To understand this next piece of history you must be informed that there are beings known as the "Elders" whom death promised immortality. This means that they cannot die, by any means. Mighty Galactus tried, however, to eat five of these beings in order to destroy them, but they became solid within his stomach after his attempts and made him deathly ill, threating his life to the point of near death. In desperation Galactus sent the silver surfer to find Reed Richards and his wife Susan Richards in order to help him retrieve the six Soul Gems. Galactus knew that one of the gems had the ability to steal a beings soul, and by using it on the elders within him, he could be rid of them. He warned the group not to touch any of the gems, lest they accidentally touch the gem capable of taking souls, and thus lose their own. On this note, the embarked into a the self-same black hole the gems had fallen into.

Here's where things become a bit interesting. The trip and short stay in the other dimension drives Susan Richards to her other personality, called "Malice". Though Reed Richards suspects the change he does not act upon his fears until it is too late. The party of three manages to track the 6 Soul Gems to an elder who has them bonded to himself in a bio field, which cannot be removed unless he dies... and as we all know, elders cannot die. To find her way around this minor problem Susan, or rather "Malice", fires a a blaster shot into the Silver Surfer's head, and trades HIM for the Six Gems, thus leaving Reed unconscious on the floor, and the Silver Surfer bonded in an unbreakable field.

Upon the waking of Reed Richards he managed to outsmark the elders and make them aware of a fact they already knew, that Elders can die in the universe within the black hole, for it is an entirely different reality from our own, and thus Mistress Death holds no power within it. Knowing this Richards forced the Elder to release the Silver Surfer from the field so he could help him track down Susan Richards and retrieve the gems from her. Flying on the board of the Silver Surfer they found Susan in the ship she and Reed had entered in, preparing to leave. A massive blast of cosmic power from the silver surfer blinded Susan long enough for them to enter the ship and engage her in battle. The gems are limited by only by those who wield them, and Susan Richards knew nothing of the gems and thus was able only to produce blasts of concussive force to attack her foes. Even with this skill alone, however, she managed to hold the Silver Surfer at bay.

Meanwhile Reed attempted to sneak a hand up behind her so he could knocked her out by pinching a nerve on her neck, but he was distracted by a strange, and completely random, appearance of Dr. Doom travelling through Time/Space. This caught his attention long enough have him accidently be touched by one of the Gems. His luck wagers on about the same level as Warlock's love life, because he touched the Soul Gem, which promptly took him as a host, driving Richards insane. As though this were not quite bad enough, his mental condition contiued to deteriorate and change until a battle with Richards and the Silver Surfer occured, during this battle Susan's soul was taken into the gem and so was Reeds when his body was taken over by the cosmic being known as The In-Betweener.

The In-Between's goal was to come into our universe and take the place of Galactus within it. To do this he had made a deal with the above mentioned Elders, thusly making everything from the moment they entered the dimension nothing but an elaborate trap. The In-Betweener restored Reed and Susan's souls to their bodies before taking the gems and leaving through the black hole on his way to destroy Galactus while in his weakened state. Upon arriving, however, he found that his powers to summon the "opposite" of beings would not work on Galactus, for Galactus is unique in all the universe, and has no polar opposite to himself. On his own way back through the Black Hole the Silver Surfer called upon Lord Chaos and Master Order, informing them of the actions of the In-Betweener, for reasons all their own(The other universe is one of Magick, where Chaos and Order are the supreme Gods. They created the In-Betweener as a servant, but his attempts to come into another reality would have freed him from their power), the two beings agreed to help stop the menace. Using the vast abilities at hand the two Gods forced to Elders out of Galactus, allowing him the chance to rise and fight against the In-Betweener and defend his place in our reality.

Before the battle ensued, the five elders took the remaining gems (The In-Betweener still holding the Soul Gem) and divided them among each other. Here is where we lose track of the gems, as they are taken their seperate ways by the elders. However, since the In-Betweener still held a gem, we shall examine the battle. After trading blow after blow for several minutes the two were taken near the black hole, which drained the powers of Galactus and increased those of his foe, since they approached his dimension. However, as soon as they passed into the other realm Lord Chaos and Master Order captured the In-Betweener and promptly imprisoned him in the Nexus of Realities, with the Soul Gem still in his possession.