“Is he really worth less than your own precious ego?”
“Why, Victor? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Because you told people I'd made a mistake. You told them the accident was my miscalculation... and that, dear trash, was an insult to my honor.”
“Besides, we're talking about a super-advanced society that's been hidden from man for over ten thousand years, Ben. Victor would have given his eye teeth to see a place like Attilan.”
“Yeah, well. Sorry for not being Doctor Doom, bud.”
You think I have university friends?! You're the only classmate of mine I even keep in touch with! You're my greatest enemy and you're the only one here I have anything in common with!
“Can I tell you something? I am not mad at you. I want you to know that. I'm actually, in a way, very excited about this new life. And I'm not scared. And, and I want you to know- we'll get through it together. If- if that's what you want. If you want.”
“We have to find Victor.”
“Indeed, and appropriate to my mother's forgiving spirit, this is a holiday where each Latverian is required to reach out to someone he has wronged. As I now reach out to you.”
“How can I refuse?”
And finally, I remove us both from the astral plane, forever sealing it from him. The two of return to Latveria-- To the battlefield.
“Victor... please...”
He begs for mercy. Richards begs for my mercy.
I correct him for his hubris against his emperor. I move him into an infinitely iterated fractal dimension, where every cell of his body is stretched farther and farther... So far, in fact, that they can no longer be traditionally measured.
“Then nothing more remains to be said! We must always be foes!”
“Drink, Richards! I weary of this talk! I ache to smash you... to drive your accursed face from my memory forever!”
“I regret that things could not have been different. You could have given the world so much.”
“The world which made me an outcast? The world which rejected me? What do you know of the world? What does anyone know?”
“What? Come on. She's got a good thing going with Victor-”
“I'm sorry, did that cosmic-bath loosen your screws?”
“He's smart, he's powerful, he's successful-”
“Maybe you should date him, then.”
“Ben...”
You still have a chance, Reed. Go on, save me. Do not think for a moment I shall have a rest until I have what is rightfully mine. Here's to the future, my friend.
“Reed! Help me! We were friends, once.”
“Hang on, Victor.“
“See? You have not the courage to strike the final blow, do you?! Just as ten years ago, you failed in our moment of triumph. You betrayed me! Colossus was to be ours, together! and now, it stands between us.”