[Draul St. Cross POV]
"Well that sure was something. Was Thor really that badass? Because, y'know, he looked a hell lot better than ours does." Steve commented as we stepped back inside our own universe.
Despite the fact that we just came form another universe, the excitement I felt had immediately bled out after I started interacting with them. As I was right now, only a few things could make me excited or enthusiastic. Nighttime with Ororo being number one, nothing else could top that and a few other activities I and the others engaged in, like the time Yelena and I built her supercar.
I could feel Tiamut's unresponsive consciousness which made me know that the Dreaming Celestial was for the most part asleep and wasn't aware of what was happening in real time.
Well there was no need for me to visit him since his suggestion worked and I still had it look for a planet with abundant life force or a zombie infested universe. Right now, what I needed to do was make sure that the universes I was making a connection with was not something that I would have to deal with in the long run.. Why you might ask?
Well Thanos.
Not my Thanos but the myriad of Thanos' out there. Mine was pretty much on the weak end of what a baddie Thanks from the comics could do.
And not only that, but I also had to keep an eye on a few people of interest which consisted on Galactus, the waking Knull which was another problem in and of itself, and Infinity. There were others out there like those from the Cthulhu Mythos that Yog-Sothoth warned me of and maybe a few Abstracts I wasn't yet aware of and also some hidden parties.
Even now, I didn't know where to start. Maybe squash my beef with Galactus before Knull decides to wreck havoc and flip up the multiverse, or maybe chill for a bit and let the embodiments of madness and destruction do their thing before I step in or whenever they decide to come for me.
The problem with the first two was that; fuck Galactus, because if there was any way I can kill him then I will take that chance. The next in the list was Knull… he was pretty much the definition of unkillable. He outright butchered and sent an army of Celestials packing. He existed before Death came to the multiverse, at least the current one.
And this was exactly the problem with this verse. The power scaling was just completely ridiculous.
Things like Death, Eternity, Infinity, Oblivion, Chaos and Order and the rest of the Abstracts were supposed to be nigh unbeatable phenomena but all someone needed was just the right trick and you could fuck with them any day of the week. But then again, tricks were things you could only do for a very limited time and if per chance, most likely it would be, you found yourself against the multiversal persona then the likely chance of tricks working were next to null, and given the fact that I was one way against the living embodiment of Infinity, and Eternity, since they do go hand in hand, I could not afford any tricks.
Apart from my inevitable clash with the Abstracts, my biggest concern were actually those from the Cthulhu Mythos as nothing substantial was known about them. The few references that were made to Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath was all that the writers gave. And given that the Great Darkness really is a thing, then it is safe to say that they were not pushovers at the very least.
Half of the problem was the Cthulhu Mythos while the other half was what they wanted with me. I don't know how I am in anyway connected to the Great Darkness but I think I'm at the point where I truly can't blame anything on my ignorance.
There've been some clues that I had always made sure to ignore until now but given that we were stepping into the proverbial endgame, it was high time I saw where they led. And my first step was my form, the one I dubbed chaotic because that was exactly what it was.
Right now my human form was nothing more than my ideal representation of how I wanted to be seen. My real appearance would simply be the universe and everything that it was and is, but what would I look like if I were to be in my chaotic form? Would it affect the universe or was there some sort of adverse effects it'll have now that I've fused with a part of Infinity, whatever that could mean.
To be honest, I was no too thrilled to find that out but it's not like good choices were exactly lining up.
"What are you thinking about?" White hair covered a part of my vision as a pair of arms snaked itself around my neck.
"I'm pretty sure I'm about to do something stupid." I said as I nudged myself deeper into her bosom.
"How dangerous?"
"Probably on a scale of flipping off an Abstract." She hummed and kissed the top of my head.
"Well I don't know how sure you are of this, but if you decided it do it then it must be important. As long as you don't take it too far, not that I can do anything if you do decide otherwise, but just exercise restraint is what I'm trying to say." She said as she continued twisting my hair over her fingers in a way she knew I loved.
"Hey Ororo, did I ever tell you that I really love you? It's kinda crazy, but y'know, it is what it is." I said offhandedly which earned my hair a hard pull. "Ouch?"
