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Chapter Fifteen: Hatred Of A Minute

Music is "Galaxy" by Dan & Deryn Cullen.

Picture is Jane Levy as Glory Northern with unknown as Morgana Summers from Suburgatory.

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

"Years of love have been forgot,
In the hatred of a minute."

- Edgar Allan Poe

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

Chapter Fifteen

Of all the people we rescued, Vision was in the worst shape, far worse than we realized. The Next Gen. Mutants were dazed, drugged, and weak; the scientists were exhausted from work, but poor Vision. He had been tampered with. Cap said they found him strung up like a scarecrow in the center of Genosha's operations building. He had wires hooked up to him and a variety of machinery attached to him. Luckily, they were able to dismantle him without damaging him, but one thing was noticeably changed: the Mind Stone.

His power source, everything that makes Vision, Vision. The Mind Stone not only stores his memory, gives him his life, personality, and powers, but it also holds deep secrets into the Infinity Stones and the universe itself. If one were to unlock such a power, who knows what terrors Magneto could unleash upon the world.

It had been cracked.

Wanda is terrified, but is hiding her horror under a mask of anger. The rest of us are just trying to figure out what the hell Magento would do with the Mind Stone. While the X-Men are conversing with the scientists as to what they were working on for Magneto, and the Avengers are trying to fix Vision, I am walking back and forth between my team of Next Gen. Mutants.

"You guys scared the hell out of us," I say, patching up a gash on Morgana's forehead. I gently apply an anaesthetic to ease the pain and place a bandage on top.

Her big, blue eyes look up at me. "We started to think you weren't going to come for us,"she sniffs, wiping her nose with the back of her sweatshirt sleeve.

My eyes soften and I sit beside her on the bed, hugging her to me. "You should have known better. Of course we'd come."

"How did you find us?" Cole asks, standing beside us. The five of us are huddled on two beds, facing each other. Needless to say, they're still terrified. Have each other near helps them cope.

"The X-Men, actually," I reply, nodding over to Logan in the other room. "Professor X said he knew of a place called Genosha were Magneto was making an army of some sort. We weren't so great on the details, but I'm not from around here." I chuckle. "In my world, I read the comics and I knew of Genosha, it's location, it's defenses, it's purpose. I helped find you."

"Thank you," Morgana mumbles, leaning against me.

"He offered to let us join him," Katie whispers, looking into her hands. "He said we'd be free from the persecution that Stark is creating."

"Katie, he lies-"

"-He offered us a home, Glory," she says, firmly, looking up at me from the bed opposite Morgana and I. "He offered us a safe haven and a family. Do you know what happened to my family?" Tears are in her eyes.

I nod my head. "I do. I didn't want to bring it up without your consent."

"They drowned," she says, tears finally falling. "They drowned because I couldn't control my powers. I can breathe underwater, but I flooded the house... I couldn't stop..." Her fists clench and she closes her eyes.

"I thought you had a family here," I reply. "I thought we were close-"

"-Magneto promised us absolute control over our powers," Roran says, looking at Katie. "I almost took him up on his offer as well. If it weren't for Cole telling us not to..."

"That was the dumbest idea ever," Cole says, thrusting his hands upwards to show angst. "He's a super villain. Super villains don't have good intentions. Only their own, in the end."

"Who is to say Magneto doesn't have our best interests at heart?" Katie retorts, glaring at Cole. "He's one of us! He's one of us, Glory-"

My laughter cuts her off. "Sweetheart, trust me. He is nothing like us. If he were, I'd be very concerned." I pause. "You guys have to trust me on this. Erik Lensherr is bad news. He will use his own children to get his way. I've seen it multiple times."

"He was nice," Morgana whispers. "I don't like it, but he was nice. My cousin, Scott, says not to trust him."

"Your cousin is a smart man."

"My great uncle is Charles Xavier," Roran says, "and you don't see me walking around trusting his every word, do you? Grow up, Morgana-!"

