Chapter 39 Rehashing Old Wounds
When Gwen woke up, she saw the ceiling of the warehouse where she and Alex usually train.
[Alex…] Gwen remembered what happened and had a guilty tone as she called out to him.
[It\'s time to train Gwen. We have a 6-hour session today.] Alex wasn\'t exactly happy with her conduct and she was going to be punished.
"No!" Her eyes widened in horror as she exclaimed in denial. 3 Hours was already pushing her limits and going that far for 6 hours was going to be almost impossible for her.
[Oh, yes. And I\'ll make sure that you keep going even no matter what. Now get up.] She felt an electric- shock go through the length of her spine.
"Alex!" She shouted as she jumped up in her spot. Even though she\'d unlocked the bio-electricity, she wasn\'t completely immune to electricity. She was just highly resistant. High-intensity jolts could still shock her.
[Chop chop.] He was merciless.
Gwen quickly understood her situation and started working as the suit wrapping around her got heavier and heavier until it reached 21 tons of pure force pushing down on her. She didn\'t even have the time to sigh as she started her grueling training.
6 hours later, when it was almost midnight.
"You can rest now," Alex told her while standing in front of her after the sparring session. His words were a literal lifesaver for Gwen and she instantly flopped down on the ground. Alex was generous enough to form the bed before she fell down.
Although her body was perfectly fine, her mental state was far from it. She was quite literally dead tired mentally.
Before he could say anything more to her, Gwen was already out like a light.
\'Guess no reward for you today…\' Alex was disappointed that he wouldn\'t be able to fuck Gwen tonight.
\'Unless… No, she has classes.\' He had a devious idea but denied it.
\'Tomorrow is Friday though… Maybe the day after.\' He was still considering it.
Alex chuckled evilly as he took control of Gwen\'s body and brought her back to her apartment to let her rest well.
She was going to be in for a surprise when she woke up on Saturday morning.
…
"Ugh…" Gwen woke up groggily, feeling like she was really tired. This was the first time this had happened ever since she\'d bonded with Alex. He\'d always made sure that she always got a perfect sleep.
[Alex? What\'s going on?] She was scared since she\'d always felt Alex\'s presence every morning, which made her feel really comfortable. She\'d gotten used to it after weeks of having him with her.
[Why did you freeze?] Alex had an idea about her reasoning for freezing at that crucial moment, but he still wanted to hear it from her mouth.
[What do you mean?] Gwen didn\'t understand and responded with her own question.
[You know damn well what I\'m talking about, Gwen.] He said calmly.
[I\'m sorry, okay? I-I just saw that lizard face and-and I got scared. I couldn\'t hit him.] Gwen said with a guilty tone. [And you punished me enough… 6 hours of that brutal torture.] Gwen shuddered as she spat at him in an angry tone.
[It gets results.] Alex had a nonchalant tone.
[You electrocuted me every time I stopped for more than 3 seconds!] Gwen snapped and mentally screamed at him with anger.
[It worked wonders for your strength. Your strength increased by around 8% after a single day\'s training. Even your bio-electricity got stronger. And it was supposed to be punishment. Did you expect me to tie you up and fuck you roughly? That would\'ve been a reward.] He didn\'t react to her flaring anger and replied calmly, [Back to my question. Why did you freeze?]
[I just told you.] She was still angry but she knew that she was in the wrong yesterday. She knew that he already didn\'t like her holding back too much all the time, but she ended up freezing yesterday.
He\'d allowed her to hold back all she wanted, but not at the expense of her safety. Her freezing was exactly something that put her at risk.
[The truth this time.] At this point, he\'d completely guessed the reason, but he still wanted to hear it from her own mouth.
[Come on, Alex. Don\'t make me say it…] Gwen almost pleaded with him. Alex was silent. She was running away from her trauma. Although Alex had allowed her to hold back as she wished, he still wanted to help her resolve her underlying trauma from killing someone just because she didn\'t hold back enough.
