What if... someone at Marvel was related to Zuma. Idea: Anonymous.
Susan Storm, member of the Fantastic Four, the Invisible Woman, had a life most could envy.
Adventures across galaxies, scientific breakthroughs, the love of her brother Johnny, the unwavering presence of Ben, and the complex, brilliant devotion of Reed.
Yet beneath the surface of this extraordinary existence, a persistent undercurrent of unease flowed, a series of recurring dreams that seemed sharper and more real than the memories of her childhood on Yancy Street.
In these dreams, she saw a sky stained the color of dried blood and rivers that pulsed with molten gold. It should have been terrifying, a landscape of fire and damnation, but it wasn't.
Instead, a deep sense of belonging washed over her, a warmth that transcended fear. At the heart of this fiery world stood a castle, ancient yet somehow familiar, a structure that echoed castles from Earth's history but felt… familiar.
And within its walls, or perhaps just beyond them, there was a figure. Sometimes they were impossibly tall, shrouded in gleaming armor that shifted and clicked like an insect's shell, carrying her, a tiny, delicate thing.
Other times the armor disappeared, revealing a strikingly beautiful human face framed by white hair, holding her close, murmuring the sounds of boundless affection.
Then the dream shattered and transported her to her childhood home on Earth. Johnny's fiery antics, her parents, kind, tired faces.
The feelings were there, the love, the safety, but they felt curated, like carefully crafted theater compared to the stark, undeniable truth of the Red Sky world.
The contrast was jarring, making Susan restless upon waking, and a phantom ache in her chest hinted at places and people she shouldn't know.
One afternoon, in the humming energy of the Fantastic Four's lab, Reed Richards announced the latest version of his dimensional portal device.
Smaller, more stable (in theory), designed for precise spatial translocation.
He needed a test subject for a short jump, next to their apartment building.
Ben complained that he was getting puke again, and Johnny feigned a sudden allergy. Before Reed could sigh, Susan volunteered. The dreams had been particularly vivid the night before, a silent summons she couldn't ignore. A short jump seemed harmless enough.
- Next building… Reed confirmed, adjusting a dial…Should be instantaneous. Standard protocols, integrated with the energy field, minimal temporal displacement, negligible spatial distortion.
Susan donned the familiar blue and white Fantastic Four costume as she stepped onto the platform. The air thickened with hidden power. Reed gave her a thumbs up from the control panel. She took a deep breath.
The humming grew louder, building to a deafening roar that was not part of the plan. The lights flickered wildly.
The spatial distortion wasn't small, it was large, tearing at the fabric of reality around the platform.
Susan felt a sickening roar, not just of space, but of something deeper, older. A primal fear, quickly followed by an overwhelming sense of inevitability. The flash engulfed her.
She landed with a soft thud on the warm, strangely smooth ground. The air was unnaturally still, carrying the faint scent of sulfur and something like volcanic rock.
The sky above her wasn't blue. It was bright red. In the distance, instead of the familiar New York avenues, she saw vast, slow-moving rivers of glowing orange lava carving paths across the landscape. The heat was present, but not unbearable, more like an eternal, warm summer day. And there, on a rise overlooking the lava flows and the surprisingly normal-looking buildings, stood a castle.
It was the one from her dreams.
A wave of recognition washed over her, deep and undeniable. This wasn't just a dreamscape. This was real. And somehow, internally, it felt like home.
The strange, disturbing dreams suddenly took on a terrifying, exciting meaning. She wasn't just Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman of Earth. She was… Someone else. Someone connected to this fiery world.
A few miles away, within the surprisingly normal-looking walls of the castle, life went on as usual.
Zuma sat in her favorite chair in the study, scrolling through articles on her tablet (Hell had surprisingly good internet coverage, which the Queen insisted on). She was in her human form, dressed in comfortable, dark pants and a simple, elegant top. Her raven hair was loosely tied back, revealing a face with sharp, aristocratic features that were undeniably beautiful.
