVE YOURSELF ENDS HERE," Peter-Knull hissed, his voice laced with pure dominance. He tightened his grip, pulling Machine-Knull toward him as the corruption spread faster, eating away at his very essence.
Machine-Knull's optics flickered, his red synthetic irises burning with denial. His core processor struggled to fight off the foreign invader, but it was futile.
"I-AM-ETERNAL!-!" Machine-Knull bellowed, twisting violently, metal plating snapping apart, his symbiotic form beginning to collapse inward.
Peter-Knull twisted his Void-Fang sword, driving it into Machine-Knull's chest cavity, sending a surge of void-energy into his core, shutting down his higher functions instantly.
With a final, distorted screech, Machine-Knull's body collapsed.
And Peter-Knull consumed him whole.
His symbiote engulfed the mechanical husk, absorbing every ounce of knowledge, power, and corrupted thought.
The room fell silent.
Peter-Knull exhaled, his body shuddering slightly as the flood of memories from Machine-Knull poured into him.
He saw everything.
The tech trades. The genetic manipulations. The network of machine-symbiotes hidden across multiple worlds.
And worse?
He saw Shaman-Knull and Death-Reaper-Knull and Aizen making a trojan horse that they intended peter-knull to discover only after he consumed machine-knull, an insurance policy. It's bad, REALLY, bad.
The moment Machine-Knull's essence fused into Peter-Knull, his symbiotic hive-mind screamed in warning. His body jerked violently, his crimson eyes flickering with a surge of corrupted data.
Then he saw it.
A trap.
A Trojan horse buried deep within Machine-Knull's programming. A backup fail-safe embedded not by him, but by Shaman-Knull, Death-Reaper-Knull, and Aizen.
It wasn't just a virus.
It was a global kill switch.
A massive EMP detonation countdown had already begun across this world's computer networks.
If it went off, every single piece of technology on the planet would fry.
"Shit."
Peter-Knull didn't hesitate.
His tendrils lashed outward, punching into the walls of the room, hacking into the core systems of the city, searching for any sign of the detonation trigger.
Four minutes and fifty-six seconds.
He didn't have time.
Peter-Knull immediately activated his comms, opening a line to SHIELD.
"FURY!" he nearly shouted, his voice echoing through the comms, raw with urgency. "AIZEN AND THE KNULLS PLANNED FOR THIS! THEY PLANTED A FAILSAFE IN MACHINE-KNULL'S CODE! I CONSUMED HIM, AND NOW IT'S ACTIVATED-!"
The line crackled with static as Fury's voice barked through. "Slow down! What the hell are you talking about?"
"A PLANET-WIDE EMP DETONATION!" Peter-Knull roared. "EVERY ELECTRONIC SYSTEM ON THIS PLANET IS GOING TO FRY UNLESS WE SHUT IT DOWN, AND WE HAVE LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES!"
The entire SHIELD command center erupted into chaos.
Nick Fury, his cybernetic eye flickering with emergency alerts, slammed his fist against the nearest terminal. "Goddammit! Find the source, now!"
Rukia, Rangiku, and the Soul Reapers in the command center stared in horror as the holographic displays lit up with warning messages, countdown timers, and emergency protocols.
Laura, Logan, and Gabriella snapped to attention, their instincts immediately kicking in.
"We need locations! Where's the detonation command coming from?!" Logan barked.
A SHIELD technician frantically typed on the interface, his fingers shaking. "It's… it's coming from the city's cyber-core! The blast is set to chain-react through the entire system!"
"Can you stop it?" Gabriella demanded.
The technician's face paled. "No! Not from here!"
Four minutes, thirty seconds.
Peter-Knull's mind raced. If he let this detonation go off, this entire world, Cyber-Earth-2990—would be sent back to the stone age.
Millions would die in the chaos.
There was only one solution.
His tendrils flared, his symbiote adapting instantly as he turned back to the control terminal inside Machine-Knull's lair.
