It was almost midnight. Sophist materialized in Jen's apartment with his hands held up, visible and empty. She-Hulk was on him in seconds. She was sitting on her couch, still in her She-Hulk form when he arrived. Without hesitation she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall.
"Wrong fucking apartment," she growled.
"Jennifer...wait...I'm not here to test you or do anything of the sort. I just want to talk," Sophist said, keeping his hands raised without struggling.
"You don't get to just walk in here and 'talk'..." she replied, pulling her fist back, ready to cave in his skull.
"I see you were already transformed when I arrived," Sophist said quickly.
She stopped, her fist still raised and her hands still gripped tight on his throat.
"What?"
"It's almost midnight and you're home alone and you're She-Hulk. That's new. You told Marcus it makes you feel disconnected from civilian life," Sophist continued, his voice calm but strained.
"How do you know what I told..."
"I study my subjects. What can I say? This isn't one of my games. This is coming from a place of concern. I believe it's partly my fault that you're spiralling, and that's because I only focused on you and not your surroundings," Sophist interrupted, looking at Jen directly.
"Concern. You? The man who's been destroying my life is now... concerned?" she replied, staring at him.
"Yes."
"Fuck your concern. Give me one reason I shouldn't just snap your neck right now," she said, tightening her grip around his throat.
"Because then you would be proving them right. That you are indeed a monster and that's all you'll ever be, and I don't think you want to prove them right," Sophist answered.
She-Hulk held him for another moment before releasing him and stepping back, her fists clenched.
"You have five minutes."
"Fair enough. Can we sit?" Sophist asked, straightening his suit and rubbing his throat.
"No."
"I guess we'll stand then. How long have you been staying in this form?" Sophist questioned, moving towards the apartment window.
"That's none of your business."
"Three days now. You're afraid to power down because you think Jen is the mask and She-Hulk is what you really are," Sophist replied, turning around to look at her again.
"Get out."
"Titania used to be just like Jennifer Walters. She was invisible all her life until she gained her strength. Both of you are using your newfound powers to compensate for your feeling of inadequacy. You're convincing yourself the version that gets the most attention and parties with the Avengers is the real one," Sophist continued.
"I said get out," She-Hulk interrupted aggressively, moving towards Sophist.
"First answer a question. When was the last time Jennifer Walters was real to you?" Sophist asked.
"Every day. I'm Jen, who just so happened to gain..." she started to answer.
"When was the last time? Specifically, what moment, in what context? When was the last time Jennifer Walters was real?" Sophist interrupted.
She-Hulk didn't answer because she couldn't. She couldn't remember the last time she was Jen and felt real. That she wasn't wearing a costume.
"That's what I thought," Sophist said quietly.
"What do you want from me? You've already broken me. You've already exposed me. You're already proving to everyone I'm exactly what they say, so why are you here?" Jen replied, her voice slightly cracking.
"I'm here because I broke you, and I need to help to fix you before you destroy what's left," Sophist responded.
"You can't fix me."
"No, I can't. That's up to you. What I can do, though, is understand what the problem is," Sophist explained.
"Why do you care?"
"I see a part of myself in you. We both are questioning which version of us is real. I've been watching you spiral and saw what would be my future, and I've been refusing to notice it because giving it attention hurts too much. But that's exactly why I must confront it," Sophist answered.
"I'm nothing like you."
"You are, and that's the problem. We're both going to lose control if we don't just talk. I pushed you past your breaking points but didn't account for the fact that you already were breaking," Sophist replied.
"So this is what? An apology?"
"It's me admitting that I fucked up, and this is me trying to help before you make a mistake," answered Sophist.
"What mistake?"
"To choose one identity and let it consume you because that's what the world expects from you," Sophist answered.
She-Hulk stood and watched him, wary but listening. She finally sat down across the room.
"They're not the same person. Jennifer and She-Hulk. They're different. One is weak and the other is strong. One matters and the other doesn't," Jen replied quietly.
"Which one matters?"
"She-Hulk obviously. She's the one people see and praise. The one who goes out there and saves lives. The one who..." Jen started to answer.
"Who lost control? She-Hulk is powerful, but is she better?" Sophist interrupted.
"She's stronger."
"That's not the same thing. Jennifer is a lawyer who graduated top of her class, and her career was on the rise. She's intelligent. She-Hulk is a hero who punches things. Both are valuable and just as real as each other, but neither is more important," Sophist replied, leaning forward.
"Jen is weak..."
"Jen survived getting shot and nearly dying. Jen survived a blood transfusion that should have killed her. You became something you never asked to be and built a life out of it anyway. That's resilience. Strength comes in different forms," Sophist interrupted.
"When I'm Jen, I feel small. Like I could disappear and nobody would notice," She-Hulk admitted, looking away.
"Titania felt the same, but her power hasn't fixed anything. Her body may have changed, but not her psychology," Sophist replied.
"So what, I'm supposed to just accept feeling invisible?" Jen asked.
"You're supposed to accept that both versions are you and both are real. The division between the two is simply something you yourself created. It's artificial. The question is can they be integrated together instead of just choosing one?" Sophist responded.
"I don't know how."
"Neither do I. That's up to us, not the people around us," Sophist admitted.
Silence fell between them.
"Why are you doing all this?"
"Because I recruited Titania."
"You what? So now you just disappear after warning me?" Jen yelled, staring at him.
"That was the plan... Yes," Sophist replied, getting ready to leave.
"If they're both real, how do I... How do I stop feeling like I have to choose?" Jen asked, stopping him from leaving.
"You accept that the transformation is still the same person with different contexts and expressions," Sophist answered, turning back.
"That's not how it feels."
"That's because you've spent years treating them separately. The division between them is just a story you tell yourself," Sophist replied.
"What if I can't? What if I'm already too broken?" Jen asked.
"Then you deal with that, but you don't solve it by choosing to let one identity consume you," Sophist answered.
"Thank you for being honest and trying to help," Jen said.
"I wouldn't thank me yet."
Sophist dissapeared and left Jen alone in her apartment, thinking about his words. She looked at her hands. She walked to the mirror and powered down for the first time in days.
She was mending. One step at a time.