Across the room, Astra, also in relaxed, modern clothing, was looking through a complex magical text, occasionally mumbling to herself. Her face, identical in structure to her mother's, had a younger, softer expression, though it still had the same sharp beauty.
Elsewhere in the castle, Chase had changed into his human form, a large, muscular man with kind eyes. He was helping Nyx with her combat training in the courtyard.
Nyx, lively and energetic, swung her training sword with fierce determination, her white hair flying, one purple eye and one golden eye fixed on the target. Even at fifty, which made her a rambunctious ten-year-old, she was incredibly tall and strong, and her physical prowess was already impressive.
Zuma stopped reading, a gentle prick on her skin. It wasn't a threat, but a resonance, a distant echo of power she hadn't felt in ages.
Astra looked up from her book at the same time, her eyes widening, a look of disbelief mixed with a rising hope.
- Mom?... Astra breathed, her voice trembling slightly... Can you feel it?
Zuma nodded slowly, setting the pill aside. The feeling was growing, a familiar energy, not fully awakened by anything external. A piece of Astra herself.
- This... this can't be... Zuma mumbled.
Astra rose to her feet, the air around her shimmering. A faint, almost imperceptible crystalline sheen briefly covered her hands, a sign of the white chitin that lay beneath her skin.
- This is it! Mom, this is it! My little one! She's here!
Zuma was on her feet faster than the eye could follow, her human form momentarily blurred.
For a split second, the air crackled with impossible energy, and the towering, three-and-a-half-meter-tall figure of black chitin and dagger-like horns froze before forcing her back, maintaining her human form. Her features were a mixture of disbelief and fierce protectiveness.
- Susan? Here? After all this time?
Astra was already halfway to the door, her earlier confident stance forgotten, replaced by a feverish maternal instinct.
- How? The stone...took her...lost her...
- The power of the stone is not eternal... Zuma said...And Astra, my love, your essence, though separated, is still bound to you. Perhaps her own power, mature, resonated with this place and spoke to her.
Chase, hearing the commotion from the courtyard, entered, Nyx following curiously.
- What's going on? Something wrong?
He could see the raw emotion on Astra's face, the intense focus in Zuma's eyes.
- It's okay, my love... Zuma said, her voice softening slightly as she looked at him, then at Nyx... Everything is very well, actually.
Astra nodded, taking a deep breath. Nyx looked between her mother and sister, sensing the enormity of the moment even if she didn't understand it.
- What's going on? She asked, her young voice full of expectation.
- Your niece, Nyx... Chase said with a wide grin on his face as he seemed to understand what you meant. His human form still held the hidden power of his Champion of Hell, a sense of immense, suppressed strength... Your long-lost niece is here.
Astra led the way. They left the castle, entering the twilight glow of the red sky.
And there, not far from the castle gates, stood a figure, looking up at the structure in awe and confusion. A woman, dressed in strange blue and white clothing, hair the color of sunlight.
Susan.
As they approached, Susan turned, alerted by their presence. Her eyes, wide and surprised, met Astra's.
For a moment, time seemed to stop. Susan saw three figures approaching her. Tall, elegant, and radiating an aura of power she couldn't name. But it wasn't just power, there was something else, a sense of... belonging.
The figures from her dreams. The one in white chitin, the one with white hair. They were real.
Astra couldn't wait another second. With a sob, she tore herself away from the group and ran toward Susan.
- Susan! My child!
Susan backed away instinctively as the figure ran toward her, but something about Astra's desperate cry resonated deep within her soul.
As Astra closed the distance, her form shimmered. Her human body shimmered, replaced for a brief moment by the smaller, white-chitin armored form from Susan's dreams, clawed hands reaching out.
And in that same instant, the dormant part of Susan's being roared to life.
Beneath her Earth clothing, her skin was hardened. A silver sheen appeared, flowing over her like liquid metal, merging into armor. Elegant, silver chitin that reflected Astra, a perfect, silent echo of her true heritage.