"I'll shut it down manually," he growled. "Fury, get every damn operative you have working on securing power grids and emergency backup systems. If I fail, you need to keep these people alive."
Fury's voice cut in sharply. "Dammit, Knull, if this is a trap, then they wanted you to do this! You go in blind, and we lose our best shot at keeping this world stable!"
Peter-Knull didn't care.
He slammed his fist onto the interface, linking his symbiote directly into the machine-code laced with Machine-Knull's corrupted consciousness.
Three minutes, fifty-eight seconds.
This was going to hurt.
He took a deep breath, braced himself.
And plunged himself into the network.
…
The command center was dead silent, save for the sound of frantic typing and beeping alarms.
The holographic displays flickered with cascading red warnings, each one a reminder of the impending disaster. The countdown timer, an ominous presence, ticked down at an agonizing pace.
Peter-Knull was their only hope.
On the main screen, they could see him—his body entwined with the city's cyber-core, his symbiotic tendrils latching onto miles of circuitry.
His eyes glowed a deep, pulsing crimson, shifting between organic and mechanical.
He was working faster than any being had a right to, scrubbing millions of lines of code per second, forcing his way into the deepest levels of Machine-Knull's sabotage.
Nick Fury's cybernetic eye flashed erratically, processing the data feeds. "He's cutting through the system like a damn supercomputer," he muttered.
But the countdown kept going.
Jocasta, holding onto her Peter tightly, felt a pang of helplessness.
Her optical sensors read the time.
Forty-five seconds left.
She tightened her grip around her husband and their son, Timothy Mk-1.
Timothy's older sister, Lucy, was holding onto them both, trembling. Her usually strong posture was gone, her face pale as she clutched her father's arm. "Dad…?" she whispered, her voice small.
The tension was unbearable.
In the command center, SHIELD operatives worked furiously, inputting emergency failsafes, anything to stop what was coming.
But nothing was working.
Fury slammed a fist against the console. "Come on, Knull. You better not miss this one."
The countdown hit ten seconds.
Rukia's grip on her Zanpakutō tightened, her knuckles white.
Eight seconds.
Logan's claws flexed instinctively.
Six seconds.
Rangiku swallowed hard. They were out of time.
Four seconds.
Jocasta shut her eyes, clutching Timothy and Lucy tighter.
Two seconds.
BEEP.
The countdown froze.
The alarms stopped.
The red flashing lights died down.
A moment of absolute silence fell over the command center.
The screen flickered.
Then, "SYSTEM PURGE COMPLETE. PRIMARY CORE STABLE. NO HOSTILE ACTIVITY DETECTED".
Peter-Knull's symbiotic form slithered back into itself, his body retracting from the system. His breathing was heavy, his eyes dimmed from the intense processing overload.
Nick Fury exhaled, rubbing his face. "Son of a bitch actually did it."
Jocasta's synthetic hands trembled as she felt Peter still breathing beneath her grip. Timothy and Lucy clutched at him, their small hands grasping their father's Cyber-Suit.
Timothy, finally whispered, "We're okay…?"
Jocasta let out a soft, relieved laugh. "Yeah, baby. We're okay."
Thirty minutes later, every screen in the command center was still flooded with lines of code, scanning for any residual traces of Machine-Knull's virus.
SHIELD's top cybernetic engineers and soul reaper operatives were overseeing the final diagnostics, ensuring there were no lingering surprises buried within the infrastructure of Cyber-Earth-2990. Jocasta personally ran several deep scans through the network, her mechanical mind working at speeds even human cybernetics couldn't match.
Peter-Knull remained silent for most of it, his arms crossed as he observed the process. His mind wasn't on the screens anymore—his thoughts were already beyond this world, already moving toward what came next. Machine-Knull had been eliminated, but there were still others.
Shaman-Knull. Death-Reaper-Knull. Aizen.
The fight wasn't over.
