Music is "A Lost World" by James Paget.

Picture is Stark Tower in Avengers.

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"Child, child, do you not see?
For each of us comes
a time when we must be
more than what we are."

-Lloyd Alexander

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The trip to Stark Tower couldn't end fast enough. The whooshing of the automatic doors behind the Avengers and I was a sound I thought I'd never hear again. If it weren't for Vision's continual decay, I don't think I would have.

Tony is quick to send Vision up on a hovering machine of him from the second we walk through the door. He has him sent to his lab, where we now stand. "If you lay a single finger on him, I will make certain you never have children," were the first words Wanda said to him, eyes glowing red as she stands firm between a resting Vision and Tony.

Tony nods. "Don't worry. No harm will come to him. He was my friend, too, you know." With a sad look, Tony lead us to his lab. "Again, don't worry. I made sure no one knows you're here. You won't be arrested until we're all finished."

"I am surprised," Pietro mumbles.

"You know," Tony says in an annoyed tone of voice, "I do try to keep my word, Sonic."

Pietro crosses his arms, and I lay a hand on his shoulder, shaking my head at him. "We need him," I whisper. "No fighting."

Pietro nods, still looking at Tony suspiciously as he has the robots rest Vision on a long operating table. "We will be watching everything you do," Wanda warns Tony, standing beside her love. "I will know if any malicious thought crosses your mind."

"Sabrina, that happens at least once every five minutes," Tony smirks. "Don't take it seriously. Even my mind is sarcastic."

She rolls her eyes. "Do you know what's wrong with him?" Nat asks. "I saw some pretty vicious code going through his systems. I couldn't figure out what it was, but it looked familiar-"

Pietro pulls me aside, right outside the labs as Clint, Nat, Wanda, and Tony discuss Vision's situation. "What is it?" I ask, looking up at him.

"What were you and the Professor discussing when you arrived back at the Mansion?" he asks, voice low and quiet.

"He said he had some things to give me."

"What kind of things? I heard your conversation from your earpiece. Even if we do not speak over it, it records everything. I know of this other Glory and what happened to her."

I smirk. "Aren't you happy there is only one of me? Well, if you spied on my conversation, you know that he wanted to give me the diaries from Gloria. She wrote about her dreams and her interpretations. Professor Xavier thought it was time I have them in case they would come in handy."

"Did you read through them?" Pietro asks, leaning against the wall with arms crossed.

I shake my head no. "I didn't get the chance. We had to get here and get Vision fixed. I will later, though."

Pietro nods, smiling a bit at me. "Two of you, evil parents, Civil War, Superhuman Registration Acts, paradoxes, gods, aliens, parallel universes, cosmic stones, an island of mutant slaves." He sighs and leans his head against the wall, "We need a vacation."

I chuckle and take his hand in mine. "We need to get married before we have a vacation. I'm tired of being engaged. It's getting pretty old."

He laughs and kisses my forehead. "Soon, I promise. Once the twins are born and my father stops being such a mutant terrorist."

I cringe. "We might die of old age before that happens, Pietro."

"Speaking of family, when was the last time you spoke to your mother or sister?"

I groan. "Shit. I talked to them a couple times while in Montana, telling them I couldn't see them, mutant terrorists, exploding home, passing of a law that can arrest me. Blah, blah, blah, but now that I'm back in town, I really should see them. I might schedule something with... with..."

Pietro looks at me with a sly smile. "Come on. Say it. You can call her Mom, you know."

I pause, looking at our entangled fingers. "I'm afraid to, Pietro. I'm terrified of getting connected to her again, and then she letting me down." Smiling sadly up at him, I shrug. "She hurt me a lot, and I know I need to move past it, but..."

"But it is hard, da?" I nod. "It will be hard, but she is your mother. She has done a lot to get back in touch with you. And in almost two months, has she hurt you?" I shake my head no. "Give her the benefit of the doubt, Возлюбленная. She deserves that much. It does not have to be serious. Have a coffee with her, invite her and your sister to dinner, do whatever kids do these days."

I laugh. "You're technically six months younger than me now, Pietro. You're the kid. In this relationship."

He rolls his eyes. "You were nineteen when I met you, just one year ago. You think that just coming here, a world five years ahead, qualifies you to be twenty-six. That is cheating, Возлюбленная. And for the record, you are the one who eats ice-cream for breakfast and watches Tom & Jerry when you cannot sleep."

"First of all, I have perfectly food excuses! I'm pregnant. I eat everything and I can't sleep most nights. Are you pregnant? No! And second of all, that's rich coming from you! You about passed out when Wanda bought you a pair of Wheelies. I was getting skid marks out of the flooring for weeks." I stick out my tongue at him. "And you're just jealous that both Wanda and I are older than you now."

He mocks my voice and waves his hands around like an idiot. "I am pregnant! Look at me, being all moody and pregnant and using it as an excuse for everything!" We both die laughing. "My twelve minute younger twin is now my five year older sister... only in our world does that even make the slightest amount of sense." He shakes his head, trying to clear it.

"Glory, Pietro," Clint calls from the doorway, "you guys should really see this."

I playfully punch him in the arm, uttering a quick, "Older and wiser," and follow Clint into the lab once again.

Tony has Vision under several scanners, each one of them searching for different things. He's repairing several damaged plates on Visions cranium, specifically around the Mind Stone.

