As Alex got to work making Apex City a functional authority over all people with magical capabilities, Wanda made sure to keep interrupting him such that the two of them spent a significant amount of time relaxing and enjoying each other's company.
In the meantime, light years away from this clusterfuck of Earths, Jane and Alex's spaceship had finally reached Morag.
"Okay, this complicates things…" Jane spoke as she looked at the scanner's output of the planet in front of their ship. "Is this planet supposed to be submerged in water like that? The closest bedrock is… twenty-seven thousand meters underwater as per the scanners."
"Not only does this complicate things, it also makes our entire fucking trip useless," Alex said with frustration. "Do you know how many things I took care of in the two fucking weeks that we god damn wasted doing nothing but traveling?"
"I get it, dude, you've been frustrated," she said irritably with an underlying dryness. "It's not my fault that you decided to look for the Power Stone on the most inconvenient-to-reach planet. What do you want me to do, huh?"
"Don't do anything," he said coldly before walking away.
"Where are you going?"
"Out."
Walking to the back of the ship, Alex went in through a small door at the side.
Jane looked at him with an annoyed expression as he unlocked the airlock from the control panel and exited the spaceship.
"Seriously?" She groaned with frustration and stepped into the cockpit. She noticed a black mass floating toward the planet in front of them that continued getting bigger.
"You're not gonna do what I think… are you?" Jane had a premonition as she looked at the slime that was getting larger and larger despite the fact that Alex was moving away from the spaceship with every passing second.
Suddenly, a beam of red light shot out of the ever-increasing mass of slime.
Jane's eyes widened at the ensuing impact that split apart the ocean that covered the entire planet. According to the scans, it was close to the size of Earth, if a bit on the smaller side. The raw energy that Alex was releasing was going to obliterate that planet into pieces.
[What the fuck are you doing!]
[Quiet, Jane. I'm not exactly in the best mood right now.]
[You are going to destroy that planet! Stop!]
[I have zero interest in listening to you right now. Stay quiet and let me see if that planet has the Power Stone… or any Infinity Stone, for that matter.]
The crimson beam suddenly intensified and grew significantly thicker. Not only that, Alex's body was still growing larger at an ever-increasing pace.
[Morag is an inhabited planet, Alex. You are going to kill trillions with this.]
[It doesn't matter. There is no intelligent life here.]
Jane's expression grew increasingly horrified as the planet started to look deformed, with the water vaporizing and splitting away from the crimson beam.
[I can't just sit by and let this happen.]
Jane's expression turned from horrified to determined as she summoned Hofund. Her hands were already up in the air as she tightly gripped the handle of the sword that appeared and swung it down with a powerful grunt. A colorless arc was released that cleaved through the hull of the spaceship, rendering it nothing more than scrap metal. The arc continued undaunted and sliced through Alex's body, interrupting the crimson beam that he was releasing.
The following grunt of pain that Alex released reverberated through Jane's head. It echoed as her mind suddenly went blank, unable to process anything beyond that grunt. Her fingers lost their strength as Hofund slipped from her grip—immediately disappearing before the sudden vacuum could affect it. Jane stood unaffected as the glass in front of her cracked completely, and all of the air within the cabin was expelled. She looked unaffected beyond a slight ruffling of her clothes, yet her mind was in turmoil.
[You shouldn't have done that, Jane.]
The voice that she heard in her head was devoid of any warmth. The previous cold tone Alex had used to talk to her was nothing compared to the icy chill that crept up her spine when he spoke those words in her head. The effects of the sudden change in air pressure went away as soon as they came, turning the environment within the ship the same as the vacuum in outer space. Yet, the coldest sensation Jane felt came from Alex right now.
[I'm…]
The woman's thoughts froze as she felt a deep fear impact her mind and soul. The massive slime in front of the ship quickly recovered from the attack and continued expanding, looking undaunted and unaffected by the attack. Yet Jane couldn't think about any of that as she saw a black slime creep through the broken glass in front of her and form into Alex.
He silently kept looking at her as she stayed frozen in her spot with a blank, confused expression on her face.
[I think we're done, Jane.]
[What?] Her telepathic thought was cracked.