"Well mister, I love you too, despite all your apparent faults. I think that it's one of the best decisions I've ever made and I still haven't regretted a day out of it. I get to see the world in so many colors that I didn't think was possible and the experiences are all breathtaking, so yes Draul. I love you too with all my heart."
A smile blossomed on my face because this was one of the few things that I never doubted. Even without all of my unfathomable abilities, I could tell very easily that she meant every single word she said.
I opened my hands and within my palms blossomed into existence a soft light that burst into stars. The stars revolved around themselves in a orbit, cascading their path in an ethereal glow and making it look like a picture of stars trapped in a glass. The glass itself reflected like the surface of a flowing river with millions of sparkling suns twinkling inside it.
The trapped lights swirled in an orbit like a galaxy before it grew smaller and smaller and finally condensed itself into an oval.
A ring.
With a universe within it.
The power of more than a billion suns all meant for one person. The person I held most dear to my heart.
"Well, what do think? Pretty cool right? And I also made sure it'll go along with anything you dec-!"
My words and thoughts came to a screeching halt and my head was forcefully turned around and the dark colored lips of Ororo crash into mine with such intense passion that made every omniscient thought in my head be rendered useless as they all came to a single conclusion that made everything lose their luster.
'She said yes.'
It was a simple fact, one I knew from our kiss but it suddenly felt as if everything fit into place. 'I think you're right, Clint. It feels as if nothing else matters at this moment.'
The kiss continued on for as long as we could hold it in before we broke it off. Her ethereal blue eyes that only became more striking ever since her ascension shone with such passion that was never dimming. Looking at it felt as if everything that I was would be consumed by it, come good and bad.
The ring floated up and slid inside into her fingers, the stars in it brimming with light as of they've finally found their missing piece. "It fits you perfectly."
What else could I say at a time like this? I just drew her into a hug and let that speak of how much I truly adored her. We've come a long way since the beginning when I was just a slightly stronger mutant. She was a person I just couldn't bring myself to hate or dislike even when I was practically giving it away for free to the X-men. She was the first one that truly sought to understand me despite us not having the best initial impressions.
At that time I was cool with having her as a friend. Someone I could talk to about a few important things and she would always take the time to see where I was coming from. From then on, I don't know when it started, but we started developing feeling for each other, not one born out of passion and lust but out of understanding and acknowledgement.
Even though we had two separate lives, that didn't stop us from dedicating a part of our time to each other, just like we had been doing for years. She wasn't the most outspoken or the most expressive but she definitely was the most understanding.
And then she had put it aside.
Putting aside her goals and dreams just to make sure that she was there for me to lend me her support even with her lacking strength. She left her friends, left her ambitions, all in an effort, even when she was made known to the fact that I could just end up destroying everything around me, to help me see it through. Was it really that much of a surprise that I had fallen over the deep end for her?
"You really are chaotic, you know that right?" She said, not taking her eyes off me for a second.
"I'm an agent of chaos personified. I'm not sure I can promise you all the good things of life throughout all of time but the least I can promise you is that through all the misfortunes and the bad times that are bound to come, we'll both be at the forefront, facing it together." It truly was the least I could promise her but not even I knew how long such a promise would last.
"That's not a standard proposal." Her head softly rested itself on top of my chest while my hands colored around her lithe waist.
"We can't get sick so that clause has no meaning. We can be as broke and rich as we want so that part becomes redundant. The only constant for us are the good and bad times and between those two, the one I'm mostly sure to fulfill is the bad one, so it's the only one I can promise." It was now my turn to play with her impossibly white hair, twirling it around my fingers and watch is flow in a mesmerizing way down my hands. "What can I say? I'm definitely not normal."
"That we can both agree on. Sometimes I wonder how it would be if you were to be in a relationship with someone else and how hopeless you would be if she wasn't as understanding as I am, but then I remember… you are the only Draul across all realities, which means there'll never be a possibility you choose anyone else apart from me and that alone makes me luckier than all my alternates. Truly, my choice to love you wasn't wrong." She cooed softly in a tone that would send men weak in the knees but there was no one here who was lucky enough to hear it.
She looked at the ring, a universe, around her finger and rubbed it while smiling contentedly. "Yes, I made the perfect choice."
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