Outside the Gaia Cluster, once all was said and done, each planet seemed to have two suns. One was the actual sun, while the other was the incubating Celestial. Unlike the way planets orbited around the sun, however, the Celestial's orbits were under Alex's direct control. The way Wanda had set up the spell allowed Alex to manually modify many aspects of the structure that had been formed, including adding new planets or removing older ones, even shifting them around if he desired.
The only limitation was that the planets could never form a conjunction. That was because Wanda had formed literal beams that led from the Celestial to each planet's core. In the scenario of a planetary syzygy, the beams would overlap and collapse the spell. And without anchors, the planets would likely run into untold problems simply due to the interference from each other's gravity.
In the aftermath of such a grand undertaking, however, both Wanda and Susan had lost consciousness due to overexertion. Wanda's recovery wasn't too troublesome, lasting barely a week of Gaia's re-dilated time. She was already out and about after Alex coaxed all of the dissatisfaction out of her and was enjoying a life of leisure.
Susan, on the other hand, had been unconscious for two weeks with no signs of waking up. That was because of a mix of multiple factors. The primary one being the sheer undertaking that Alex had put her body through. The kind of output he forced out of her body without the necessary foundation had left her far too fragile for even him to immediately heal.
Adding to that, due to their low bond level, he couldn't go into a True Merge state with her, and instead had to suppress her consciousness to take control of her body. While that protected her mind, it also caused slight mental damage to her that will also take a while to heal.
At the moment, she was on the Fantastic Four Earth, lying on a large bed in her room as her brother sat beside her with a disgruntled expression of worry.
"She's been out of it for two weeks, man," Johnny said. "Are you sure it's a fatigue-induced coma?"
"Yes." Alex walked in with a glass of water. "She overexerted her powers recently and needs to recover. It's a mental issue more than a physical one."
"So she's going to wake up with amnesia?"
"Is that all you took from my words?" Alex asked.
"The doctors said she's fine, right? How about we surprise her when she wakes up?"
"What do you have in mind?" Alex asked with a laugh.
"How about this… We'll act like it's been two years, and that she only woke up because we found an alien parasite to heal her. Now, that parasite is coursing through her blood."
Alex instantly choked on his water, coughing violently as he barely set the glass down on the table nearby.
"V-vivid imagination," he wheezed out, slowly recovering.
"So?" Johnny didn't bother suppressing his amusement.
"Sure," Alex said, shaking his head. "Go for it when she wakes up in another week or two."
"Sweet," Johnny said. "I'll be off. Take care of her. And seriously, put a ring on that finger, will you? You've been together for years. She isn't getting any younger."
"Yeah," Alex waved the man off. "I'll keep that under advisement."
…
After Johnny's departure, Alex stayed beside Susan, doing his best to accelerate her recovery as his exhausted Bioenergy reserves slowly started climbing back up. His previous exhaustion had even impacted his production in the Penitentiary, causing the recovery process to slow down and, in turn, reduce the amount of Bioenergy he got every day. That was bound to normalize in less than half a year, which was less than a quarter of a day outside.
As for the healing process, due to her shallow level three skin bond with Alex, he couldn't easily fix her issues on a mental level. If they had even formed the blood bond, Alex would have had a much easier time due to the constant cycling of her blood through her brain, but for now, that wasn't an option.
The best way to accelerate her healing was Soul Energy. Unfortunately, he'd entirely exhausted his reserves of that as well during his previous actions. Because of that, he had to go on a killing spree on Earth-Z to devour a large number of mindless abominations that barely gave Soul Energy in tiny fractions. Despite having to supplement the low quality with a large amount of quantity, Alex's collection pace was enough to heal Susan over a month.
Since Johnny had left, the Susan on the bed no longer needed to be maintained and simply dissolved away as the bed itself melted away, revealing the real Susan, floating in a horizontal pod of clear liquid. Without a scrap of clothing on her body as her hair floated all around her, she looked more like an ethereal mermaid than a human, but Alex wasn't in the mood to admire that. He was using a slow, methodical technique to infuse Bioenergy directly into her brain, mixed with the small amounts of Soul Energy to aid in her recovery.
"I really need to increase the bond level with her soon… Her powers are too important for them to be this weak at this stage," he said to himself. "I finally found a lead on another Cosmic Cube, and the one person who can come with me is out of it…"
…
As the days passed, Susan's recovery finally concluded, and per Alex's estimates, the healing process was complete.
Upon waking up, the woman found herself in a pure white room, not unlike the room she'd first woken up in when she had just gotten her powers, except this one felt even more like a mental facility, without a single window or medical equipment. The thing that drove it in further was the padded walls.
"Sis?" A voice spoke to her through the speaker. "That you?"
"Who else would it be, Johnny?" Susan scoffed. "Where's Alex?"
"When we were five, who was it that you wanted to marry, even going so far as to propose—"
"Another word and I turn your head invisible," Susan growled.
"It's important, sis," Johnny said. "Who did you run after, screaming for marriage?"
"I'll kill you!" Susan got out of bed, ready to activate her powers.
"Who was it?" Johnny asked with a forceful edge to his tone. "Or do you not know, Alien?"
"What are you talking about?"
[Alex?]
"Answer the question, sis." He emphasized his address. "Or do you not know?"
"Shove it, Johnny," Susan said. "And tell me where Alex is?"
"How do I know you aren't the alien parasite?" Johnny's words made Susan freeze.
"What?"
"I expected as much." Johnny's tone turned grave. "I told you you shouldn't have used that parasite to heal her."
"What the fuck is going on?" Susan received no answer. "Johnny? Alex?"
[Alex? I can sense you behind that wall. What's Johnny up to?]
"Unless we can determine whether you are my sister or the parasite, you will have to stay confined in that room."
"I'm breaking that damn wall…" Susan activated her powers as her hair floated around her.
"Name that man, Sue, and it'll all be over."
"I'd rather just beat you up." Just as Susan was about to break through the wall, she felt an interference.
[Alex? Why are you stopping me?]
"Can't even use your powers, huh. She's definitely parasitized. It seems we need to set her on fire."
"Johnny, if you don't stop fucking with me, I will take Mr. Bauman's ice cream cone and shove it so far up your ass that it comes out of your mouth. Now tell me, where the fuck is Alex?"
"She said it!" Johnny exclaimed. "I told you she still remembered the ice cream guy's name. Even I'd forgotten."
The wall split apart into a door as Alex stepped in with a laughing Johnny.
"Still so in love with ice cream that you'd marry an old man, huh?"
Susan gave the two of them a scathing death glare and raised a palm before clenching it into a fist.
"Ack!" Johnny instantly started choking and started struggling, grabbing Alex's shoulder. Glancing at the man, his eyes widened. "Wy not im?"
Alex was perfectly fine. Looking at Johnny's miserable state, he chuckled. "All right, don't kill the poor guy. I'll give you some ice cream."
Even on the verge of losing consciousness, Johnny couldn't help but let out a gagged laugh at Susan's twitching expression.
"I'll deal with you later," she said venomously, dropping Johnny on the ground.
"You'll never… never be…" Johnny wheezed out between coughs. "You'll never be…as good…as Vader…"
Susan rolled her eyes before turning to Alex.
"What's going on?"
"You were out cold for a month," Alex said. "We decided to play a harmless prank on you."
"I liked it better when you two didn't get along," she said.
Alex laughed. "Come on, let's get some solid food in your system. We have things to do soon."
…
Another month passed as Alex made sure that Susan was fully healed before finally moving to the next planet on Alex's agenda to subdue.
Asgardian Earth.
***
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