Alex didn't say anything and turned around to look at the huge mass of black that he'd left behind. Within seconds, it had grown large enough to blot out half of the planet's surface. Jane couldn't muster up any more thoughts to stop Alex as the slime kept expanding. In the following minutes, the entire planet of Morag was wrapped up by an outer-space horror that devoured it, leaving behind no traces of it ever existing in the first place.
[No stone… I guess we can get this over with in this case.]
[Alex…]
[It's not going to work out between us, Jane. Our ideologies are completely different. I don't have the patience to coddle and baby you for the rest of eternity. God, I don't think I can stand being with you for a few more years, let alone eternity. Even dealing with Alter Gwen was far less frustrating for me. And she had all the valid reasons to despise me. What about you, Jane? You have been a bitch to me from the start…]
"W-what are you talking about?" Jane asked, too muddled to use telepathy as an uncomfortable, suffocating feeling spread through her entire body. It had nothing to do with the vacuum and everything to do with the emotions that Alex was radiating that were directly felt by her soul.
[Exactly what you think. We aren't compatible. There is no point in us continuing this dysfunctional relationship with you that will make both of us miserable.]
[But you would be left weakened… You've already bound yourself to me on a deeper level.]
[I'll manage. Don't worry, I'll make sure that it doesn't hurt you. You won't feel a thing.]
Suddenly, the literal devouring of Morag seemed like such an inconsequential thing that Jane couldn't even bother to think about it. Alex's words were the only thing echoing through her head.
Seeing her silence, he raised his hand and laxly pointed at her with his fingers. Jane couldn't understand what he was doing, but as another second passed, she felt a profound sense of weakness spread through her entire body.
Alex's face was impassive and flat as black slime was pulled out of Jane's figure. She fell down on one knee, tightly holding on to Mjolnir's handle for support. Soon, she felt a pull on her skin. It was horribly painful as if her skin itself was being ripped away from her skeleton. Yet, Alex didn't stop or even slow down as he continued pulling himself away from Jane.
As the process continued, a sudden stirring of Chaos energy made Alex frown.
Suddenly, crimson Chaos Energy amalgamated beside Alex and coalesced into Wanda's figure.
"Why are you here, Wanda?" Alex asked as the redhead opened her eyes with concern shining in them.
"Why are you hurting yourself?" She didn't give a single look at the woman kneeling in pain, as Alex was the only person in her eyes. "You are in pain…"
"It's nothing," Alex said. "It'll be over soon."
"Don't lie to me. Do you think I can't sense it? Stop it; you already have a better solution. Why are you hurting yourself like this?"
"I thought you would be happy that I'm getting rid of one of my anchors," Alex said with a casual smile.
"You're hurting yourself… I can feel it, Alex. Let me help you, at least," Wanda started creating a complex crimson crystal structure in front of him.
"No," he said as hints of strain appeared in his voice. He grabbed Wanda's hand and stopped her from completing her spell. "I want this pain."
"Why? You aren't a repressed masochist, are you? Is that why you act sadistic every so often? To compensate."
"Heh," Alex couldn't stop himself from snorting at Wanda's words. "My hosts matter to me. Every single one of them. You, Nat, both Gwens, and Laura. You are all very important to me. Breaking a primary bond is a very, very big deal for me. Back when I bonded with MJ, it was because I wasn't completely in control of my actions and thoughts. It was a mistake to bond with her in the first place. And Jane? The only reason I went after her was because I was greedy for the ability to use Hofund and manipulate Cosmic energy. That's all. There weren't any feelings involved with her either. I'm simply rectifying that mistake."
"At least let me support you…" Wanda said as she hugged him tightly. "The others might be too weak to endure this, but not me. Please… let me share your burdens."
Without waiting for Alex's response, Wanda tapped into their connection and used her power to invoke the ‹True Merge› state.
The pain that she felt in the brief moment before her merger with Alex was enough to almost collapse her soul instantly. That was the pain that Alex had been enduring throughout the process, while Jane was feeling too weak to even stay entirely conscious. His soul was constantly going through the pain of literally splitting away a part of itself.
Despite all of the enhancements Wanda had received after assimilating with the Source of Chaos, in terms of the soul, she didn't even come close to him.
A distorted voice that sounded like the amalgamation of Wanda's and Alex's voices reverberated through Jane's head just before she lost consciousness.
[Goodbye, Jane. Take care of yourself.]
With the last of her vision, she noticed Alex's figure disappearing as a red glow covered him.
***
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