"-Watch it," Cole growls. "Don't talk to her that way."

"Guys," I shout, bringing the testosterone levels down. "We are not going to have our own Civil War. We can't afford that. We have to stick together." I take a deep breath. "Now, do any of you remember anything about being in Genosha? I know that the majority of the time you were in stasis, but anything at all could be helpful."

The four look perplexed. "When we arrived, we were offered a chance to join him," Cole recalls. "Then we were split up. Roran and I went to one chamber, and Katie and Morgana to another. In ours, we were... de-powerized somehow."

"They took your powers away?" I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "How?"

"An injection of some sorts."

I groan, shutting my eyes in frustration. "I think I know how." I turn to Katie. "Were there other mutants with you?"

She nods. "Dozens. We couldn't really get a good look. The girl with the green hair had us injected and then put in stasis before we could even attempt to escape."

I nod. "Polaris. Anything else you can remember? Anything at all?" I look to the others.

They all shake their heads. "We were there for maybe an hour, then the next thing we know, we're waking up to Cap and company pulling us out."

I stand and smile at them. "Get some rest, and thank you for sharing. We won't let him get away with this, I promise. You're safe now." I walk out of the room as they shut off their lights.

"Glory?" Morgana's high, soft voice asks.

I turn and look at the blonde girl. "Yes, sweetie?"

"Where's Vlad?"

A blank look comes across my face. "I don't know. He flew off right before Magneto took you, and we haven't seen him sense."

"So he wasn't taken?" she asks in relief.

I nod and smile. "No, he wasn't."

She sighs, resting back down in her small bed. "Good. I miss him."

"Me, too."

I exit the room, closing the door behind me, and bump into Cap on my way to the hospital room where Wanda and some.of the other Avengers are with Vision. Cap's face us sullen and upset. "How are they?"

"Shaken up," I admit, "but they'll be just fine."

"Did they tell you anything?"

"Magneto offered them a place in Genosha, but they turned him down. Some of them are regretting that decision."

He nods. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, we have a new problem."

He groans, rubbing his temples. "Shoot."

"I think Magneto has gotten a hold of a mutant who's power is to take away other mutant's powers. I've seen this before in X-Men: The Last Stand. That particular boy is safe with Charles now, but with the increase of over 2,000 mutants last year, who's to say there's not another one."

Steve nods and sighs. "Pkay, we'll deal with that later." We begin to walk down the hallway. "We got out of their way too easily," he whispers.

I shake my head, agreeing with him. "I know. Why do you think he let us go? With Genosha's defenses and his powerful people at hand, he could have blow us out of the sky all too easily, and you guys didn't stand a chance... no offense."

"He wants us to see something," Steve thinks aloud. "Or maybe we brought back a Trojan horse."

"Vision?"

He shrugs. "It makes sense. Maybe he uploaded some software into his Mind Stone. That could cause the cracking."

I smirk. "Look at you, Mister Techno-geek. Tony taught you well." My face falls. "How is Vision?"

"Not well. He's barely responding to stimuli. He's almost a blank slate."

"Has he spoken?"

He shakes his head no. "Not yet. Wanda hasn't left his side. She's trying to get into his head, but she says it's like something's blocking her. A wall of sorts."

"Forget a wall," Clint says, joining us as we walk, coffee pitcher in hand. "This guy had Windows '95 downloaded into him." He takes a long gulp from the pitcher. Steve looks at him like he's never done this before. That's a lie.

"That bad?" I chuckle, trying not to find this funny.

Clint raises his eyebrows. "Oh, sorry. I forgot that was before your time-"

"I'm a '96 baby," I scoff. "I'm not that young. You're just old, old man."

"Touché."

"Its 2021, Clinton Francis Barton," I smirk. "Get with the program."

When we enter the hospital room, the only one in our hideout in the Montana mountainside, we see Vision laid out on the gurney. His face no longer holds the personality that I've become a custom to in the android. I never knew how much life and character he had until it was just... gone.

