Rise of an Immortal

Chapter 197: A Home Among the Stars

[Carter Residence, New York]

The living room had never felt this charged with anticipation recently.

Ethan stood near the center of the room with his girls gathered around him.

Jean leaned against the arm of the couch with her hands resting over the slight curve of her stomach. Anna stood beside her, arms crossed, one eyebrow already raised in suspicion.

Diana stood tall near the window with her usual composed poise, and Susan waited with her hands folded in front of her, patient as always.

Didi sat curled in the armchair by the fireplace, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of her mouth that she was doing her best to hide.

Jean’s eyes suddenly widened and she straightened.

"Wait," she said, glancing toward the hallway. "Where is Elizabeth? I think she needs to see this surprise too, whatever it is."

Ethan shook his head. "Nah. I’ll take her later. This one’s just for you girls tonight."

He looked around at each of them and a smile spread across his face.

"This is going to be special," he said. "Trust me."

Anna narrowed her eyes at him. "Every time you say that, something either explodes or an entire species gets involved. So forgive me if I’m not exactly trusting right now."

"Wow... That’s rude. I’ve done exactly one thing that exploded, and it was for a good reason."

"You erased a demon lord from existence and declared Earth as your territory, Ethan."

"See, when you say it like that it sounds so much worse than it was."

Diana’s lips curved with quiet anticipation as she watched the exchange, arms loosely folded, clearly enjoying the buildup more than she was letting on.

Susan remained composed, though the faint tightening around her eyes betrayed her own curiosity. She had learned by now that when Ethan planned something like this, it was rarely small.

Didi said nothing. She already knew exactly what waited on the other side, and the effort it took to keep her expression neutral was visibly costing her.

’Didi’s doing a terrible job of hiding that grin,’ Ethan thought, glancing at her. ’She’s going to blow this before I even get the portal open.’

He raised his hand and moved it through the air in a slow circular motion. White light gathered at his fingertips and traced the shape he commanded, and a portal bloomed into existence in the middle of the room. It was pure white, closer to a wall of soft light than a window. There was no glimpse of what waited on the other side the way a normal portal might offer.

Jean tilted her head, studying it. "That’s different from your usual ones."

"Sharp eye," Ethan said. "This one’s a surprise portal. No peeking allowed."

Anna stepped closer and peered at the light anyway, as if she could force it to reveal something through sheer will. "You do know that just makes me want to know more, right?"

"That is exactly the intended effect, yes."

He spread his arms toward the portal and looked at each of them in turn, letting the moment breathe.

"Alright," he said. "Welcome to your surprise. Everyone in."

Susan glanced at the portal, then at Ethan, her voice even but laced with dry amusement. "You are aware that most surprises do not require walking through a wall of unknown light."

"Most surprises also aren’t as good as this one. Get in there, Susie."

The portal was wide enough to fit all of them together, and after a round of muttered comments, from Anna’s flat "this had better not be another planet" to Diana’s quiet laugh, they stepped through one by one.

Ethan entered last, and the portal folded shut behind him with a soft ripple of light.

...

[Asterhaven, Mars, Evening]

The other side did not look like anything any of them expected.

A grand palace rose ahead of them, straight out of a fantasy painting brought to life, its towers catching the light of a sky none of them recognized.

Decorations lined every visible surface, and the atmosphere carried the unmistakable energy of a festival in full celebration.

The path stretching from where they stood all the way to the palace gates was carpeted in flowers, their colors blooming in waves of gold, violet, and deep crimson that no one on Earth had ever cultivated.

Susan’s breath caught. She turned in a slow circle, taking in the sky, the architecture, the impossible flowers.

"This looks like an entirely different world," she said quietly.

Anna shot her a look. "It’s not. He didn’t use the Omni-Watch. We would have felt it."

Crowds lined the flower-strewn path on either side, and cheering rose up the moment the group came into view.

Banners stretched between pillars and rooftops, each one bearing the same message in flowing script: **Welcome to the Carter Family.**

Jean stared at the sea of faces, at the banners, at the palace looming ahead, and her mouth opened without any sound coming out.

Anna’s arms had uncrossed entirely, hanging loose at her sides as she stared. Susan pressed a hand to her chest, genuinely stunned into silence for the first time in longer than Ethan could remember.

Diana, by contrast, lit up. She raised a hand and waved at the crowd with the easy grace of someone who had done this a thousand times before, her smile warm and effortless.

"Well," she said. "This is a proper welcome."

Didi simply smiled, tilting her head as she studied the palace and the festival lights with quiet fascination, as if she were seeing an old friend’s home for the first time.

Jean finally found her voice. She turned on Ethan, eyes wide.

"Where in the world are we?" she asked. "Ethan... What is this place?"

Ethan stepped in front of them and spread his arms wide, a grin spreading across his face that he made no effort to contain.

"Girls," he said. "Welcome to our new home... On Mars."

He let that sit in the silence for a moment before continuing.

"This is Star City. And that," he said, turning and pointing toward the massive castle rising above the festival grounds, "is our home. I named it Asterhaven. It means ’safe haven among the stars.’"

He rubbed the back of his neck, feigning sudden self-consciousness.

"Yeah, I know, it’s a little on the nose. Bit clingy, maybe. We can workshop it later if you hate it."

Anna stared at him, her jaw slightly slack. "You’re kidding right now. Please tell me you’re kidding."

