goes after this scene and before this basically: the Alex of the world that OG!Alex ended up in became an avatar but at a fucking high cost

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“Matt—Mattie. What. Do you mean. By ‘I flew away’?”

Clearly there was something the other wasn’t telling him.

“You… you just—you just did!” the bluenette rambled, looking wild-eyed for a few moments. “Especially after you told me that the more you—well, your other self—used that, it was…”

“It was what?” he prompted, looking at the other, wondering what the hell he was on about.

“Alex, you told me that the more you used that power, the one that gave you—well, the other you, this—” Mattie stammered as he pulled out the purple-tipped green feather again, “…the more you used it, the more your body was deteriorating!”

“Wait. Wait, wait, wait a second, Mattie, what the hell are you saying—”

“Don’t you get it, Alexei?!” he finally snapped, standing to his full height—alas he would always be shorter than him, so the effect was ruined somewhat.

“The more your other self used that ‘wind power’, the more it was killing you from the inside!”

Those words made the blonde stop dead.

“Are you telling me—”

“That when you and that—that purple and green genie—”

“It’s djinni, Mattie, get it right—”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, that when that genie granted you his power, it also came at a terrible price!”

The silence that followed was so absolute, one could hear a pin drop.

“What?” he managed to stammer out after the quiet had settled.

“That’s exactly it! You—the other you—told me that you did succeed, but there was a cost! And I would always, always warn you not to overexert yourself because we found out what that side-effect was when you failed to save Ethan! That’s why Claire’s so fucking mad at you!”

“Oh, my god don’t tell me I killed—”

“It—it wasn’t your fault. I saw what happened, but Claire just went into this spiral of denial so she fucking hates your guts. Because the building-eater got him, and you went after that building-eater, and you tried to save him but…”

“…I failed to.”

The bluenette could only nod.

“I—I mean, I know it’s not you, b-but… yeah.”