Marvel: I'm a Symbiote-Symbiote 0342: Besties (2/2)

Illyana was still fast asleep, unaffected by the ruckus caused by Laura and Katherine’s argument.

“How can I trust you?” Katherine asked Laura, looking at her cautiously. “You didn’t give me the full story before enticing me with it.”

“Him,” Laura corrected. “Trust me, you don’t want to antagonize Apex. As for your question, I didn’t tell you because it isn’t a factor. He is taking some random energy you didn’t even know about until thirty seconds ago and improving your ability to store and produce it. I already told you he could strengthen you, Kitty. That’s all Apex is doing.”

“If I ask you to take him back — let me finish,” she raised her finger to stop Laura. “If I ask you to take him back. Will you?”

“Sure,” Laura shrugged and extended her arm in Katherine’s direction. “Apex? Do you mind coming back for a bit so that she realizes that I’m not trying to trap her or something?”

As if heeding her command, Katherine’s clothes dissolved into black goop that left her body and extended toward Laura, leaving her naked within seconds.

“Done,” Laura said. Neither woman seemed to care about the resultant lack of Katherine’s clothes.

Katherine immediately phased herself out of reality.

“I’m just trying to help you, dude,” Laura said, shaking her head. “If I really wanted to force you, I would’ve held Yana hostage by now.”

“I feel weak and tired …” Katherine spoke.

“Of course, you feel weak and tired. You slept less than five hours last night and used that move just now, which was bound to exhaust you. The reason you didn’t feel all that was because of Apex’s enhancements, which you now don’t have.”

“…” Katherine didn’t say anything and continued looking at Laura with a somewhat blank expression mixed with caution. “I’m sorry …”

Laura waited for the woman to continue as she phased herself back into reality and stepped closer to her.

“I shouldn’t have been so jumpy about it.” Katherine looked worn out and tired as she took a deep breath. “I’ve just … had a bad experience that has generalized the situation somewhat. I apologize.” She repeated her apology to Laura and extended her arm forward. “Friends?”

Laura looked down at the woman’s extended hand before looking back up at her with a flat expression on her face, not letting her discern anything about her thoughts.

“And how do I know you won’t have another panic attack?” Laura asked.

“You don’t have to take the suit back anymore, even if I ask you. You said Apex doesn’t like it when people don’t treat him correctly, right? I promise I’ll keep that in mind,” Katherine said. “So, friends? Please?”

After a few seconds of stressful silence, Laura broke into a smile and grabbed Katherine’s arm before pulling her close. “Besties,” she whispered in her ear, rightly hugging the woman as Apex’s form extended out of Laura’s body and wrapped itself around Katherine, forming the hoodie and shorts that she’d slept in.

“Thank you …” Katherine returned the hug. “Now, what do we do about that inert sloth? We’re stuck here until she wakes up.”

“We could sit and talk,” Laura said.

“Boring. We did plenty of that last night.”

“This place is supposed to be filled with cannon fodder demons, right?”

“Now you’re talking my language.” Katherine got an excited look in her eyes. “Show me how you went up two rounds against that monster Harkness without using any complicated spells.”

…

It was only four hours later that Illyana woke up with a refreshed expression as if she were just about to step into a large garden and frolic among the flowers, letting her blonde locks dance in the wind. Unfortunately, the view she was greeted with was that of the demon-infested apocalyptic wasteland of a dimension— Limbo.

While three hours had passed in Limbo, not even a second had passed in reality, making it seem like the bed, along with the three women, reappeared within moments of its disappearance.

“Come out, girls. It’s time to talk business.”

As the three of them were leaving the room to start talking about serious business, Laura’s mind drifted because of a thought she had after returning from Limbo.

[Hey, Alex. If time in the main dimension is paused when I’m in Limbo, then doesn’t that cause issues for you? It’s not like you’re just with me. Your main consciousness is separate or something, right?]

