Chapter 5
Training started early the next morning, memories of had conspired the days before still fresh in Hayley’s head as she met her mentors in the training area where they proceeded to practice magic in combat. Things had become relatively awkward and she had no idea where they stood anymore. Both the Sorcerer Supreme and the God of Mischief seemed to try and act like everything was normal. She didn’t let it distract her as she fought them. Feeling good about herself, she projected her soul-self and merged it with Strange, taking control of his body. His power was strong and her control wouldn’t last long. She didn’t really like taking control of other humans and decided to not do it that often, but she wanted to show off. She used her power to hold him still as she ran up to the Sorcerer Supreme and swept his legs out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. She pinned him as he regained control and summoned a dagger and held it to his neck. She smirked triumphantly.
“Where did you learn that, ”Strange asked her.
“Reading,” she smirked.
She helped him up and looked at Loki who gave her an impressed nod.
“You’ve grown quite a lot since we first started,” Stephen told her.
“Thank you,” she blushed.
“In fact, I believe the two of you can return to the Tower tomorrow.”
“Really,” Hayley exclaimed excitedly.
Strange nodded and then, they resumed training. As Loki moved to attack, Hayley’s head pounded in pain, vision flashing white, allowing Loki to get hits in. She tried to ignore it and fight, but her headache got worse and worse and the white flashes turned into images. She screamed when the pain became too much, falling to her knees as a vision appeared. Images of Hayley getting captured, a familiar man she knew all too well, then fighting and killing Loki, Strange, and the Avengers flashed before her eyes, leaving her exhausted and panting when it ended. Loki grabbed her shoulders to keep her upright.
“Are you ok,” Loki asked.
It took Hayley a moment for her eyes to clear up and everything to not be so blurry. She gripped onto Loki’s forearms, wondering how the man was able to withstand her crushing grip. If he was any other human, she probably would’ve broken something. Her breathing finally cleared and she looked at Loki’s emerald green eyes.
“You OK,” Strange asked.
She nodded, still out of it. Loki helped her to feet, catching her as she almost fell back to the ground. The two sorcerers led her to the kitchen where they sat her down and got her some water.
“Was it a vision,” the Sorcerer Supreme asked.
Hayley nodded and Loki and Strange looked at each with concern and confusion. She downed the glass of water almost instantly, still trying to regain her bearings.
“What was it,” Loki asked.
Images of the vision flashed through her and the thought of her killing her only friends and family and the two men she was starting to love.
“I-I-I don’t know,” she told them.
“What did you see, “Stephen pressed.
“I need to be alone,” Hayley said, getting up and disappearing into her room, leaving the two men curious with questions unanswered.
Hayley sat on her bed, expressionless eyes staring out into nothing as she zoned out, trying to calm her nerves. Hayley had listened to music, meditated, read, anything to stop herself from remembering and seeing her killing the only people who had saved her life.
Are you alright little dove? The second rate sorcerer and I are worried, Loki asked her telepathically.
I can hear you ya know... ., Strange quipped.
Yes, I know, unfortunately. . .
I’m fine. . .
She shut herself off from the connection. She didn’t end it, just merely pressed the off switch on her side so they couldn’t feel or talk to her. She didn’t want to talk to them, but at the same time, she did. Ok, but what was she supposed to tell them? That she saw herself killing them and the Avengers in cold blood?
Hours went by of her debating and slowly losing her mind. Her headache came back as did the white flashes and she screamed as another vision assaulted her, causing her to fall off the bed and land on the ground with a thud. She curled into a ball, her hands gripping the strands of hair on her head and digging her nails in her scalp.
This time, she saw his face...The man who tortured her for nearly a decade, taking her away. She saw herself on a medical table, strapped down as doctors approached her with a strange device, then her attacking the Avengers before her captor’s face flashed in her mind one more time. The vision left Hayley panting and exhausted. Tears rolled down her face as panic bubbled in her veins. Her connection with the two men was turned back on as she stumbled to her feet and staggered out of the room. She found the two sorcerers arguing in the kitchen. They stopped as soon as they saw the distressed girl stumbling towards them.
They immediately got up and hurried over to her. Strange made it to her first as she sobbed in his chest.
“Hayley, what’s wrong? Did you have another vision,” Loki asked.
“He’s coming...He’s coming...He’s gonna get me,” she cried.
They led her to the living room and sat her down.
“Who’s coming,” Strange questioned her gently.