Nick Fury finally exhaled and leaned against the main console. "Looks like we're clear. No more last-minute self-destruct protocols, no more surprises. You sure you scrubbed that bastard completely out of our systems?"
Peter-Knull's crimson eyes flickered as he met Fury's gaze. "I'm sure." His tone left no room for doubt.
Jocasta's silver hands hovered over the screen, her optical sensors dimming as she reviewed the last of the diagnostic reports. "Everything's stable. We won't know if anything was hidden deeper until we run more long-term sweeps, but for now? We're safe."
Fury exhaled, shaking his head. "Hell of a mess. Hell of a clean-up." He turned to Peter-Knull. "You sticking around, or do you got another universe to save?"
Peter-Knull smirked. "You know me. Always multitasking."
Rukia, Ikkaku, Rangiku, and Captain Amagai stepped forward, prepared for their departure. They had orders to return to Soul Society in their universe and report on everything they had encountered. Even now, the modified Senkaimon linking the Cyber-Earth to their world was active, waiting for their return.
Ikkaku sighed. "Gotta say, I still don't get it. A machine-Knull? How the hell does that even work?"
Rangiku shrugged. "I don't think I want to get it."
Amagai, always composed, nodded toward Peter-Knull. "We'll be briefing the Captain-Commander on everything that happened here. It's clear the Knull variants are more unpredictable than we thought."
Peter-Knull nodded. "Yeah. Keep an eye out on your end. The fight's not over yet."
With that, the soul reapers activated their dimensional passage, and the team stepped through, vanishing from Cyber-Earth-2990 and reappearing in the neighboring reality, from which they will return to their reality where the gateway was currently located. The Earth next door to this one.
…
Earth-9991 – The Former Zombie World
Up until a few months ago, this world was a living nightmare. Seven billion people—most of the population, had been turned into the undead after a virus was engineered by this universe's Hank McCoy and Charles Xavier. The cure had been deployed successfully, stabilizing what was left of civilization, but the clean-up? That was still ongoing.
The city still bore the scars of the past decade. There were entire districts that remained abandoned, skeletons of skyscrapers standing against a sky that still smelled of smoke and old decay. Entire mass graves had been dug, but there was still so much left to do.
And Grimmjow had been staying behind to help.
Yammy and Tesra arrived in one of the fortified settlements, where the survivors were rebuilding, and it wasn't hard to find him.
Grimmjow was standing at the edge of an overlooking platform, leaning against a metal railing while talking to this world's Emma Frost.
Yammy raised an eyebrow at the sight. "Huh. That's weird."
Tesra squinted. "What is?"
Yammy gestured toward the two. "He's being… serious. That ain't normal."
Tesra looked again. Emma Frost's face was slightly pink, her usual icy expression softened. Grimmjow, for once, didn't look like he was about to punch someone.
Instead, he looked… embarrassed.
And then Tesra saw it.
The white lipstick mark on Grimmjow's cheek.
Wait.
What.
Grimmjow pulled away from Emma as the two of them realized they had company. Emma quickly composed herself, her usual cool demeanor returning, but there was still a hint of color on her face.
Grimmjow scratched the back of his head, looking mildly irritated at being caught. "The hell are you two lookin' at?"
Yammy smirked, "Oh, I dunno. Just wondering when the hell you got a thing for classy blondes."
Tesra, still staring, muttered, "Is that… lipstick?"
Grimmjow's eye twitched.
Emma, however, was already regaining control of the situation. She turned her gaze to Yammy and Tesra, her voice cool as ever. "I see you two are just as brutish as I imagined."
Yammy let out a booming laugh. "Oh, this is rich. You finally meet a woman who can shut you up, huh, Grimmjow?"
Grimmjow's jaw clenched.
Emma simply smirked and turned back to him. "I'll leave you to deal with your friends."
And with that, she walked away, her presence as commanding as ever, leaving Grimmjow standing there with his arms crossed, glaring at Yammy and Tesra.
Tesra, still staring at the lipstick, finally said, "Wait. What."