Gwen sighed as she started telling him, [W-when he injected himself… I saw Peter\'s face when I looked at him. I couldn\'t hit him. How could I hit him? After what I did to my best friend, I can\'t hurt Harry too. Especially if he used the same way to empower himself.] Gwen was tearing up as she spoke.
[And if someone comes up to you with Peter\'s face and tells you that you must kill yourself to atone for your crimes?] Alex asked.
"I-I…" Gwen was tongue-tied. She couldn\'t say anything.
[Exactly… I\'m on your side, Gwen. I care about you. You\'re my partner and I can\'t see you torture yourself like that. It\'s time to move on.] He lightly told her as he went silent after that. He was planning to give her some space to think.
Gwen didn\'t say anything as she seemed to be deep in thought. She was feeling all kinds of emotions right now. Anger, sadness, fury, melancholy. All kinds of conflicting feelings were going through her mind.
She got out of bed and mentally asked Alex to change her clothes and he did it without saying anything. He\'d been choosing what she would wear for a while now and she was used to it, especially since he had very good taste and she liked the outfits that he made for her. Though he was still silent and didn\'t say anything to her. Gwen felt some heartache when she realized that he wasn\'t talking to her but understood that he was giving her space as she needed to sort her thoughts out.
She went by her day normally as she went to college after eating breakfast with her dad.
…
"Hey, Gwen!" Gwen was called out by a voice that made her freeze in her spot. She had been walking out of college and was about to go for her shift at the Dollar Dog.
"Harry?" Gwen hesitantly called out as she turned around in the direction of the voice.
"In the flesh," Harry said as he walked to her. The visible veins in his neck and his lizard transformation had completely disappeared as if they were never there, but Gwen was able to tell that he was wound up from their fight yesterday.
"Oh my god! Where have you been? For two years you completely cut off all contact…" Gwen had to act like she was surprised about Harry\'s arrival.
"I know. I know…" Harry had a sad smile on his face.
"Where have you been?" That was something that Gwen desperately wanted to know. She wanted to know how he got access to all these technologies.
"Well… Where do I even start?" Harry looked a little hesitant.
"The beginning." Gwen looked at him seriously.
"Well, it\'s a long story. We should take a seat," Harry said.
"Sure. Now start," Gwen agreed as she brought him to a nearby bench.
"Well, as you know, after my dad\'s death, I took over Oscorp. You know all that. But when the incident happened…" Harry had a venomous undertone when he mentioned the incident.
"…I couldn\'t take it. I knew that I had to do something. I ended up joining Shield. Yes, that Shield." Harry confirmed as he saw Gwen\'s expression morph into a frown.
"But then I ended up leaving Shield… More like stealing their tech and running away." Harry shook his head. That\'s how Gwen found out the source of the tech that he\'d used against him.
"Why did you do that?" Gwen\'s face had a worried frown.
"I need closure, Gwen… I have to make Spider-Woman pay." Harry had determination oozing from his tone.
"Is that so? And what if she decides to surrender herself?" Gwen indeed had this idea. She\'d been thinking about it for a long time. She was guilty. She knew that she was the one at fault for killing Peter.
"It\'s not enough, Gwen. She has to die. Peter also tried to surrender, but what did she do? She killed him." Harry\'s tone grew cold and unfeeling as he said those words. He\'d gotten the leftover footage from the school cameras and knew much of the situation.
"Is that so…" Gwen knew that the situation wasn\'t going to be changed. She didn\'t think to question him about the source of his information and how it was so accurate.
"I should go. I just came to talk to you since I don\'t think I\'ll have the chance to meet you again. The police and Shield are both after me…" With those words, Harry left and Gwen didn\'t stop him, deep in her own thoughts.
[What do I do, Alex?] She asked in her mind but didn\'t receive an answer.
Feeling tears gathering in her eyes, Gwen left. She got up and made her way to the Dollar Dog for her shift. She had an early shift today.
***
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