The Defenders and Seraph find themselves floating in outer space, their lives sustained by Cloud. With her memory restored, Cloud explains that she really is a cloud—or a cloud nebula, to be exact—and that she will someday become a star. She shows the Defenders an area of black space, where all of the stars have disappeared. Suddenly, a fleet of spaceships appears, and the Defenders are pulled inside one of the ships by a tractor beam. At first, the aliens aboard the ship assume the Defenders are enemies, but Cloud explains that they are on the same side, so Seraph uses her ecstasy power to calm them down. The aliens show the Defenders images of how their sun disappeared and they were forced to flee their rapidly-freezing world. Beast asks Cloud what brought her to seek help on Earth—a planet not nearly as advanced in technology. Cloud explains that her “friend” sent her there. Cloud’s “friend” turns out to be a slightly-evolved Cosmic Cube, which remembered Earth’s heroes like Captain America, and sent her to Earth in search of them. The former Cube also sent it’s own distress call to Earth, but the only one that answered was the Over-Mind, who was swallowed by the void and is feared dead. The Defenders realize that Over-Mind must have erased their memories of him, which is why no one noticed that he had left the team. Although the former Cube does not have the power to restore the stars, it does create translators that enable the Defenders to communicate with their alien allies. The former Cube takes the form of “Captain America” to accompany the Defenders on their quest.

---