Yammy grinned. "Man, I was expecting a bloodbath, not a damn romance novel."
Grimmjow sighed, muttering, "I hate you both."
…
The halls of Squad 1's Barracks were eerily quiet, save for the sound of parchment rustling and the occasional murmured conversation between high-ranking officers. The air was thick with the weight of what had transpired in the neighboring cybernetic reality.
Rukia, Rangiku, Ikkaku, and Captain Amagai stood before the grand desk of Captain-Commander Yamamoto, having just completed their detailed reports. The weight of their experiences lingered in their words.
Across from them, Thalmeric, the Sym-Elf, stood as still as a statue, his regal yet wild form practically blending into the dimly lit chamber. His bioluminescent green eyes flickered slightly as he absorbed the information, though he remained silent. He was here as a guardian, an enforcer, and above all, a representative of Peter-Knull's command. Though he had pledged himself to Soul Society, his loyalty was bound to Captain Yamamoto alone—a fact that did not need to be spoken aloud.
Yamamoto finished reading the last of the reports, his ancient features giving away nothing. The silence stretched.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"The diplomatic relations established with Cyber-Earth-2990 are both unprecedented and necessary," Yamamoto began, his deep voice cutting through the room like a sword. "For too long, we have remained unaware of the wider multiverse and the dangers it holds. This mission has proven that there are forces beyond our comprehension that have already turned their gaze toward us."
His gaze drifted over each officer before finally settling on Captain Amagai. "Tell me of these Celestials."
Amagai nodded and began his report. "Five of them arrived. Each one larger than a world. They did not attack at first, merely observed." He hesitated, as if struggling to put the sheer scale of what they had witnessed into words. "Peter-Knull destroyed them."
A murmur ran through the room. Rukia swallowed. Rangiku exhaled sharply. Ikkaku scowled, still unsettled.
Yamamoto's eyes narrowed slightly, but his tone did not change. "How?"
Rangiku took over. "It wasn't just brute force. It was… something else. Magic? A curse? I don't know how to explain it, but he took their power, their freedom, and then… banished them into some void where they cannot return."
She hesitated before adding, "And I don't think it even drained him. He did it so casually."
Ikkaku clicked his tongue, arms crossed. "If Peter-Knull wanted, he could probably take down this whole realm if he felt like it. But that's just it—he doesn't." The bald warrior shook his head, still unsettled. "The guy holds back. And that's terrifying."
Rukia added softly, "We have to consider the ramifications. We witnessed five Celestials—cosmic entities that have shaped entire universes—be stripped of their power and cast into nothingness. If Peter-Knull is capable of that, then Aizen and the remaining Knulls have every reason to fear him."
Yamamoto's grip on his cane tightened ever so slightly. "And yet, they still move against him."
Amagai gave a sharp nod. "Yes. And now we know why."
He unfolded a separate document, one outlining Machine-Knull's origins, or rather, his lack thereof.
"The Machine-Knull was a synthetic being that was never created. No builder, no design. He simply was, a mechanical void-god that came into existence, mirroring Peter-Knull's organic origins." Amagai's voice was grim. "That alone is disturbing. The fact that he allied with Aizen is even worse."
Rangiku sighed, running a hand through her hair. "And, like Peter-Knull's other counterparts, he didn't get to exist for very long." She chuckled, though there was little humor in it. "Our Knull ate him."
Ikkaku shuddered at the memory. "Yeah… that was new."
Rukia's face darkened. "And there was a failsafe in Machine-Knull's code. Aizen and the remaining Knulls planted a trojan horse in him, hoping that Peter-Knull would consume him. The result? A system-wide EMP that nearly wiped out the entire cyber-world."
Thalmeric finally spoke, his voice low and resonant. "But he stopped it."
It wasn't a question.
Amagai nodded. "Yes. With two seconds to spare."
Yamamoto's expression did not shift, but the air in the room grew heavier.