[That initial delay I needed when you first entered Limbo was because of that. I had to use the Time Stone to help me sync with that frequency as well. The Klyntar Soul Dimension is similar, but neither time nor space exists there. As long as I can attune myself to the frequency of another dimension, I can sync myself with its time. In some cases, like this one, I might need the support of the Time Stone to help me kickstart the process.]

[Speaking of the Klyntar Soul Dimension … didn’t it get affected by that massive shockwave? It sounds like a flimsy-ass dimension, considering it has neither Time nor Space. Did you protect it?]

[Protect it? Hell no. Hell will freeze over before they need me to protect this dimension. Why do you think I’m still hiding like a terrified rat while inside this dimension? There are true monsters here, Laura. Ones beyond any of our comprehension. Without ample reserves of Cosmic Energy, I am not risking encountering anyone here. Even if I get strong enough to devour Knull’s ass.]

[I feel like you’re being overly cautious.]

[I feel like I should be doing even more to hide. You know how monstrous I am. Just imagine how monstrous I would be if I had millions of years to prepare and strengthen myself. Even without a complete consciousness, I would be strong enough to rival actual cosmic entities.]

[I call them as I see them. And all you sound like at the moment is a pussy.]

[Sure. You can call me a pussy, but I am not risking it. I don’t know what I might find there. And that is what terrifies me.]

[You say that like you know everything.]

[…I know enough.]

Alex didn’t respond to Laura, and she picked up on his silence, understanding that he was done talking. She then brought her attention back to reality and sat between Illyana and Katherine on the large couch while Peter brought two chairs from the dining table for Doctor Strange and Erik, and he ended up sitting on the floor.

“So,” Doctor Strange started. “Laura, if you would be so kind as to get everyone up to speed about the situation behind our planet and how everything revolves around this … variant of Wanda Maximoff.”

Laura noticed that Erik’s facial muscles tightened at the mention of Wanda Maximoff, allowing her to deduce the relationship between him and this world’s original Wanda.

“First off, allow me to give my condolences for your daughter,” Laura said. “Before we move to my side of the story, do you mind telling me how exactly she died? He told me about it but didn’t give me the details.”

Erik gave Doctor Strange a look, seeming like he was questioning why such information was given to an outsider. “It wasn’t anything special,” Erik said. “I am sure that you don’t need the complete details. While Stephen was being stripped of his authority as the Sorcerer Supreme, there was an attack by unsolicited witches on the X-Men. Their base of operations, that little school for the gifted that Charles loved so much, was destroyed. The witches were prepared with countermeasures against all of them. They could directly disable the magic inherent in our bloodline. That led to Wanda’s and everyone else’s death. The only survivors are the ones who were out on missions or had gone rogue like Wolverine.”

“Tragic.” Laura noticed how the entire room’s atmosphere turned dark and lifeless. “They should’ve had other abilities, right? Both Kitty and Yana look like they have trained in the Mystic Arts for a long time.”

“The best they could achieve was mutual destruction,” Erik said, shaking his head. “The witches didn’t leave any survivors.”

“I see. Well, I’ll tell you that the thing that suppressed mutants was probably given to those witches by Wanda. Not your Wanda, but the one who enacted all these changes on this planet.”

“Changes?” Erik asked.

“I’ll tell you a summarized version of what I told these guys,” Laura said. “A big, strong variant of Wanda is going around conquering planets in this cluster. You are one of her underling planets, hence the red tint of your skies. Similarly, Chaos energy was never prevalent here; reality was modified with the Reality Stone in conjunction with her powers to make it happen. Why? I don’t know. She is the reason random witches had such a tool at their disposal, and she is the reason Strange lost his position as Sorcerer Supreme to Agatha Harkness. Any questions?”

“A few, actually,” Erik said as his eyes sharpened. Immediately, he started asking Laura for details about her information, as if interrogating her.

She, like the unruly woman that she was, made sure that the experience was as frustrating as possible, making Erik’s face twitch multiple times.

Still, by the end of it, he sighed in defeat and spoke reluctantly, “She’s telling the truth … As much as I would like to consider otherwise.”

Laura smiled with amusement and winked at Illyana and Kitty.