"My Odin," I mumble to myself, seeing Vision at a place I haven't seen him since Age of Ultron. He's vulnerable, helpless, broken. "What have you found, Tony?"

"Well," Tony starts off, looking over the data on his floating screens, "It's not good." He looks up from me to Wanda and Pietro and then back to me. "Please, don't let her kill me."

I look Wanda in the eye, giving her a pleading look. The last thing I want to be arrested for today is murder. If I'm going to be arrested, then I'll do it as a damn Avenger. She nods, understanding what I'm thinking, and lays a gentle hand on Vision's. "What did you find?" I ask.

He waves his fingers across the screens and has a large image of Vision pop up on the largest screen for us all to see. "This is Vision when he was created, nearly six years ago." He waves his fingers, and we see a different image. This one shows Vision's skeleton broken in several places, mainly around the skull area. "This is Vision today."

Wanda cringes, and Pietro walks over to her, taking her other hand. "Who would do this?"

"Your father," I mumble, astonished that even Magneto would go this far. "What... What's the damage?"

Tony points to several places on the screen. "There's broken circuitry here... and here. We're going to need Adimantium in liquid form, Helen Cho and her magical cradle of miracles, and a very strong power source. Anyone know where Thor is?"

We all shake our heads. "We haven't seen him since Christmas. He left for Asgard and hasn't come back." I sigh. "My guess is that he's having his own problems. If I'm right, Ragnarok is happening as we deal with our Civil War and Magneto problems."

Tony nods. "Sure could use that lightning of his. I'll find something else. Might have to take all the power from New York, but I'll do what I have to do."

"You always do, don't you," I mumble.

Tony continues up Vision's body until he reaches the head. "I don't known how, I don't know why, but the Mind Stone is cracked. Whatever Magneto did to him, he wanted it out of either Vision's memory banks or power reserves. My guess is the latter. Probably to power one of his machines or something crazy like that."

"Magneto had a flying city at one point," I reply. "Asteroid-M. It's a long story, but he could have something like that planned, but with Genosha, it seems kind of redundant."

"Can you fix it?" Wanda asks.

Tony bites his lip and hesitates to answer. "I... I don't know."

"You have more than dabbled into the Infinity Stones' power before," Pietro exclaims, walking over to Tony. "What makes now so different?"

"Did you forget what happened the last two times I have?" Tony replies. "First, aliens invade earth. Second, I build a psycho robot and send him to nearly destroy the earth! Invasion and extermination: that's my track record in tampering with these things."

"You can help someone this time," Clint adds. "You gotta at least try, right?"

Tony shakes his head. "I thought I was helping people the first two times. What if I break Vision? What if I blow us all up?" He continues shaking his head. "I can't take the risk."

"He will die!" Wanda shouts, red flames coming out of her fists as her eyes glow red.

"You think I don't know that?" Tony shouts back, slamming his fist onto the table. Everyone falls silent. "Of course I know he will die! Before he was Vision, he was Jarvis. Jarvis, the man who aided my father his entire life. Jarvis, the man who helped Peggy Carter establish S.H.I.E.L.D. even though he received no credit for doing so. Jarvis, my best friend. He was always there. My father worked, my mother did her best, nanny's came and went, but Jarvis... he raised me."

Tony chuckles and wipes his eye, turning away from us and looking at Vision. "No one seems to remember that I gave up Jarvis to save the earth. No one considers I lost my best and oldest friend. Sure, part of him lives on in Vision, but he's not the same. He remembers it all, but the connection isn't there anymore. No one considers what I lost." He looks at Wanda. "Do you know how quiet my house was? Do you know how silent the days are when the voice, who was always there, no longer resides?"

Wanda has tears flowing down her face, and she whispers, "I do." She turns to look at her brother. "Of course, I do."

Tony hangs his head and groans. "What do I do?" he asks, brokenly. "I don't know what to do."

I walk over to him and rest a hand on his shoulder. "We've all done things we regret, Tony," I whisper. "What matters is that you learn from them and keep living. Don't live in the past." I turn to Pietro. "I've had to learn that quite recently." I smile at my old friend. "Look for a way to fix him. We'll decide if it's worth the risk later."

"Work the problem," he mumbles. "That's what Dad always told me. When you're freaking out, calm down and work the problem. It will figure itself out."

I nod and smile. He smiles back. "There you go, Stark."

Tony stands up straight and pulls himself back together. "Friday?"

"Yes, Sir?"

He groans, rolling his eyes. "Friday, it's Tony, not Sir. I'm getting back to work," he looks down at me and slyly smiles, "thanks to a certain redhead friend of mine. Contact Dr. Cho and have her come as soon as possible with her cradle of wonders, get me a schematic of the Mind Stone, give me a list of the nearest Adimantium manufacturers, and put on my tunes." He cracks his neck. "It's gonna be a long night." He turns to the rest of us. "I know you don't trust me, and that's okay, but there's a couple sofa's just a floor above this one. Feel free to wander."

"Tony Stark is back," I smile.

He smirks. "Back in black, kiddo." He snaps his fingers and "Back in Black" by ACDC starts playing at high volume over the speakers. "Let's work this problem." He looks over to Vision with soft eyes. "Don't worry, Buddy. We're gonna get you fixed up."

END CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.