Black Bolt #4 'The heart of a King'

[Black Bolt, Medusa, and Medusalith pick up right where they left off, with Black Bolt seeing a disheveled Medusa lying at her younger self's feet. Medusa and Black Bolt will be subject to a journey through Medusa's biggest doubts throughout her life, hinting at the true identity of Medusalith. Luna joins them partway through the encounter fully aware and in control of the situation in this dream-like realm.]

"My Wife," Black Bolt muttered, he didn't even have time to realize he spoke normally. He quickly rushed over to Medusa lifting her to her feet. She leaned on him for support but refused to face him. Black Bolt glared at Medusalith.

"Stop trying, you can talk so you can guess that your other powers won't work here. Even if they did we are in her mind, so you might want to keep an inside voice or," Medusalith punctuated her derisive sentence with a popping sound.

"Anyway, I invited you here for a reason. This one asked your adorable niece to help her face her subconscious feelings, and here we are exploring every doubt she's ever had and she refuses to face it. So, I had a thought why not look for a second opinion. Now I could've invited sweet little Luna but that wouldn't have gone over well, the child goes through enough. Crystal crossed my mind but, sisters have a way of reinforcing each other's bad habits. And of course, that whole matter with Johnny, imagine her reaction when she realizes there was no doubt or skepticism with that choice. There was Gorgon but he'd be worse than Crystal and Karnak would just look to escape. But you, you'd watch, you would take in all the information before making a decision."

"You're very talkative," Black Bolt said.

"Well with you I'd be carrying the conversation anyway," Medusalith said, waving him off.

"Well, come along a lot for us to see. Maybe I'll even get some conversation out of you for once."

Medusa remained unresponsive throughout the conversation, but hearing that Black Bolt would be joining them she quickly came back to herself.

"Blackagar no, I will face this myself," Medusa said pushing off of Black Bolt and standing on her own. A resolute expression on her face she gave a sidelong glance to Black Bolt and focused on Medusalith.

"When did I say you have a choice," Medusalith said without interrupting her stride.

Medusa and Black Bolt were dragged along the floor to Medusalith and through one of the doors in the corridor.

***

Location Unknown,

Luna found herself in a strange place. She was laying in a large bed in an excessively large room. The ceiling showed a perfect view of the stars, occasionally something would swim by in the sky. Luna left the bed and surveyed the room. As she was looking around a door suddenly appeared and opened, inviting several figures inside. Luna stood in front of these imposing large figures on guard and was silent for a few moments.

"It's good you could finally make it, Luna,"

"Although, it would've been nice if you called me before Doubt and Fear,"

"I'm just happy you could finally reach us," one of the figures said bounding to Luna and wrapping her up in its arms.

Of the several imposing figures that spoke, Luna could only hear the first two before one leaped at her and pulled her into its embrace. Luna struggled to claw her way out of that embrace. But between the constant movement, large body, and growing inability to breathe, she could only resign herself to fate.

"Enough, you'll suffocate the poor girl," another of the figures said, pulling the two apart.

Luna's head spun around so fast it nearly twisted off. Her strong gaze landed on the figure that rescued her from what she deemed the greatest danger to her life.

"There's a lot you need to know Luna and a lot of questions you'll ask, but know this while not all of us are particularly nice none of us will harm you. Though some will go to extremes based on your wishes, even if you don't know what those wishes are. Now with that out of the way let me introduce myself, I am Otia the Friendly and we need to talk about Komera who is running amok."

Luna turned her attention to the one who spoke with an equally serious and confused expression.

***

Medusa's Subconscious,

Medusalith, Medusa, and Black Bolt stood in the crowd at their wedding. They watched the proceeding in full from the crowd, in silence.

"I should mention I am only taking us through the memories with the strongest doubts," Medusalith said.

Medusa looked at Black Bolt from the side, only to see him expressionless and silent as always.

"Why are we here," Black Bolt questioned Medusalith.

"She wanted to face her feelings so here we are. You are here to force her to face them, perhaps if she sees how those doubts hurt others she'll understand what she did," Medusalith seethed at the end.

"These are not feelings, but a feeling. You've emphasized 'doubt' in this journey. There are other feelings besides doubt. And as Queen and King, we carry more doubt than most."

"You liar, you have no doubt, you were always so certain of yourself. You were the most annoying being in existence, but the cracks are showing King of ash. Let's see how you handle all the doubt you've been holding back," Medusalith raged, her power exploding outward assaulting Black Bolt and Medusa.

