A D Tier's Breaking Point

Chapter 36

From inside the lair no one would know that Antartica was blindingly white from the sun's rays. No, the natural sunlight couldn't get this deep and all power going to the lights was long gone. It wasn't a problem for Alex, not caring that his night vision was casting everything into greys. Every step he took kicked a thick layer of dust off the floor, and he barely paid attention to the debris littering the room. The whole place had been emptied, not a wire left behind. At any other time this would have been a slap in the face, but all Alex could imagine was Morgan going through the base, extracting everything piece by piece, with black eyes and a stony expression. Ordering around their minions, or Alex's minions, seeing as they worked for Morgan now. In Alex's mind, their expression was as cold as the icy concrete that threatened to peel away Alex's skin with every touch, and harder than the shakanium pillars poking through the eroded and collapsed walls.

It was cold here. Cold enough to freeze a person's blood. Not cold enough for Alex to care about, he could make himself warm enough without even thinking. Without trying. He would have to actively think to turn that power off here he realised. Morgan would be upset if he did that though, so he let go of that thought pretty quickly. He couldn't hurt Morgan again. Not again.

Alex slumping against the nearest wall and sliding down to curl up into a ball. He hugged his knees, not trying to hold back the tears anymore. All he could think about was Morgan's face when Alex returned, the suspicion and denial. And then Morgan's breakdown at the farm, the way they clung and sobbed into Alex's chest. The nightmares, their lunch earlier, Morgan's new obsession with security and protection.

And he remembered the day he died. Morgan walking in like they always did, and Alex was wracking his brain for a clue or a hint that he missed. Before the Morgan in his memory raised their hand and snapped. Alex could have counted the milliseconds between the snaps in his memory, every millisecond a moment he could have acted and didn't. Now, sitting in his abandoned lair, Alex could think of a thousand responses he could have done between the first two snaps. And another thousand before the third. There was no excuse he could make for this, Barnaby was right. I should have done something. I should have stopped it.

There was a flash of energy in the middle of the room Alex was huddled in, and Alex looked up in alarm. Even without the colour he could recognise the familiar shape of Morgan, who was looking around panicked. 'Shit,' they hissed, 'I forgot about the lights.'

'What are you doing here?' Alex croaked.

Morgan spun around, looking around the room to try and find Alex with no luck. 'Alex? Please tell me that's you.'

Alex sniffed, 'You didn't need to come after me.'

Morgan sighed, slumping in relief at Alex's voice, and made a precarious step closer, 'Yeah well, I wasn't going to let you mope alone. Although can you do something about the lights? I went for a heat shield instead of anything light based.'

'Just go home.'

'Great idea. Just take my hand and we'll head back.' Morgan stretched out their hand into the dark.

'I'm staying here,' Alex said.

'Okay, then I'll hang out here too.'

'No you're not,' Alex scowled and looked up. Morgan had made a couple of steps closer, their hands out feeling blindly in the empty air. Alex sighed, 'Stop that. If you touch the walls you're going to get ice burn from the cold.'

'Then put up a light.'

'You put up a light, or better yet go home.'

Morgan sighed, 'I'm not leaving you alone Alex. And...well the bracers can only manifest one power at a time. I'd have to drop the heat shield to try and summon anything that casts light. And it's tricky to create and maintain fire when it's this cold.' They turned their arm, a panel on the bracers glowing as Morgan tapped at it to read some figures. 'And based on the temperature in this room outside the heat shield, rapid onset hypothermia is very likely if I drop this for even a second. Which I could do, but I don't fancy losing any toes.'