Alex was sitting in the chair in his private room, he looked out the window at the sky, then he looked back to his bed. In it was the silhouette of a person sleeping.
"Its weird, if this were some typical novel and I was a reader, I would no doubt be cursing the author right now about not having sex with Peggy Carter. Guest this is the difference when you get to spend time with your heroes. You get to know them, and that changes everything." Alex said quietly to himself.
He knew he wasn't a nice person, hell there was a shit load of things he could've done to make it easier or place himself in a better position. But at every turn, he made his choice, like not sleeping with his friend Peggy, especially if she was in an emotionally vulnerable place. The loss of Steve had hit everyone hard, even him and he knew that he was still alive! Peggy got it worst, not only did she and Steve become lovers, she was drowning in guilt in losing her one true love.
It wasn't like she couldn't find someone else, But the connection they had was unique and damn near impossible to replace. In a way, he found himself jealous of the bond they shared. He had contemplated moving in on Peggy after Steve was KIA, but every time he just came back to the memory of the night, that Steve told him that he found his soul mate, the right partner, as he liked to say about Peggy.
When Steve eventually returned, it would be a dick move in telling him he nailed Peggy, not because he truly loved her, but to satisfy his own lust and envy. Besides, with time he'd come to see her as Steve's woman, the one he was honor-bound to protect and look after. Not that she needed it, since for most problems she was more than qualified in taking care of it herself.
No, his thoughts turned more toward changing the fate of these two star-crossed lovers that never had a chance. He wondered if he should reveal something about the serum Steve was injected with, the fact that the cold temperature in the north had a very good chance of preserving Steve. Keeping him alive in suspended animation, frozen in time waiting to be found and thawed out.
Or maybe giving her the serum, but a more tame version of it. Of course, then this would change everything, her presence was a focal point in time, any change could have surprising and unexpected consequences. Giving her powers could make her a target, to be either killed off sooner or captured and use as a lab rat for anyone that wanted to create the serum.
The lure of having, your own private super soldier army, was something that had always been sought after in the marvel universe. Many had tried and failed to produce the same serum that Steve Roger receive, but some had succeeded with mix result. Like for example, one of the more successful was Spider-Man, in essence, it had worked, it just had certain added mutations to its core structure. Or the one that was injected in Bucky Barnes, which didn't give as much power as Steves version, but it came close, and the fact that it was stable was also a plus.
After that, the trend of using DNA from animal to supplement the incomplete formulas was repeated over time, until it became one of the most used versions of the formula. And on the other side of the spectrum came the more risky products, like the Extremis serum or the green goblin serum. One was a ticking time bomb, and the other would drive its user into a rage induced psychotic killing spree to all and any grievances imaginary or not.
Alex in his possession had the answer for all the instability in the formula. It had been designed in by Abraham, it was so cleverly hidden that no one had ever questioned the serum's structure from the very beginning. Everyone took one look at it and they became blind to its trap. since no one but Lawrence, Abraham and now Alexander had seen the true and complete formula. If one was to place them both side by side it would become obvious to anyone.
"But I'm pretty certain that there must be some who have figured it out. Like the high evolutionary, or maybe sinister." Alex said quietly to himself.
He left those thoughts aside. He needed to figure if he was going to interfere in Peggy's life or let her live her life as normal, with the lingering regret of losing Steve. He brought to mind the different scenes in and out of comics, tv show or movies, the reunion of Steve and Peggy, Steve meeting other women in the comics, or his romantic interest in the tv shows or movie-verse. In the comic, Steve wasn't exactly a ladies man, sure in some universes he got the girl. Hell in a few of the more hidden fanfiction he got it on with Tony, or the female version of another character oddly enough.
"In the end, what I really need to look at is, what do they want." Alex said, as he turned and looked at Peggy sleeping in his bed.
"Shit, if I want to pull this off, I won't be able to do it now. Not with the tools I have. I mean, sure I could inject her with the serum then put her on ice for the next 70 years. But that just a really fucked up idea. No, I need more resources, maybe magic could help me figure something out." Alex said, but soon a grimace made its way onto his face. He remembered his attempts at magic back in Poland, from that time he had repeated the exercise numerous times. Only to arrive at the sad conclusion, he had no talent for magic.
It was true that magic in the Marvel world could be done by anyone, even by those that had the worst talent, they would need at the longest a year for their first spell. But for someone like him, well in the Journal it had a few pages dedicates to that very subject.
Knowing if you have the talent for magic, it was a simple ritual one could do, it was usually performed by parents that wanted to know if their children had potential in magic.
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It was very user-friendly, all you needed was to carve some ruins on a piece of 100-year-old wood, you didn't even need magic to activate the ritual.