The wave of power washed over Black Bolt but produced no results aside from rustling his hair. Medusa who stood beside him began to drown in the extreme doubt she began to feel. Usually, she is much more confident and displays a healthy amount of doubt in actions taken, as Black Bolt said as King and Queen their actions and choices affect a civilization not just themselves. She can never be completely sure her actions will be best for everyone but must make them regardless. Little things such as that were now crushing her, even the tiniest doubt such as how to style her had become magnified a hundredfold.

Black Bolt on the other hand remained unflinching amongst the storm of Medusalith's power. He spread his arms wide and stared at the angry twisted face of Medusalith. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. The storm of power was instantly tamed and focused solely on Black Bolt.

Space itself bent and warped around them. Medusalith realized that her power was running away from her, every attempt to rein it in was a failure. Medusalith and Medusa were treated to a film reel of all the doubts the Midnight King has had. From the day he accidentally killed his parents to the Black Eulogy where the cracks had formed, and the final scream of the Midnight King to bring down an empire.

Medusa and Black Bolt's relationship could be described in many ways, but unorthodox stood above the others. Most people would say a relationship relied heavily on communication, but how does a man doomed to silence communicate, how does a wife who deigns to hear her husband's voice and speak from across a table handle such a thing. The answer is not always well, a normal couple would already find this difficult. But for the King and Queen of the Inhuman Kingdom who are far from normal, it is even more so. When superpowers, superheroes, intergalactic empires, and all manner of supernatural are involved. It becomes far more than the word difficult could define. They've faced many tribulations and trials throughout their time, occasionally they found their way back to each other, and other times they saw separation as the only way.

Above all what Medusa always wanted was a way to communicate with her husband and not the king. To understand him not by the most minuscule of actions and expressions or telepathy, but to hear him say the words those actions expressed. But watching the film reel-like display of his deepest and before now unknown to her innumerable doubts, she accepted once and for all that they would never have that. As the reel seem to be ending Medusalith stared at Black Bolt both surprised and abhorred, while Medusa watched him with tears in her eyes.

Finally, though only a quick flash Medusa caught sight of the time she was mind-controlled by Maximus, the time when Black Bolt found her with Johnny, and when he came to know of her relationship with Gorgon. Medusalith in one last attempt to hurt Medusa had a few indistinct figures appear beside her. Abruptly, Medusa was brought to her knees, tears streaking madly from her face. Beyond doubt, Medusa felt despair, a sudden sense of betrayal, and disgust. The moment those images appeared Medusalith took the opportunity to get help and link Black Bolt and Medusa so she could experience everything he felt at those times.

The reel came to an end and Medusalith stood looking down at Medusa who had crumpled to her knees, and Black Bolt who remained motionless shedding a single tear.

"Do you understand now? You hurt people and don't even care. You brush it off and call it the past like it doesn't matter anymore. It does matter, if you can hurt him so bad, who not even we could influence then imagine what you did to Luna. You made her betray her home, almost destroy it, and now you all act as if nothing happened. Did you think she'd forget that? That she wouldn't blame herself? You people all hurt-"

"Komera enough," a familiar voice shook the space, interrupting Medusalith.

A door appeared and an unexpected figure emerged from it.

Black Bolt and a tearful Medusa stood together, though Medusa kept a distance from him. They were both shocked and curious as to why their niece had appeared here and that she seemed to know the girl they were now sure was an imposter of a younger Medusa.

"Luna," Medusalith trembled and shrank back, surprising Black Bolt and Medusa once again.

"Komera, you've gone too far. First show yourself then wait there we need to talk," Luna chided.

Medusalith's, or Komera as that seemed to be her actual name, shoulders slumped. Her body then contracted and expanded before growing to the average height of a teenage girl and showed many animal-like traits like a tail and horns.

"I'm sorry, it was kind of my fault," Luna said to Black Bolt and Medusa, " My power has been getting stronger and now I'm connected to these guys, and well they've been alone for a long time and wanted to protect me. So when I tried to help you Komera kind of got through and well, she was pretty upset for me."

"So this is all part of your powers," Medusa asked while wiping her eyes and face of tears.

"Yes, I can probably wake you both up but I'll need to stay so I can learn more."

"Let us stay for a bit longer there are some things we need to talk about," Black Bolt said.

"Okay, you can walk through this door to wake up when you're ready," Luna said before turning to Komera, "Come on we need to get back to the others we'll talk there."

Black Bolt and Medusa watched Luna and Komera leave. Once she was gone, they stood in silence beside each other.