The power she had wielded on Earth felt like a dim echo.
The silver chitin withdrew almost immediately, leaving Susan gasping in shock and staring at her hands, which felt strangely different.
Astra reached her, no longer in her hellish form, pulling Susan into a fierce embrace.
- Oh, my love... you're home. You're finally home.
Susan, held tightly by Astra, felt more of a family than anyone ever had, all she could do was cling to Astra as tears streamed down her face.
The artificial feeling of her earthly memories crumbled, replaced by the overwhelming, undeniable truth of this moment.
Zuma walked over to them, her presence overwhelming even in her human form. She looked down at her daughter and granddaughter, her face etched with deep emotion.
Then she transformed. The air pulsed once more. Zuma grew larger, her human form giving way to the great majesty of the Queen of Hell.
Black chitin covered her body, her face a smooth, flat panel, and her head was crowned by six dagger-like horns. She was ten feet tall, and two intimidating khepesh swords now hung from her belt. This was her true form, the form Susan had seen in her dreams when she had been carried as an infant.
Susan, still in Astra's arms, looked up at the colossal, awe-inspiring figure. There was no fear, only a deepening sense of rightness. This, too, was part of her dream, part of her.
Zuma knelt down, lowering her gaze close to Susan. Although her features were hidden, the love and pride radiating from her were palpable, and Susan felt a warm wave of emotion.
- Susan... her voice was a deep resonance, carrying the weight of millennia, yet filled with tenderness... My granddaughter. You are here. Where you belong.
Chase walked over, shifting into his Champion form.
Even taller than Zuma, four meters of black, spiky chitin, a massive mace in one hand, a shield in the other. He looked down at Susan, his eyes softening. He knelt down next to Zuma, his form imposing but gentle.
- Welcome home, Sunshine. He boomed, using the nickname Astra had given her as a child.
Nyx, wide-eyed, approached timidly. Her pink chitin armor seemed less intimidating next to her parents. She shifted into her human form, revealing her unique eyes and white hair, offering Susan a hesitant smile.
- Hello, Susan. I'm Nyx. Your aunt.
Amid tears and hugs, the explanations began.
Astra told of how she had hidden her during Lucifer's rebel attack, the rogue teleportation stone, and the desperate hope that it had kept her safe even as it had transported her.
Zuma spoke of the faint disturbance they had always felt, of a lost family member they had sought but could never find until now, through the dormancy of her powers.
They explained the dormant silver chitin, a legacy that had finally awakened after returning to the source of her power.
Susan's earthly powers, invisibility and force fields, were simply her own innate abilities, filtered and incomplete, awakened by cosmic radiation.
Susan listened, tears still falling, but now tears of understanding, of relief.
The artificial feeling of her earthly memories made sense now. They were real memories, yes, but created by a disoriented brain that had filled in the gap in her memory. Her parents on Earth had just taken her in, and Johnny couldn't remember a time when she had been gone.
This fiery landscape, these lofty figures, this family, this was the truth her soul had always whispered.
Zuma, once again in human form but radiating immense power, looked at Susan, her gaze intense.
- You were taken, Susan. From us, from your home, from your childhood. But the abyss gives back what it takes. Sometimes... She smiled, a sharp, beautiful expression... As I always say, "I take from life what I want"... Her hand rested gently on Susan's shoulder... And I wanted you back.
Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, felt a deep sense of peace come over her.
She was still Susan, with memories of her earthly life, Johnny, Ben, and Reed.
But she was also Susan, daughter of Astra, granddaughter of Zuma and Chase, niece of Nyx.
The dormant silver chitin was no longer hidden, it was a part of her, a reminder of who she really was.
She had come to Hell, by pure chance.
Through it all, she found her family, her home, and the missing piece of her soul under a red sky, over rivers of lava, in a castle that seemed friendlier than any place she had ever known.
Her journey had ended, and a new, extraordinary life had just begun.