So after the runes were carved in, you needed the skull of a bird any would do, the leg bone of a dog again very flexible. You could use a wolf, fox or coyote leg bone, you didn't even have to be picky on which leg to use. Next was an egg, again it was very flexible, it could be a reptile, a bird or even fish eggs. The last item, one needed was the blood of an older family member, usually, this was done by a parent. If not then a drop of blood from an elder in the family, hell you could go for a second cousin if they were older than the one the ritual was being used on.
After all that, you called out the spell, which in a way, was the hardest part, and then drop a little bit of your blood in the middle of the carving in the wood, surrounded by all the other material.
Then if you had any magic potential, well let's rate it by numbers to make it easier. On a scale of 1 to 10, one being where it would just be simpler if you did something else, anything really instead of magic. And ten being, oh my god, you are magic. Alex was a 1, and the average person on the street usually had a 3 or 4. So let compare the two in a more practical setting, if someone with 3 or 4 were to practice magic, like the kind Dr. Strange does, it would take them a year for their first spell at the longest. The higher the number the faster the results. On the other hand, someone with 1 would need 10 years just to begin to feel magic, and that was with a lot of meditation and focus, and another 10 years to cast their first spell.
In the past, there had been some stubborn mages who had 1 as a talent potential but decided to continue their study in magic. But here is the thing, magic can take years to master, and once you begin to manipulate those energies, the caster can prolong their lifespan so that they can have more time to study. In no way does that make them immortal, just longer living, like a two hundred years longer life span. Of course, that was if one didn't do anything to manipulate one's life, like say make a pact with a demon or feed off of a powerful dimensional being in order to grant yourself immortality.
The point was, for someone with a power of one, by the time they would finally get enough magical energy to do anything to prolong their life, they would already be in their 80s, and that was if they had begun when they were 10 years old. If you started at 20 or even 30, then chances are you would have died of old age before you could even begin to enjoy the fruits of all those years spent slowly edging your way up, from novice to expert, not even able to reach the master rank of magic mastery.
"To interfere or not, is going to have to wait. Right now, even if I wanted to, I have no real viable way of doing anything." Alex said, as he released a sigh. He kept looking out the window and he watched as the night passed by, and the sun came out to greet the new day.
Peggy woke up later that day, she expressed her embarrassment in falling asleep in his house and using his bed to rest in. Alex just waved it off as an impromptu sleepover. After a good breakfast, he sent her off on her way to California, for her new journey in her quest to fight all the bad guys in the world.
Peggy found it funny, as she left in a much better mood then she had arrived in. The burning of Steve's blood was a way to make peace with a part of herself that she knew would never really heal. After that night she had a feeling that no matter the man she met, Steve would always be the one she compared them to, it wasn't fair to others, or even healthy for herself. It just was the only way she could function, no matter what she did, short of losing her memory, she would never forget her Captain America, her dear beloved Steve Rogers.
Alex drained his tenth cup of coffee, earlier Henry and all the other staff had voiced their disproval of him forgoing sleep in order to return down to his lab. But he couldn't help it, he just needed a little more and all the prep work would finally be done. The years of struggle was finally nearly done, the end in sight, he couldn't just stop now because he was sleepy, besides, sleep was for the weak. And a whole bunch of other stuff that was for the weak. Ok, maybe he should sleep after the last assembly was done.
As he walked into his lab, he checked out the chamber that was the focal point of this ritual slash science experiment. The chamber greatly resembled what Abraham use on Steve, but theirs was ten tube attached to the chamber all connected to a different container.
Six of those tubes were connected to some reservoir, the size of a car battery, but inside were six different potions, that took him several trial and error to make. He had spent a great deal of resources on perfecting the potion, he'd wanted to have the best he could get for the ritual.
The other four tubes were connected to miniature generators that he'd convinced (blackmailed) Howard to make for him. Of course, after Howard had no problem stealing its designs, and selling it as his own. He got a little pissed off about that, but ultimately it didn't matter. The generators would pump enough juice out, to power a small city for three months.
On the floor under the chamber, was black ebony stone, place in a patterned to form a giant circle with different geometric shape inside. On each stone, Alex had carved runes of power. All the stones were connected by silver wires that he had placed in himself. He'd commissioned the shape of the stone to be octagons. Carving all those runes had taken a great deal of time, any mistakes and he had to start all over again.
As for the chanting of the spell, yes there was a spell to chant with all this. He had recorded his voice chanting the spell on a loop. But like earlier, he needed a second pair of hands outside, since he would be inside the chamber getting pumped full of potions and radiation. So he needed someone to turn everything on and then turn everything off, oh and also open the chamber for him when it was done.
"If I think about it, my only real option is using either Osyen or Raiza, there the only one who actually fit in both options. If they prove to be untrustworthy, I can kill them with minimal backlash. And if they choose to accept my offer then they have much to gain from it." Alex said as he left his lab.
He had just finished. The last pieces were attached, but now he needed to sleep, then make the arrangement for the final step. And he would finally gain the power he needed to better live in this world.