Rukia, standing beside Rangiku, let out a slow breath. "The war isn't just in our world anymore. It never was. Aizen is adapting. He's using resources from Cyber-Earth—things that don't exist here. Genetic profiles of gods. Arcane artifacts from Asgard. Lost knowledge from across the multiverse."
Rangiku leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "If he succeeds, he won't just be Soul Society's problem anymore. He'll be everyone's problem."
A tense silence followed.
Then, Yamamoto finally nodded. "You have done well." His eyes drifted toward Thalmeric. "Sym-Elf, I trust you will relay this information to Peter-Knull in due time?"
Thalmeric nodded once. "It will be done."
Amagai bowed. "With your permission, Captain-Commander, we would like to remain on high alert. If Aizen is making moves across multiple worlds, we need to be prepared for his next step."
Yamamoto's expression remained unreadable. "See it done."
With that, the four departing shinigami bowed and left the chamber, the weight of their reports still heavy on their minds.
As they stepped into the cool night air of Soul Society, Rukia sighed, "I need a drink."
Rangiku smirked. "I need several."
Ikkaku cracked his knuckles. "I need a fight."
Amagai, ever composed, simply sighed. "We need rest. Because next time, we may not be so lucky."
…
The halls of Squad 4 were quiet, save for the faint hum of medical equipment and the soft murmurs of attending healers. The room smelled faintly of antiseptic and herbs, the combination oddly comforting to Loly Aivirrne as she lay back on the cushioned medical bed, her fingers tightly gripping Grym-Axe's massive green hand.
Her stomach, rounder than it had been just weeks ago, pulsed faintly beneath Unohana's careful touch. The symbiote-influenced pregnancy was accelerating beyond normal expectations, something that hadn't exactly surprised anyone familiar with symbiotic births, but it still left her with an overwhelming sense of urgency.
Unohana's calm gaze drifted over the holographic display hovering above Loly's abdomen. The image of the growing child within flickered, the distinct blend of Hollow, Orc, and Symbiote genetics forming something truly unique.
Loly's daughter.
A small, developing figure appeared on the screen. Orcish traits were unmistakable, broad shoulders, slightly tusken-like teeth forming within her little mouth, her skin deep green with tinges of purple from the symbiotic influence. But then there was the mask.
A Hollow mask fused over her left eye, shaped like a permanently open mouth, resembling a spectacle of white bone, embedded seamlessly into her skin. It was more than just a feature, it was a birthright, proof that the child was inheriting more than just the physical traits of her parents.
Unohana finally spoke, her voice as serene as ever. "It will not be long now."
Loly swallowed. "Define 'not long' because I swear to the damned gods if you say a week, I will scream."
Unohana's gentle smile remained in place. "A month. Perhaps less."
Loly's golden eyes widened. "One month?!" She looked at Grym-Axe, whose massive hand engulfed hers as he stared at the monitor, his expression a strange mixture of awe and tension.
The orc-warrior turned Shinigami, who was usually battle-hardened and unshaken, suddenly looked deeply, deeply nervous.
"Hah," Grym-Axe finally exhaled. "A daughter." His voice rumbled, as if he were still processing it all. He had been there for every moment of this pregnancy, but now that the reality of it was settling in, now that they had a timeline, it felt far more real.
Unohana adjusted the settings on the medical readout. "She is growing well. Strong, just like her parents."
Loly's breath hitched slightly, her other hand drifting toward her belly. She felt a kick, not a small one either. It made her eyes twitch slightly. "Oh, she's gonna be a fighter, alright."
Grym-Axe smirked, his large fang-like tusks flashing slightly as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "That makes two of you."
Loly scoffed, but her cheeks burned slightly. She looked at the display again, at the little form that was her daughter. The realization hit harder than any battle ever had.
She was going to be a mother.
And with her daughter's unique traits already showing, the Hollow mask, the symbiotic influence, the orcish strength she would one day inherit, Loly had no doubt.
Her kid was going to be one hell of a force to be reckoned with.