Sue Storm Meets Malice While

In her sleep, Sue Storm hugged the pillow with Karla Sofen's face tight. She wasn't wearing panties. Her bare labia rubbed against the fabric. The heat and friction released chemicals that were swiftly absorbed by skin and mucous membranes. Her cheek rubbed against the printed image, breathing in brain-altering chemicals, not too different from certain psychoactive ****.

Dreams found Sue Storm in a bed the color of rose petals. The warm body of Dr. Stone pressed against hers. The other woman's mouth on her neck. Sue opened her eyes and found that the top of the bed was covered with mirrors. She watched herself in the reflection, pinned beneath the body of the other woman.

Only the reflection that stared back at her had a different expression. A leering smile. The other-Sue pushed Dr. Stone aside, and Sue found herself rising toward the mirrored surface. A shadow fell across the reflection's face, and the Invisible Woman stared into the masked face of an old, familiar nightmare.

"Malice," Sue whispered. "But...you were gone!"

"I'm a part of you," Malice whispered, her voice huskier than Sue's. "The part of you that you repress, try to forget. All the impulses you push down, all the trauma you try to forget. I'm your hunger, your pain, the name and voice you give to all the parts of you that you have to ignore to be the perfect heroine, wife, and mother."

Sue hovered just beneath the mirrored surface now. Her nipples and those of her doppelganger almost touched.

"But something woke me up. You can feel it too, can't you? That doctor. She's manipulating you. Stirring your ****. Trying to unleash your inhibitions. Unleash me."

Malice's smile was hungry.

"No," Sue said, with unexpected strength. "She's trying to help me, to..."

Bits of memory played back. The odd little lapses during her sessions with Dr. Stone. The way her eyes seemed to glow sometimes. The odd familiarity of her face. A sudden realization as Sue realized when and where she had seen her before.

"Moonstone," Sue said, as the last piece clicked into place.

"That's right," Malice said. "A part of you already knew. Me. It just took this long for you to realize it. For your subconscious and conscious mind to reach that equilibrium where I could show you. She's manipulating us. The only question is: what are we going to do about it?"

Sue stared at her other-self. The dark personality she thought she had banished forever.

"What do you want?" Sue asked.

"I want to help," Malice said. "I'm a part of you. I've always been a part of you. There was a time when you accepted your desires more openly, and I went away then? Do you remember? When you dressed like you wanted? When you thought Reed was dead, and took control of the Fantastic Four? I helped you then. I can help you now. If you let me."

It felt like negotiating with herself. Sue Storm knew the risks. Yet she also felt the truth, the logic to Malice's words. Did she dare to continue to deny her darker side, and maybe wake up with no memory of Moonstone's treacherous plot? Or did she embrace Malice, and all the changes that would come with it?