"Nope." He popped the p with far too much satisfaction. "You are currently standing on the planet Mars. Which I terraformed. Into this."

He spread his arms again, gesturing at the entire festival, the palace, the sky, and the world stretching out beyond it, as if presenting it like a magician revealing the final trick of the night.

Jean, Anna, and Susan stood frozen, utterly speechless. Their eyes moved from the crowd to the palace to the sky and back again, cycling through disbelief with no clear place to land.

Every face in the crowd looked human. Every voice cheering their names sounded human. And the air, Jean realized as she drew in an unconscious breath, was somehow cleaner than anything she had ever breathed on Earth.

’Who are these people,’ Jean thought, her mind spinning through the implications faster than she could voice them. ’What are they doing here? Are they from Mars? Do they just look human? And why does the air feel better than anything back home?’

Of course, Jean could have used her telepathy to peek into their minds. But thanks to Ethan’s influence rather than Professor Xavier’s, she had learned that it was best not to intrude into the thoughts of people she didn’t know unless they posed a threat. From her empathy alone, she could tell these people meant them no harm.

Besides, they were on Mars, and she trusted Ethan to explain everything when the time was right.

So she deliberately chose not to read anyone’s mind, deciding instead to simply enjoy the surprise Ethan had prepared for them.

Anna, for her part, had gone entirely still, the way she did when a threat assessment simply refused to compute. Susan pressed her fingers lightly to her temple, running through every scientific explanation she could summon and finding none of them sufficient.

Diana, meanwhile, took the revelation in stride. She had walked among gods and stood on Themyscira’s shores long before she ever set foot on Man’s World, and the idea of another inhabited world did not shake her the way it shook the others.

"Impressive," she said simply, looking over the palace with an approving nod. "Truly impressive."

As for Didi, well. She had known things about the universe that most beings living within it never would, and this particular revelation barely registered as remarkable to her at all.

Two figures approached from the palace gates as the group stood taking everything in.

A man and a woman, both dressed in clothing that mixed kryptonian ceremonial style with something distinctly regal, stepped forward and bowed their heads in greeting.

These were Adam and Eve, the first Kryptonians born into this universe and onto this world.

"Welcome, Lord Ethan," Adam said, his voice carrying calm authority. "And welcome to the Ladies of the House."

Eve smiled warmly beside him. "We have been preparing for your arrival for weeks. It is an honor to finally meet you all in person."

Ethan gestured toward them. "Everyone, this is Adam and Eve—the first Kryptonians of this universe."

He raised a hand before anyone could speak.

"And before you start asking questions, please add this to the hundreds you’re already holding onto. It’s a long story—and a good one. I promise I’ll explain everything later. For now, just enjoy the moment."

The moment the introduction left his mouth, Jean, Anna, and Susan all turned on him at once, question after question spilling out before he had the chance to answer even the first one.

"Kryptonians? As in Superman’s Krypton? How? When did you—"

"Are there more of them? How many people live here? Ethan, how long has this planet even—"

"The atmosphere... and the gravity, but to mention the biosphere, none of this should be stable without—"

Ethan raised both hands, laughing under his breath as the questions collided into each other. "Okay, okay, one thing at a time. I promise I’ll explain everything, but let’s get inside first. Long story deserves a comfortable chair, don’t you think?"

He gently guided them toward the palace doors, though the truth was he could have answered every question standing right there in the flower-lined courtyard. He simply preferred to draw the reveal out a little longer than necessary.

’Watching their faces do that is honestly the best entertainment I’ve had in months,’ he thought, glancing sideways at Jean’s still-stunned expression. ’And I’m definitely saving this footage. Every second of it is perfect for teasing, friendly blackmail, and posterity. We can even show it to our kids someday and enjoy the look on their mothers’ shocked faces.’

He had, in fact, been quietly recording the entire reaction from the moment the portal opened, tucking the memory away with the intention of replaying it for them later, when the shock had worn off enough for them to laugh about it themselves.

Diana and Didi walked ahead with far more ease than the other three, clearly enjoying the spectacle of the palace and the festival around them, while Jean, Anna, and Susan trailed just behind, still visibly reeling from the fact that they were standing on another planet entirely.

The interior of the palace was, if anything, even grander than the courtyard promised. High vaulted ceilings stretched overhead, carved with patterns that echoed both Asgardian craftsmanship and something warmer, more personal.

Standing just inside the entrance was a new face, an older man dressed in an immaculate butler’s uniform, who bowed the moment they crossed the threshold.

"Welcome home," the man said, his voice smooth and practiced.

Ethan gestured toward him. "This is Sebastian. Head butler and caretaker of Asterhaven. If you ever need anything in this palace and I’m not around, he’s the man to ask."

Sebastian inclined his head. "It would be my honor to serve the Carter family in whatever capacity is needed."

Anna eyed him for a moment, then glanced at Ethan. "You built a palace and staffed it with a single butler."

"I built a lot more than a butler, Anna. You’ll see."

Susan let out a slow breath, some of the shock finally beginning to settle into something closer to fascination. "I believe," she said, "that we are going to need a very long explanation. Starting from the beginning."

"Deal," Ethan said. "But first, let me show you around. This is your home too now. Might as well see it properly before I bury you all in explanations."

He led them further into the palace, past grand hallways lined with art and Martian light fixtures, toward the rooms and wings waiting to be explored, each one carrying a piece of thought and care built specifically with each of them in mind.