The final term quickly passed by as Alex and Gwen eventually graduated. With the relatively slow spread of Gaia's tech throughout the planet, it didn't particularly impact anything major, only slowly bringing about changes to the system a little faster than before.
After graduation, The Mary Janes—Gwen's band—went on a year-long tour throughout the world. With the promised support that Stacy Industries was going to provide all sorority members after graduation, they freely pursued their passions, relying entirely on the company's funding. Alex didn't mind, after all, that was what he'd promised.
He didn't bother to prolong the tertiary bonds with the three of them and instead let them continue their normal lives, instead of getting embroiled with him and Gwen. With the benefits they had received from that bond in three years, it was easy for them to live for a hundred years without any issues. The only graduates he did prolong those bonds with were those who joined his follow-up management training program that was hosted by Stacy Industries. Once those women completed training, they would serve as his representatives all over the planet, replacing the current hypnotized or imitated clones of people that Alex was currently using for most management work all over this planet and Gaia.
Considering their status and position, it was natural that they would need to have a tertiary bond with him to keep things going.
Moving back to Gwen and her friends, it was a difficult decision, but Gwen finally officially broke off from the band after their tour was over, leaving her three friends with no one to play the drums. Unfortunately, that was something necessary. Alex's following plans involved going off-world, and she didn't expect to see those three for another half a decade or maybe more. So it was easier to cut things off rather than keep them strung along. Especially considering that they would continue to have a normal life with no immortalization stuff from Alex's side.
With all that taken care of, Gwen ended up back in New York at her old apartment, eating dinner with her father and Alex.
"Are you sure you want to completely withdraw from the band, Gwenny?" George asked with concern.
"Yeah, don't worry, Dad, it's going to be fine," Gwen said. "I'm planning to go off-world with Alex."
"O-off-world?" The man choked when he heard her words.
"Yeah, remember what I told you about Stacy Industries pushing to go to one of the other Earths? I'm going to join the expedition with Alex."
"Are you sure it's safe?" George asked with a frown, looking at Alex before turning back to Gwen.
"Perfectly. There are zero dangers to speak of. The only issue is that I'm probably going to be gone for a long time. At least half a decade. Could be more depending on the situation there."
"Half a…" The man had his eyes wide open at her words. "By the time you return, you'll probably only find some bones."
"Decade," Gwen emphasized. "If you end up dead at fifty, then aging is definitely not the problem we need to tackle."
"You know what I mean," he said. "You never know what might happen. I'm not asking you to stay, but at least give your old man the joy of walking his daughter down the aisle…"
This time, Gwen was the one choking and coughing almost violently, resulting in Alex patting her back comfortingly, sporting a monk-like expression, as if he had no part in the discussion.
"That goes for you, too, son," George said, looking at Alex, narrowing his eyes at the half-hearted attempt not to get involved. "I would hope that after almost four years together, you'd be ready for something serious."
"Dad," Gwen spoke up before Alex could fan the flames any further. "I'm barely twenty-three, I don't need to get married so early, do I?"
"I'm just saying, you never know what the future holds. Your old man might even drop dead by the time you return. Life can be dangerous, you know."
Gwen, speechless, turned to Alex with a pleading look, making him smile amusedly as he looked at her father.
"Do you mind if we talk separately, sir?" He asked politely.
George narrowed his eyes at Alex before nodding as he stood up, followed by Alex as the two went onto the balcony, leaving Gwen alone as she looked at them with a concerned frown.
"Speak," George said. "What is it? If you aren't serious about Gwen—"
"Please, I'll stop you right there, sir. I am every bit as serious about Gwen as possible. When it comes to marriage, she's just a little queasy about all the formalities and things like that. We aren't even officially engaged, after all. I will marry your daughter, I promise you that…with your blessing, of course. I don't want to make Gwen sad by going against her father's wishes. But right now, neither of us is in the place that we want to be. I want to give Gwen the most grand wedding possible, one that stretches through the stars. For that, however, I need time."
"How long?" George said, crossing his arms. "I have no interest in having you string my daughter along with these grand visions that may not be fulfilled even in a century."