“T-t-the b-b-b-ad m-man. . .He gonna. . .m-m-m. . take me a-away. . .,” she sobbed.
“He won’t get you...You’re safe...We won’t let him hurt you...It’s alright... Breathe Hayley,” Stephen cooed.
She took deep, shaky breaths, still crying into his shirt.
“I saw him... .they got me again... .and there was this weird device... .and then I-I-I. .,” she trailed off, unable to finish.
“What did you see,” Loki pressed.
Hayley could feel a strange emotion emitting from Loki aside from fear and concern for her...Was he... Jealous? Why would he be jealous? Hayley didn’t think about it as she whimpered in the Sorcerer’s Supreme’s shirt, feeling his cloak gently pat her shoulder to help calm her down.
“Hayley it’s alright. You can tell us,” Strange said gently.
“I killed you and the Avengers...Both of you...But it wasn’t me. .”
“You what?”
Hayley cried harder at the thought of killing the two men who she loved.
“I killed you...Everyone...I couldn’t stop it and I -I- I- I didn’t want to...All I can do is hurt people,” she sobbed harder, clinging to Strange like he might vanish into thin air.
“No, you don’t,” Loki said, louder than he probably meant to.
Hayley shook her head. How could they say that? They don’t know what she’s done.
“Yes it is,” she said, her voice sounded like demons, multiple people talking at once as her eyes turned black.
She grabbed Stephen and Loki’s hand, her mind opening as she pulled them into her mind and let them see the monster she truly was.
The sorcerers blinked in confusion, eyeing the strange place. It was dark and quiet, like a dungeon or prison. They saw a small girl sitting alone in a cell, which they recognized as Hayley. She looked to be around eight and was terrified, wondering where her parents were and why she was in this horrible place. Loki and Strange concluded they were in Hayley’s memories as doctors approached the small child in the cell, holding a syringe with a strange fluid inside of it.
“S-s-stay back,” she cried, huddling in the back of her cell.
The men in lab coats ignored the girl, opening the cell door and holding her down so she would be still while one of the doctors injected her in the neck. They felt the excruciating pain of the fluid, and it led them to question if it was bad for them as mere spectators, how bad was it for the small child in front of them as they could only experience half the pain? Her screams were cut off as she fell limp in their arms, the pain too much for the girl to handle as she faded into darkness.
They watched multiple memories of her being put through torture sessions: held underwater, waterboarded, choked, beat, stabbed, whipped, carved with a knife, but the girl was strong, even in her young age, and refused to get in, but they could feel her fight waning as she sat in her cell. The memories were over a span over years as she grew into a teenager.
She played with a pebble in her hand, absentmindedly rolling it between her fingers. Three years and they never got what they were looking for. Hayley heard footsteps and looked up to see the men dragging a girl around Hayley's age and then threw her in the cell. Loki and Strange felt the shock and awe that Hayley felt as she looked at the girl and how mesmerized she was by the newcomer's beauty.
“Hey, you assholes! Let me out,” she screamed.
“They aren't big on talking,” Hayley told her.
The girl turned to look at Hayley.
“Your outfit is cute, by the way,” she said, “I'm Hayley.”
“Thanks. I'm Alexis. You can call me Lex.”
“Nice to meet you Lex.”
Then the memory faded again.
The way the two girls interacted was adorable: the only thing that kept the other from changing was the fact that they would be able to feel their lovers' arms around them again. This memory, however, was much more sinister as the doctors decided on a cruel fate for the two girls.
“Alrighty, since you dykes seem to care so much for each other, we are going to see how deep it runs, and maybe make you right,” a man with brown hair who looked around twenty hissed in their faces.
Alexis and Hayley glared at the men as they shamed the two girls.
“So, today, it’s up for you girls to decide: one of you gets to watch, the other gets to have fun with whatever treatment we decide. The only question is: who is being punished for this affection,” he spat the last word.
The girls remained silent, unwilling to put the other through torment.
“No answer. Alrighty. Alexis, it is,” the man declared.
“Alexis, no,” Hayley shouted.
The doctors grabbed Alexis, dragging her over to a medical as she kicked and thrashed. They threw her down on the table and started to strap her down.
“WAIT! WAIT! STOP PLEASE! TAKE ME! TAKE ME,” Hayley screamed with teary eyes.
The doctors stopped and Alexis looked at her lover with wide eyes.
“Hayley no,” she exclaimed.
