Marvel: I'm a Symbiote-Symbiote 0338: Assisted Conquest (1/2)

Eventually, Doctor Strange woke up, only to be assaulted by questions from all three of his companions that only entered his ears as grumbled gibberish as he took a few moments to get his bearings together.

“One question at a time, please,” the ex-Sorcerer Supreme stumbled to his feet with some support from Peter.

“What happened?” Illyana asked. “I get that you wanted to protect your contracted dimensions, but why go so far as to put yourself in danger and jeopardize the mission? Not only that, Agatha tracked us down and blew my cover. I can’t go back to the New York Sanctum anymore.”

“You don’t get it …” Doctor Strange said with hints of weakness in his tone. “If the dimensions are lost, I won’t have any standing to battle Agatha. I can analyze and destabilize her spells, but I need raw power to achieve victory … Without my contracted dimensions, I would be useless in the upcoming conflict.”

“What exactly happened?” Peter asked. “What caused this kind of dimensional instability?”

“I don’t know,” he shook his head. “All I know is that there was a shockwave that almost destroyed every single dimension in this plane.”

“Did you succeed?” Laura asked. “In protecting the dimensions from being destroyed, that is.”

“I did,” Doctor Strange nodded. “I had some help, however. Other versions of me. Ones who share some of the dimensions with me.”

“That’s strange …” Illyana said. “I didn’t get any help from my copies when I came into Limbo.”

“Not all dimensions are as all-encompassing as the Dark Dimension, the Vishanti, and more. Some, like your Limbo, can be considered localized dimensions. With the overlapping created due to the Convergence of Earths, the smaller dimensions exist in isolated layers. Your variants, at least ones with access to Limbo, possess separate dimensions that they interact with.”

“These rules seem so broken,” Laura said. “And not in a good way. It’s the same as how your planet’s rules all seem like they were haphazardly jumbled together.”

“It does?” Illyana asked.

“Yeah. You would’ve found out tomorrow morning when everybody met.”

“Let us go back,” Doctor Strange said. “Transport us to Katherine, Magik.”

“First, you should run some diagnostics on all of us,” Laura said. “I had Agatha track me to Yana’s because of some Death mark. She already removed it, but I just want to make sure that there aren’t any backups that we may have missed.”

“No harm in being cautious,” Doctor Strange nodded and cast a spell that scanned all four of them from head to toe, including himself.

[Oh, Alex, did you know that Chaos Magic originates from a demon called Chthon? Not that dimension or whatever you were telling me about.]

[I know, I was listening. And that’s not true … at least not for our current universe. The Chaos Dimension is the source of all Chaos energy in this reality. At least, it was. Until it was destroyed.] frёewebηovel.cѳm

[Destroyed?]

[That shockwave these guys were talking about is because of the destruction of the Chaos Dimension.]

[What about her? That … your Wanda. Is she all right?]

[How adorable… I’m glad Felicia could talk some sense into your head in between all those threesomes we had.]

[Don’t patronize me …]

[She’s fine. More than that, actually. I’ll say, at this point, this entire mission is pretty much moot. I can kill that Angelic Wanda without any trouble now if I wanted to.]

[That big of a difference?]

[You don’t know the half of it. But that’s all for later. Do you want to go back to your Earth? I’m planning to establish the Widows as a long-term force there. We could directly attack Stark’s Bastion and take over. Do you want to play quarterback in the assault?]

[…Do you mind if I refuse? Just for a while.]

[Having fun here?]

[Illyana and Kitty seem like fun girls. I want to hang out with them for a few days. I promise that I’ll go back after that.]

[No need. You can take as long as you want here. I just told you about it because I now have the confidence to take on most, if not all, of the threats to your Earth. I’ll sooner or later integrate it into Gaia. However, since you want to play around for a bit, I can delay the integration. The Widows can meanwhile establish themselves more thoroughly there.]

[You really don’t need to …]

[I don’t mind, Laura. I want you to look the people at the Bastion in the eye while we rip everything they’ve built away from them and take it all for ourselves.]

[At the cost of sounding like a vengeful psychopath … Yeah, that really makes me want to go there right now and rip them a new one.]

