Snow returns.

As I practiced my powers the next morning, reflecting on what happened last night, Star sat in my lap, playing with the multicoloured orbs of light floating around from my power.

"Mama is sleeping?" He had asked last night.

"Yup. And she really needs to sleep. So don't disturb her okay?" I replied.

"But I wanna meet mama! When will she wake up?" Star insisted.

I patted his head, and kissed it.

"Soon, Star. Soon. But till then, promise me, you won't disturb mama, okay?"

"I miss Mama." Star sulked and it nearly broke my heart to deny him.

But it had to be done.

"You will meet her again Star. I promise. But for now, let mama sleep okay? Promise?"

Star nodded, sadly, promise.

"Thank you, Star. You're the bestest son in the world!" I kissed his forehead and he giggled happily.

I smiled, and patted his head.

Just then a portal opened up besude me as Wanda returned from the sanctum after talk with the Ancient One.

"So....how did it go?" I asked.

"It went okay. She apologized, and she... she's not a bad person. I won't hold a grudge. And neither will she. We talked it out." Wanda explained.

Well, damn. I expected her to hate the Ancient One.

That screws with my plans of breaking her.

Will I have to resort to messing with her brain?

Rick doesn't have the best track record with brain stuff, and while I have grown to be leagues better than him, I don't know how the mind altering and brainwashing tech will interact with magic.

It's the whole reason I didn't just brainwash her on day one and turn her into a loyal minion.

Last resort then.

"That's great. All wrapped up in a nice little bow." I said, acting relieved, "Can you continue to train with them?"

"Yes. But I'm taking a break for today."

"I see." I nodded and went back to my training but Wanda was still standing beside me fidgeting.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her with curiosity.

"Do you need something?" I asked.

Wanda blushed a little and cleared her throat.

"Um....I was thinking last night and you know how I have a dream?" She said.

I nodded.

"Of being a suburban housewife? Yes, why?"

"About that....I was thinking last night and I realised something. I don't actually know what housewives do. I was wondering if you could help teach me? You had a wife right? Was she a housewife?"

"Mostly yeah. She was more of a housewife/secretary/bodyguard. All rounder really." I reminisced.

"So can you teach me how she acted, what she did around the house ...secret recipes, tips and tricks and such? My mother she....you know?" She requested.

Oh right. Her mother died when she was a kid. Of course Wanda didn't know anything about housework and such.

I had seen their rented apartment too when I went to pick them up the first time and boy, what a pugsty that was.

She was wholly unprepared for being a housewife.

Guess I can help with that.

"Sure. But on one condition." I pulled out the memory extractor from a portal and set it to projection mode, locking it to only allow access to Offee's memories but not to edit any of it.

"What?" She asked.

"Teach me magic." I said.

It was high time I put aside my pride and gave magic a look over.

"Deal!" She agreed.

I handed the helmet to her, switched it on and a holoscreen popped up, displaying a scroll function and a table of contents.

"Check the years 22 BBY to 20 BBY for the housework and wifely duties. And just to be sure, skip the more...uh....NSFW parts. I have locked most of them but some of them are while she was cooking so....just skip those if you find them."

Why was I doing my wife while she cooked?

Two words.

Naked Apron.

It was irresistible!

And Offee looked stunning, her washboard abs peeking out of the apron as it strained against her massive tits, her hair positively glowing in the early filtering rays of the morning sun as she hummed a tune.

Contrary to what it might seem like, she didn't always hum that same sad tune.

She just did it often enough that I memorized it pitch and tone.

Usually though she hummed her favourite Mirialan ballads or the latest sensation on galactic radio.

Watching her hum, accompanied by the sizzle of food and the light flap of the flame, the periodical clank or ting of utensils.

I could almost smell it.

It was picture perfect.

I smiled.

Oh how I miss those days!

And her.

