I opened my eyes and looked around.

The space was boundless, yet bounded. It existed where I saw and sensed it, and nowhere else. If I pushed, it yielded and expanded, and when I looked elsewhere, it ceased to be.

I was alone there in a white void, devoid of all things, save a single head filled with stars, and Death Herself standing next to me, clutching my Staff.

I could still hear gibbering screams.

The Underweb was underneath reality, which at this moment was literally just above my skin. In the instant Death had brought Function down, every single thing in the universe had perished, including Time and Space.

There had been nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. It was The End, and the universe had died. The Weavers had reached up, and the Dead nigh-immortal creatures of Mythos had no power to resist them.

It was probably their greatest haul of intruders from Outside Creation ever, and I could imagine their cold glee as they processed the catch they had drafted me to make for them.

I was the only thing left out here, because I’d been here, and yet I wasn’t part of the universe to be killed by Her, so I literally was the whole universe now.

Death’s bony face looked at me, and I looked back at Her.

Slowly, she extended my Staff back to me.

The instant I left this universe, She would die, too. I was the last thing living... but I was not Hers. I belonged to another.

I raised my hands and stopped Her. “Whoa, there. I’m a sweet person, yes’m, but there is no way I deserve to carry around a Weapon that ended an entire alternity. Function is yours, now.”

She paused, turning empty eyes from me to the Dreadskull-touched Glaive. Function did not argue the point. You don’t give universe-ending Weapons to mortals.

“What will you do?” She rasped in a quiet whisper.

I just shook my head. “It is what will YOU do.” I turned to the floating head of Eternity, all that was left of Him. “You know all that I know, do you not?”

“I do,” He said simply.

“Then you know that what was destroyed can be recreated, as was all of Creation. You need only go up to the Infinity Abyss station, access the record of your alternity at the instant of recreation, and begin again.” I indicated the formless void around us. “Here is all the power to do so.”

“I cannot do so without an intermediary,” Eternity murmured. “My power is only your power. I can guide you through the process...”

I shook my head once. “You are not thinking clearly. The End has passed, not merely a moment of destruction. Death declared it Ended, and so it has. You must work on the passing Cosmos paradigm, not a reconstruction.”

“You... must join with me to create a new Eternity, then,” the remnant of All That Was said to me.

I shook my head again. “I am not of You. I cannot be that soul. There would be a fundamental flaw in the next universe which could be exploited, as the rebirth of the Cosmos is supposed to be a refinement of what You are.”

“Then... we shall simply cease to exist?” Eternity asked, unmoved at the implication.

I just snorted at Him. “You have fallen a long way.” I reached out and grabbed Him, and ignoring His protests, turned around and put Him on Death’s face.

Stars and worlds filled in for the image of bone, a woman’s face shadowed in the depths of nebulae and galaxies.

“This is bringing back who you are and were. You do not need me. Simply banish me from this place, and the last living being... will be Death! You will recreate the universe from that point... but you will probably need a spark.” I gestured to my gut. “I’ve a pocket space with the power of a blue supergiant stored up in it. I think that would be enough to get the ball rolling, and for you to take up your duty.

“If you are a true Death, you are Life’s greatest Champion, and now it is your time to prove it.”

Hands of bone and a face of stars, she stared at me for a moment, and slowly nodded. “You will have to be sent far, far away, or you will be drawn back to take my place,” She whispered gently.

Ah, wasn’t that a crushing blow. I inhaled and exhaled long and low.

I was going to lose it all. The power I’d built up. The friends and family I’d made, and even now kept in close contact with through my Dupes and Clones, taking care of them and their kids and expanding families.

I handed over Prime, and Death took him. His power of Elemental Command of the four states of Matter would be invaluable to Her.

She was going to need it all. My Ultra Core had all the different energies, including psionic, plus my Matrix was chock full of magic, everything to re-establish the rules of a new universe, and maybe do something more with them.

Even the Golden Child, Eternal, and touch of Asgardian magic were going to give Law, Chaos, Cosmic, and Divine foundations to what She needed to do. I just shook my head at how thoroughly I’d been manipulated as I handed over the Lantern with Infinity’s ties to the Quantum Energy that was part of the foundation of reality as well.

Hah, I was giving Death bling! The irony of it made me laugh despite myself, and a moment later, she even joined me in a strengthening, yet whispered chuckle.

Function was a thing of forgecraft, alchemy, and the highest tiers of material science. The Eye Lantern was also high science in a different direction, which I might have made some mods to so I could focus my other powers through it, and vice versa...

Yeah, I wasn’t going to be taking much with me, except for Vier.

“Opening it up and giving it all,” I sighed, unwilling to delay this, and there was no Time here, anyway. I brought up my Legendary Core and began to open it all the way, emptying it of power entirely, permanently, a wild ride of so many different energies I had blended into a greater and more powerful whole, something truly worthy of being called a source energy of the universe if I was honest with myself, especially once mixed with magic and psionics.

If there was more than a little Good Stuff from the Enigma Force in there, that was between me, Eternity, and Death. The One Above All didn’t need to know everything.

The Pocket yawned open, and every bit of energy inside it, which was pretty much all of them, came out at once. Heck, I even had Gamma energy in there for Serenity if she needed it...

Death extended Her Hand, and stars and galaxies swirled over Her form as the moment arrived, and this time, Death made the transition, and would become the new Eternity.

Light flared, in all the glories of all the energies, and everything went white.

It was

The Beginning.