She looked up at the sky. The future wasn't written in stone. She had taken a title meant to inspire terror and used it to shatter her own dark destiny. She wasn't the Destroyer of Worlds. She was their protector.

She focused her mind, sending a gentle pulse into the concrete beneath her boots. She wasn't destroying; she was listening. She felt the shifting of the tectonic plates miles below, the groaning of steel beams, the heartbeat of the city.

I am not the destroyer, she thought, gritting her teeth. I am the shield.