[You can enjoy another break here with some new people. Once we try to deal with your planet’s bullshit, then things are going to get stressful and dramatic very quickly.]

[You’re going to take me to meet with the X-Men as well, aren’t you?]

Alex didn’t respond, but his silence was enough of an answer for Laura.

“Nothing.” Doctor Strange was finally finished with his diagnostic spells. “We can go home now.”

Laura suddenly had a thought as the ex-Sorcerer Supreme signaled to Illyana. These people were all getting ready for what amounted to war.

[What do you plan to do with this planet then? Since you already can take out the Angelic Wanda … Do things on this planet just suddenly go back to normal?]

[No. I actually plan to wring her dry of all she’s worth now. She’s going to slowly hand-deliver all of her accumulation to me on a silver platter. From an enemy, she is now a potential tool. And you know how much value I like to get from my tools.]

[You sound creepy, Alex.]

[You get my point. She isn’t a danger to us anymore, but I’m going to let things continue the exact way they have been going. I have a body in Kamar-Taj that’s going to keep track of everything and get you inside information. Let Strange and this Mystic League do their own thing, and support them as much as you want. Once they take back Kamar-Taj, we can leave. Okay?]

[Sounds like a plan.]

After living on a planet with Alex as its literal overlord, Laura had learned to instinctively dissociate certain pieces of information that would otherwise weigh down on her conscience. While she was talking about helping these people, Alex had an instant solution to all of their problems, which he wasn’t implementing. Normally, living with this information would weigh her down and cause her stress. That is why she had learned to dissociate this kind of information and focus on the task at hand instead.

“I’ve already contacted Kitty,” Illyana said in response to Doctor Strange’s words. She waved her arms, and solid disks of light appeared under everyone before rising higher, quickly teleporting them away from Illyana’s Limbo.

…

In a nondescript apartment in Hong Kong, almost identical to Illyana’s in New York, a brunette with hazel eyes was chopping vegetables in the kitchen. Looking at the amount, it was clear that the food was going to be for more than a single person, going by the quantities of her chopped veggies. Not only that, a large pot was placed on the stove, filled with a boiling broth, to which she added her vegetables just as she finished chopping.

As she continued making dinner that would easily feed half a dozen people, a flash appeared from the living room, making her raise her brows.

“Illyana?” She called out.

“Hi Kitty,” the blonde woman responded and walked into the dining area. “I brought guests.”

“I know. Take a seat. I’ll be with you all in a bit.”

“Need any help?” The blonde posed it as a question, but was quick to figure out a way to help by stirring the broth.

“Help yourself …” Katherine said dryly.

“Who wants cocktails?” Laura suddenly interjected herself between the two, holding bottles of gin in one hand and vodka in the other.

“You are …” Katherine trailed off while Illyana looked at Laura with wide eyes.

“Where did you even get those? Kitty doesn’t keep alcohol.”

“I know. Because she’s such a light drinker. Two shots and she’s out for the night, am I right?”

“Really, who is this?” Katherine asked.

“We are not getting drunk tonight,” Illyana said. “We just barely escaped with our lives.”

“This is the perfect time to let loose and dance, girl. We are doing cocktails.” Laura said adamantly.

“Damnit!” Katherine stabbed her fork into her wooden chopping board with a thud. “Who is this, Illyana?”

Both Laura and Illyana paused in their banter at Katherine’s frustrated shout.

“Kitty, this is Laura. She’s the reason Strange called us for a meeting tomorrow morning. And she’s the reason he and Peter are still alive.”

“I see,” Katherine nodded. “Hello, Laura. I’m Katherine Pryde.”

“So…drinks?” Laura looked excitedly between Katherine and Illyana.

Illyana sighed with a defeated expression. “I’m up for it … Kitty?”

The brunette shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’m down to see drunk Illyana again,” she said as a teasing smirk appeared on her face. “You’re just so fun.”

“Hm?” Laura squinted in confusion. “I get it! You’re the light drinker in this reality. That’s why you’re so much against us drinking.”

“Ding ding ding. Correct … Reality?”

“My name is Laura Kinney. Logan’s cloned daughter.” Laura said with an expectant expression.

“Oh … OHH … You’re from another Earth.” Katherine finally caught up.