Alex sighed thoughtfully, looking at George with a serious look. "I'm going to tell you something. It's up to you how you perceive that, but it's true nevertheless."
George frowned, confused as he felt an ominous premonition.
"When Gwen said that she'll be gone for five years, that was only for you. For her, those five years are going to be the same as a few days."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly that. See the red barrier in the sky? That serves as both a protection mechanism and a time dilation mechanic. Gwen won't even feel a month go by, while thirty years might pass by on this planet."
The man in front of Alex seemed outraged at first, believing it to be a trick, but Alex's serious expression forced him to keep his calm.
"I will marry Gwen. When she's twenty-eight. Within five years, you will be there to walk your daughter down the aisle."
"By your logic, in five years, more than a thousand and five hundred years would have passed by on this planet..."
"That's why I'm giving you two options," Alex said. "Gaia has an anti-aging serum, the real deal. It directly extends your life by one year, pausing your biological clock. I'll give you as many doses as needed to keep you in this same state for the next millennium and a half. Or, I can let you experience the equivalent of cryogenic freezing. When you wake up, it will be when Gwen returns to this planet and is ready to get married."
George sighed as he looked at the serious expression on Alex's face. He stepped to the side and sat on a chair, pulling Alex down to sit beside him.
"It doesn't work that way, son," he said. "Say I agree to the cryogenic freezing. My wife isn't alive anymore, and I don't plan to find someone else. Gwen is all I have in my life, and I wouldn't mind sleeping for a thousand years if that means I get to see her at her happiest. But what about her family? Her cousins, uncles, aunts, friends…everyone. Are you going to freeze them all? If not, who will she have attending the wedding from her family beyond me? Tell me, do you want that for her?"
The words made Alex pause for a moment.
"No…" he sighed. "I get what you mean, it's just…Man, it's going to delay so many things I had planned. Fine. I'll get rid of the time dilation on this planet. In five years, I'll marry Gwen. She gets a normal wedding with the interstellar flair that I want, and you get things on your timeline. Would that be fine?"
"Get rid of the time dilation, he says…" George said under his breath, shaking his head. "I won't question you too much, but I can only ask that you keep my daughter safe and sound."
"With my life," Alex said. "You don't know how much she means to me."
"Come on, let's go back. I won't mention anything about grandkids then, I guess…"
Alex froze as George chuckled and walked back inside the house.
The rest of dinner passed by without much incident as George refrained from mentioning anything regarding the things Alex had told him. He decided to trust the man that his daughter had chosen and have faith that he would keep his promise.
Once they were finished, Alex and Gwen stayed up watching a movie while George went to sleep despite Gwen's invitation to join them for a bit.
"Are you really going to stop dilating the time on this planet now?" Gwen asked. "I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up actually cryogenically freezing all my family."
One thing that came with the level seven bond was the seamless information transfer. Even as George was speaking to Alex, Gwen was aware of what the contents of the conversation were, down to what Alex was feeling in that moment. Of course, it wasn't a permanent thing, and Alex could control what she saw and felt, which prevented her from being overloaded by information that came from all of his different bodies.
"Yeah, it's fine," he said. "I'll have to modify certain plans I had, but it's nothing major. We can go meet Cindy tomorrow to finalize everything regarding your departure, and we'll leave tomorrow."
"You treat me so well," Gwen hugged him from the side. "At one word from my dad, you decided to change your plans regarding this entire planet. What will you do if I ask you to actually pluck a star or two from the sky for me?"
"Then I'll use the reality stone to compress the entire ball of flames into a tiny pendant and virtualize most of its mass to make it seem entirely normal," he said, slipping his arm under Gwen's shirt. "You would then be able to wear a star on this chain like a pendant."
Gwen blushed at his words, biting her lower lip as she felt him playing with the chain on her chest.
"You can't keep things strictly romantic without adding your perverted flair to them, can you?" She complained, shifting her position to straddle Alex, blocking his view of the TV.
"Never," he said, pulling off her top and capturing her lips in a passionate kiss.
***
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