Wanda holds his hand, sitting beside the bed. Pietro's hand in on her shoulder, his eyes glancing up at us when we enter. We exchange glances, both of us having a single thought on our minds: this cannot be good.

I turn to Nat. "Do you have any idea what's wrong with him?"

She shakes her head, looking at the readings on the machine that has done multiple scans of our friend. "I may have an 155 IQ, but I'm no genius. We have no one here even closely qualified to understand what's going on."

I bite my lower lip, trying to begin to understand the readings off Vision's charts. "What about Bucky? Does he have any training of this sort?"

"We're trained, but not on a cosmic level like this. It'd take a genius to figure this out."

A lightbulb goes off in my head. A very deadly lightbulb. "A genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

She looks up at me with confused, green eyes, but suddenly, everything clicks into place. "Glory, hell no-!"

"-It's our only shot, Nat!" I reply, jumping to my feet and rushing towards Steve.

This is not going to go well.

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

"This is the worst idea in the very long history of worst ideas," Clint says, being the first to speak after my master plan is presented to Steve, Natasha, Bucky, Pietro, Wanda, and himself.

I told you this wasn't going to go well.

"You don't understand," I say. "Tony Stark is the only one who can fix Vision. He made him. Well, he and Bruce, but if anyone can fix him, it's Tony."

"I am missing the part where we are not fighting a Civil War," Pietro replies, folding his arms over his chest and scowling. "Have you forgotten all he's done to hurt us?"

"Of course not-"

"-Or how he nearly got us all killed?"

"No, that's not what-"

"-Or the fact that he does not care what happens to us?" Pietro nearly shouts. "Tony Stark killed my parents, and nearly killed my sister and I. He then proceeded to create a monster that killed me. We gave him another chance, and he again turned on us. Now we not only have to run from Magneto, but the American government as well."

"Americans," Wanda mutters, spitefully.

"I understand all that, Pietro," I say, glaring at him. "I say we negotiate a ceasefire just long enough for Vision to be repaired. We can give him something in return."

"Like what?" Natasha asks from the other corner of the room. "He wants us all either locked up or signed up. What could we offer him?"

I pause. "I will surrender to the authorities. I'll go to the Negative Zone, where they're keeping all the other non-compliant supers."

"No," Pietro interrupts. "Absolutely not. You are pregnant for God's sake!"

"I'm going to have these twins any day now. I'll agree to go only after they're born."

"Glory, you said yourself that they will never let you go, ever," Pietro reminds me, eyes wide with fear.

"No," Steve says, speaking for the first time since my idea. "We're not giving Tony anyone or anything. We won't play his game."

"So, you will let Vision die?" Wanda argues, looking at Steve like he's a mad man. "I do not like the idea anymore than you, but what other choice do we have? I will go instead of Glory. It is my duty as Vision's-"

"-Have all of you lost your fucking minds?" Bucky says in a calm voice, despite his words. "I'm with Steve on this one-"

"-Surprise, surprise-"

"-And no one is going to turn themselves over."

"Okay," I say. "What's Plan B, Barnes? I assume you have one." I gesture to him with my hands. "No, please. Don't keep us waiting." When Bucky doesn't answer, I just shake my head. "Steve, we're running out of options. Without knowing what happened to Vision, we're back to square one. He might even be dangerous. We have no clue. Maybe talking to Tony about this and getting his help will help us heal our wounds and reunite as one team."

"She has a point, Rogers," Nat admits. "An enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Steve doesn't hesitate to say, "No, Natasha. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. On no grounds does that make us friends." He pauses and turns to me. "You are not going to hand yourself over, Glory. No one is... but we will try to talk to Tony."

"How do you propose we do that?" Pietro asks.

"I have an idea for that, too," I reply, "but we're going to need a little help from Professor X."

END CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

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