Issue #6

Emma around her and Jack's home as she looked around the place in interest.

'He has really put in thought when he was creating this place.'

Emma walked into the home and up the stairs where she saw Krakoa's treant body standing guard outside of a room. It was obvious that this was where Jack was staying.

Krakoa looked at Emma with vigilance at first but recognized her when he remembered the image that Jack had projected of the woman. It stood aside when Emma approached to let her into the room.

When Emma entered, she saw the white room and appreciated the details that Jack had added.

"It looks good. If only there wasn't a man in such a sorry state ruining this perfect scene."

Jack was sitting up in bed with white bandages all over his body. Some of them had fresh stains of red from the injuries beneath them.

"Hehe. And who said that you don't have a sense of humor? *cough cough*"

Jack pulled up the handkerchief he had been holding onto and coughed into it. When he looked at it, it was covered in his blood. Jack smiled bitterly to himself thinking that this is what he deserved.

It had been a week since Jack and Zeus had battled. During that final blow, although Jack had Aegis protecting him, he was still given several injuries from the might Zeus. And since the god was a sore loser, he also made sure that each of his attacks cursed Jack to the point where Jack's healing factor had been nullified.

Jack had been hoping that the curse would undo itself shortly but it had already been a week with nothing happening. Jack had used almost all of the abyssal magic energy he had stored in his body, he was unable to undo the curse at the moment. His new powers were also unable to heal them.

Emma looked at the sorry state her fiance was in and felt her heart was bleeding. In all the time that she had known Jack, the only time she had seen him so injured was the second day they met when he decided to train in the basement without her supervision.

Thinking of the innocent boy he was before, a small smile appeared on Emma's face for a moment before she wiped it off and looked at Jack in frustration.

"So you were able to send your astral self back to me but you didn't really tell me what happened. Would you like to share that now?"

Jack knew he couldn't really lie to Emma so he decided to be honest with her. About how the War of Realms turned out. About how the next time they would need to fight for the realm would be in a hundred years. How he decided to hunt down his clone. And how he fought with 5/6 gods of one of the strongest pantheons on the planet before sustaining the injuries that had him lying in bed.

He also informed her about all the powers he had gotten over the past few weeks.

When Jack was finished, Emma was stunned. She didn't know whether she should have been surprised or angry. In the end, she decided to be both.

"You didn't come home right after you went to war with one pantheon but decided you wanted to fight another one since the first war was too easy!?!? You mix and match your powers as you please without thinking about what would happen if the resulting power ended in something terrible. I'm not sure whether you are suicidal or just stupid!"

"You've always said that I was quite smart so I'm pretty sure..."

"Darling. If you don't want to think that you are a dog for the next few weeks while you recover, I suggest you stop talking. Now."

Jack immediately shut up. He knew that Emma couldn't really do that to him at his current level but he also knew that he was in the wrong so he should just accept the lecture that she was going to give him.

"That isn't all that happened, though. There is something that you haven't told me yet."

Even without reading his mind, Emma could still feel the emotions coming off of Jack's body. Those that had more sensitivity and less control than her would be overwhelmed by Jack's emotions.

"He. Looks like I can't keep any secrets from you."

Jack had a pained expression on his face. Emma wanted to do nothing more than give him a big hug but she knew that she had to let him say it first or he would not say it at all.

"In the last clash with Zeus. We both went all out. Our full power colliding resulted in 8 star systems being destroyed. Because of me, over 50 billion aliens died.

Zeus wanted to stop the fight but I refused him. It wasn't because I was afraid of him coming back to get revenge later. It was simply because I wanted his powers for myself so I was willing to kill him and risk it all for that.

And because of that, all those aliens died. Men, women, and children from all over. Innocent and criminals. That massive wave did not care. It took all of their lives regardless.

I've always been fine with killing. Since I found out about my powers, I have accepted that I will need to kill to get stronger. Since Stella told us about the Celestial, I have known I need to kill even more to get stronger, faster.

But I always thought I had a code. At the very least, I thought that I would not kill indiscriminately. I've always considered myself above the villains who just go out of their way to hurt others. But..."

"But you feel guilty over it. It has been a week, and you still feel as guilty as you had when you had just done it. You are definitely no villain. You're just my foolish darling that has made a mistake. A slightly bigger mistake than any you had made before but a mistake nonetheless."