"Let me show you my nightmare..."
The space around them morphed again, revealing a countryside house at a distance. A car pulled up, and another Jerry Anderson emerged, dressed in Maw's outfit but without his usual visor.
His noseless and wrinkled face was as repulsive as ever.
Wanda glanced at the Jerry beside her, seeking confirmation. "So, we're witnessing your nightmare from a third-person perspective, huh?"
"Yes," Jerry affirmed.
Wanda observed with curiosity as the other Jerry approached the gate, hesitating to knock. Initially fidgeting nervously, he then took a deep breath and knocked.
The gate opened, and a smiling blonde girl, his niece, greeted him. However, her joy turned to horror.
She shrieked and closed the door in his face, a few moments later, his father kicked the door open with a shotgun in his hands...
Jerry snapped his fingers, and then the whole world froze in time.
"You can imagine how the nightmare will unfold from this point. Until now whatever happened there, think of it as a prompt. You can either plunge that Jerry over there into a worse nightmare or help him heal by showing a beautiful scene. One is a malicious attack and the other is a healing process."
"The first step is to tap into 'his' subconscious, analyze its wants and fears, and create any scenario that you want and affect that Jerry over there, either positively or negatively."
"But won't it affect you too?" Wanda asked.
"No, that guy over there is a copy and I have assigned him his own subconsciousness. Just like a function call without any reference."
Wanda tilted her head, "hm?"
"I mean that his subconscious is exactly like mine but not connected to me. Any changes on him won't be affecting the original."
Wanda nodded, taking a deep breath, she focussed on her mind, and the world resumed to move after a few seconds.
Jerry's father pointed his shotgun at his forehead and yelled, "Get the hell out of here, you freak!!"
The father's hands were trembling, for some reason he was hesitating...
A new figure appeared from behind Jerry's father, it was his mother. "Wait," She stopped her husband.
"A-Are you... Are you my Jerry?" Tears fell down from Jerry's mother's eyes, as a mysterious power told her that it was her missing son standing in front of the door. A mysterious superpower that only mothers have.
The other Jerry smiled, and teared up from his wrinkled eyes. The father who was heavily confused a moment ago realized everything and dropped the shotgun and hugged Jerry.
The real Jerry sighed and then snapped his fingers and they returned to the white space they were previously in.
Still, in his human form with blond hair, Jerry snorted, "Well, this is a skill that you were already somewhat aware of and have used it defend yourself against a mental attack from Charles Xavier. But still, you have great talent... And also... thanks for that scenario..."
"Thanks and you're welcome, Jerry." Wanda looked at his face and then snapped her fingers.
Jerry's face turned back into Ebony Maw's.
As he watched his fair arms turning back to Maw's grey ones, he leaked a sigh.
Wanda smiled wryly, "Your family is lovely and if you're postponing meeting them because of your appearance then I'd say don't, and just go and meet them. I'm 100% sure it'll be a reunion that they would want as well. Appearance is not everything in this world, after all." Wanda smiled.
"If only I could, Wanda... they're not in this world anymore...", Jerry sighed and looked above.
Well, he was not lying. They are perhaps alive and well in Jerry's previous universe but they don't exist in this one.
"I'm sorry..." Wanda said with a sad face.
"Well, anyway, I think that's enough for today. Explore this skill as much as you can. We're gonna duel in the mind world, realm, whatever you want to call it, in the next lesson."
Jerry snapped again and they were back in the chamber in the ship.
They got up, and Wanda thanked Jerry again for the lesson, as she looked at his wrinkled face she felt sad for him, the guy standing in front of her was even more miserable than herself. At least she had one family left, but Jerry was all alone in this whole universe...
Perhaps she felt sympathetic or it was just a whim, she walked towards him and kissed his cheek, but for some reason, her heart pounded when she did so.
She decided to leave for now and approached the door.
Jerry asked a question, "Could you guess how I need you to create and enter the mind world but I can come back here without needing you?"
Wanda raised one of her eyebrows and tapped her left cheek, "Hm, you didn't exit it, instead you forced me out. Which collapsed the mind world because I was the one who created it. Is that correct?"
Jerry chuckled, "Well, it would've been the case if we had actually exited it, but you see, we haven't exited the mind world yet."
Wanda widened her eyes, she checked using her mind and... it really wasn't the real world. But the greater worry was that she didn't know how to feel about the kiss earlier that didn't even turn out to be real.
"Well, I just showed you one of the darkest ways to use this skill."
"Gee, thanks, now I am wondering about the existence of my whole life!", Wanda replied flatly.
"Haha,"
This time they actually exited the mind world.
But for some reason, Wanda was grumpy for a while after that... He could never figure out why.
After that Jerry went to his lab to to study more ways to make his new body stronger. Just yesterday, he had enhanced the healing factor's efficiency by 0.27%. It was a huge success.
He prays for more such successes as the days pass.
And the days passed, he let the happenings of Earth untouched... and November came...
*Beep* *Beep*
The rhythmic beeping at one of the empty compartments of the ship suddenly took pace, the lights turned green, and one of the alarms went off.
As Jerry was having lunch with the twins, his wrist terminal lighted up.
A pleasant smile that looked sinister to Pietro formed on his face.
Wanda narrowed her eyes and Pietro bleughed.
===============
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