Meanwhile, Wanda looked at me confused for a moment before she realised what I was talking about and went red like a tomato, blushing so hard I could almost spot the steam coming out of her ears.

How cute!

"Oh, and use the microverse for training. It has a time dilation of 780 so you'll be done in an hour." I pointed out, opening up a portal for her.

"Uh..uh...um...yes, okay. I'll just um go now?" She reacted stiffly eliciting a chuckle from me and she made a cute noise, running away embarrassed.

I chuckled, and looked down at Star watching on innocently.

It made me wonder about something.

When was the last time I played ball with him!

Months now, I think.

That just won't do!

Playing ball with dad is one of those quintessential memories of childhood.

Can't have little Star wax nostalgic about nothing when he's all grown and serious now can we?

I smiled, picking him up in my arms.

"Star? Wanna play ball with Papa?"

"Really?!" He jumped with joy.

I pulled out a ball and two catcher's mitts.

"What do you think buster?" I smiled.

.

A sonic boom rang out as I caught the ball in my hand, now a sopping, charred mass of melt and ash and flew back to the ground, the plateau now riddled with deep scars torn through the dense rock and smoking remains of entire cliff faces turned to rubble and partly to lava from when Star threw a tantrum about missing a catch by a mere half inch.

It looked like a battlefield that had been severely stormed in.

Guess even the wasteland at the end of time isn't made to bear the force of two superhumans playing ball.

I stretched and cracked my knuckles, pulling out another ball from a portal.

Ready for another round?" I asked but Star just drooped, tired and sleepy.

He yawned.

"Am sleepy, Papa..."

Time for an afternoon nap then.

I looked at him lovingly and telekinetically pulled him into my arms, dropping the gloves and ball into a portal.

"Okay, let's get you to bed, sleepyhead." I kissed his forehead, and walked through a portal gently tucking Star into bed, when another portal opened up by my side.

A figure covered in red dirt, twitching and spasming wildly dropped out of the portal and onto the floor like a rock.

C.C., finally back from her expedition and by the looks of it or rather her, burning up with a fever, it's quite the success.

Still, I didn't touch her or use any powers in fear of catching the virus myself.

Pulling out a pneumatic isolator, I aimed it at her, and pulled the trigger.

The gun beeped and a conceptual suction force appeared on the nozzle ripping the virus off of C.C. or Snow White as she wanted her epitaph to read.

The vial on top of the gun began to glow an orange-red as a dusty, granulated shimmer, bubbles made of sandy lumps, appeared within it, flickering wildly at being separated from it's host.

The H'ronmeer's Curse.

The psychic virus that wiped out all of martiankind except the Martian Manhunter.

The perfect weapon to use against Akasha, the thought entity that controls the code that makes me immortal.

I looked at Snow and knelt down beside her, checking for a pulse, and found none.

Scanning her body revealed that Snow was already dead.

A bit unexpected.

But at least that confirms the deadly nature of the virus.

I reached into a portal and pulled out a CodeRed injection, jabbing Snow in the neck with it.

Her body spasmed again, thrashing around for a moment as she began to recover, with what seemed like a thousand thousand worms crawling beneath her skin, her body cramping all on it's own.

Another scan revealed that she was now alive, but in a deep coma.

Interesting....

So the effects of the curse can't be reversed just by reviving the person.

Kinda like what happened to Offee.

Maybe Snow holds the key to reviving my wife.

Only time will tell. For now I better begin the process of separating my immortality from the Akashic Record, before I wipe out the collective consciousness of humanity once and for all.

Snow on the other hand was portaled to a recovery vat beside Garp to recover. I wanted to hear her experience of it all and she was still useful for a wide variety of things so there's no way I'm letting her take an early retirement.

Meanwhile, I made my way to my workshop and began to pull up holoscreens of data on the psychosphere that I had collected over the past month and a half and got to work.

I have research to do and gods to kill.

________________

The extra chapter for 400 power stones as promised!

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See ya!

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