[M&C Hotel, Grand Function Hall – The Following day Evening]
The Grand Function Hall of the M&C Hotel had been transformed.
Warm light poured from fixtures along every wall, cutting clean and golden through the large space. Tables were dressed in deep colours, the centrepieces tasteful and unforced.
The kind of music that made conversation easier rather than competing with it moved through the room at a comfortable volume. The bar was well stocked, the food plentiful, and the staff moved through it all with the quiet precision of people who had been given a clear purpose and enough resources to meet it properly.
Ethan had not wanted a crowd. He had wanted the people who mattered, gathered in one place, sharing something real.
The room held exactly that.
Bruce Wayne stood near the far side of the room, a glass in hand, drawing the attention of several people as he laughed with his girlfriend, Selina Kyle.
Billy Batson, considerably more relaxed than Bruce, was already engaged in an animated conversation near the drinks table with his siblings.
Hal Jordan stood with his arms loosely folded, grinning at something Barry Allen had just said. Barry stood beside him in civilian clothes, his arm around Iris West, who laughed at whatever had just been said with unguarded brightness.
Victor Stone and his father held a quiet conversation near one of the tall windows, and the young woman from Silas's lab stood close enough to Victor that the distance spoke for itself.
Arthur stood with Mera at his side, her posture carrying the natural gravity of Atlantean royalty even in civilian clothes, Arthur himself looking slightly more comfortable than he usually did in formal settings now that Mera was there.
Martian Manhunter, wearing the face and form of Calvin Swanwick, stood near the edge of the gathering, quiet and observant.
Clark stood with Lois Lane, who was speaking with the focused attention of someone already mentally writing something, even if she was not writing anything at all.
Kara stood nearby, still finding her footing in the room, but she was already in conversation with Jean and Anna, and the visible ease in her posture said she was adjusting faster than anyone had right to expect.
Elizabeth moved through the room and is currently occupied with Lena and Pamela in a conversation that appeared to be running on all three cylinders simultaneously.
Jean was luminous. There was no other word for it. Whatever early pregnancy had done to the light in her eyes and the quality of her smile, it sat on her like something decided.
Anna caught Ethan's eye from across the room and raised her glass slightly. He smiled back and did the same.
The party had its own momentum now, and it was moving well.
Then Lena took the microphone from the small stage at the edge of the floor and the room settled naturally around her. She did not need to call for silence twice. Her presence alone was enough.
"This is a small gathering," she said, her voice carrying the kind of clarity that came from knowing exactly what you wanted to say, "but I believe the people in this room are exactly the right people to be here for this."
She looked at Ethan and Jean with a quiet warmth that sat a little unusually on Lena Luthor's face but belonged there completely. "To Ethan and Jean, on becoming parents. The world you are giving this child is better than the one most of us were handed. I do not think we could ask for more than that."
A round of genuine applause moved through the room.
Hal, Barry, and Victor each took a turn at the microphone after that, their speeches ranging from warm to wry to heartfelt in equal measure. Clark's was brief and sincere and delivered with the quality of making an entire room feel included without appearing to try.
The evening moved. Glasses were refilled. Conversations crossed and reconnected. Laughter rose and settled.
Ethan stood at the edge of it and felt, feeling good and proud with exactly how much he had accomplished.
But suddenly something changed in his awareness.
It was not loud and was not aggressive. It arrived the way a pressure change arrives before weather, the sense of something large orienting itself in his direction.
His Genesis Awareness stretched outward instinctively and found the source before his eyes had even moved toward the balcony.
Something was approaching.
He set his glass down and excused himself from the circle of conversation around him, moving to the balcony doors with unhurried steps.
...
[Hotel Balcony]
The night air above the city was cool and clean. The lights of Washington spread out below in their familiar pattern, steady and indifferent to the conversation that was about to happen on this particular balcony.
Ethan leaned against the railing and looked out for a moment before he spoke.
"I don't remember sending an invitation to the lord of dreams," he said, without turning around.
A figure in a dark coat stood at the far end of the balcony.
Morpheus, the Dream of the Endless, stood there. When his eyes found Ethan, they carried the quiet gravity of someone who dealt in certainties.
He did not look surprised that Ethan had sensed him.
"My sister," he said simply. "How is she."
"She's well," Ethan said, turning to face him now, his posture easy. "Happy, in her own way. I'll bring her to you the next time I'm in this universe."
Morpheus was quiet for a moment. "She is kind," he said, with a weight that was not quite a warning and not quite a request. "Do not take advantage of that kindness simply because it is extended to you."
Ethan studied him for a moment. A quiet, genuine smile crossed his face. "You know, for cosmic beings, the lot of you feel far more human than most actual humans I've met." He tilted his head slightly. "But I suppose I'm not one to say anything different, given what I am."
He held Morpheus's gaze steadily. "I will not make Didi sad. You have my word."
A beat passed. Morpheus gave a single, measured nod.
Then, almost as an afterthought, he said, "Congratulations. On your child."
"Thank you."
Morpheus turned slightly, as though preparing to dissolve back into the dark. Then he stopped.
"There is something else." His voice did not change in tone, but the quality of the silence around it shifted.
"You've drawn attention," he said evenly. "Something I believe you're already aware of—especially now that you're stronger than before. But these aren't ordinary observers. They're cosmic beings… entities whose interest is never casual."
His eyes shifted back to Ethan.
"They're watching you. Watching where you came from, what you are, what you represent. Some of them are already considering acting on that interest."
Ethan simply smiled. "And I believe you already know I'm strong—and that I'll become strong enough to handle them. Still… thanks for the warning."
"You are strong, Ethan Carter," he replied calmly. "But the people in that room behind you are not."
The easy quality drained from Ethan's expression slowly, the way light drains from a sky before a storm. What replaced it was not fear. It was something considerably colder and more considered.
"Let them come," he said, his voice perfectly level. "I've met plenty who thought they could toy with me… not one of them walked away with anything to show for it."
He held Morpheus's gaze without blinking.
"I welcome the visit. I want to see what they can actually do. But I hope they don't move against me recklessly which is bad for them."
Ethan wasn't being reckless when he said that. He knew he was still far from reaching the level of the beings watching him—but that didn't mean he would cower in fear.
He possessed a power that allowed him to grow stronger the more he faced powerful opponents. And if any cosmic entity chose to act, he had already made plans to ensure that everyone he cared about would be safe.
For now, he wanted to spend time with his wife, who was pregnant—and with the other who wished to have his child.
At the moment, his hands were more than full.
Morpheus looked at him for a long, assessing moment.
"I hope so too," he said.
The dark gathered around him and he was gone.
Ethan remained at the railing. He looked up slowly, letting his Genesis Awareness extend in a wide, quiet arc across the sky above the city.
He could feel them. Those watching eyes pressing against the edges of his perception like weight against glass.
He held their gaze without expression.
Suddenly the balcony door opened behind him.
"There you are." Anna stepped out with the warmth of the party at her back, her eyes moving over him with the quick, reading attention she always gave him when she sensed a shift in his mood. "Who were you talking to out here?"
Ethan straightened and turned, letting the weight of the moment settle behind him. His arm went around her shoulders as he guided her back toward the door.
"A tsundere brother," he said, "warning me that my overwhelming handsomeness has attracted unwanted attention from across the universe."
Anna glanced at him sideways. "I bet he forgot to tell you that," she said flatly. "Your narcissism is overflowing. And there isn't a single power in any universe that can affect that thing."
Ethan laughed, and they stepped back inside together.