The man smiled like the devil, enjoying this far too much.
“It looks like your slut lover really does care,” he said, “take her.”
They unstrapped Alexis, holding her back as the men took Hayley and strapped her down. Alexis screamed the entire time as her lover took the torment for her. Loki and Strange watched Hayley get brutally raped and insulted by the doctors.
“Fucking dyke.”
“This is what you get whore.”
“How does it feel?”
When it ended, the doctors let Alexis go and backed up from Hayley. Alexis darted over to Hayley, unstrapping the exhausted girl and holding her in her arms.
“Oh my God. Hayley, baby, talk to me,” she cried.
“I-s’ OK Le-lex... .I-lo. .ve you,” Hayley groaned, taking Alexis’s hand in hers.
The doctors only laughed at them. Loki and Strange felt Hayley’s love and her determination to keep her lover safe, but they never knew that she would do absolutely everything for Alexis.
This memory was of Alexis and Hayley getting tortured together again. This time, Alexis and a strange man were tied up. Doctors held Hayley back as she glared at the brown-haired tormentor. Alexis and the man were blindfolded so they had no idea what was happening.
“So Hayley, you have a choice. You can either: murder this strange man and let Alexis go. OR, you can spare this innocent man with a wife and kids, kill Alexis, and we’ll let you go. Scot free. Safe and sound,” the man said.
“You’re a liar,” she seethed.
“Not at all.”
“He is telling the truth,” Loki said to Strange.
Hayley had to pick between her lover or the man, whoever she picked, the other would be annihilated and killed by a saw.
“You have ten seconds,” the man told her as the saw whirred to life.
There was no hesitation as she picked to save Alexis sending the saw on its way to man, cutting him open as he screamed in agony. Hayley couldn’t take her eyes off the screaming man.
“Hayley, what’s going on?! What is that,” Alexis screeched.
The man stopped screaming as his blood leaked onto the floor and the saw seemed to die as if it knew the man had died. Alexis cried for her lover.
“Oh, God, Alexis are you ok,” Hayley asked her as she started to untie her she took off the blindfold and Alexis screamed as Hayley tried to calm her down, “Alexis, don’t look, baby, don’t look.”
The doctors had watched the scene with amusement.
Loki and Strange watched everything: multiple sex scenes shared between Alexis and Hayley, how they got their powers, how Hayley communicated telepathically with the other mutant children.
“This is our chance! We’re stronger than them,” Alexis told Hayley.
Their plan: work together with the other mutants to break free. And this memory was of just that. Alexis’s eyes glowed gray as she broke the cell bars with no resistant: her powers of bending metal and earth a blessing for the plan.
They worked together with the others, wreaking havoc on the hellhole. Loki and Strange watched the girls make their way to the exit, a huge explosion in the room creating a hole in the wall for them to escape. Multiple kids made it out, but the doctors had started shooting. Hayley grabbed Alexis’s arm, pulling her towards the exit.
“C’mon!”
They watched as a bullet pierced through Alexis. It was as if Hayley’s heart stopped and time slowed as she held her dying lover in her arms, crying profusely and trying to heal Alexis.
“Alexis stay with me, baby, c’mon. You’re ok,” Hayley cried.
Alexis whimpered, muttering an ‘I love you’ as she put a necklace in Hayley’s hand before falling limp in her arms. They could feel the exact moment when her heart shattered into a million pieces. She screamed loudly and sobbed, but she knew she had to escape.
“I love you,” Hayley sobbed, leaving her lovers body behind.
Hayley gasped as they were brought back to reality, being thrown away from the two men as she curled into a ball and sobbed. They knew everything: Alexis, doctors, her powers, all of it laid out for them to see and judge.
She couldn’t be here, unable to stand the shame. Her soul-self enveloped her body.
“Hayley, wait,” Loki called out.
It was too late, Hayley teleported away and back to the tower where her family awaited. She ended up in the living room, the team jumping into action at the sudden intrusion. When they realized who it was, their defensive stances turned into concern.
Hayley saw Natasha and immediately ran to the woman, hugging her and sobbing the blonde.
“Hayley-? What- What’s going on,” Tony asked.
“H-H-Had a vision...Want to come home... .,” she cried.
The team gathered around her, asking a multitude of questions to try and figure out what the hell was going on, all of them prepared for a fight. Natasha yelled at them to be quiet and give Hayley space as she tried to calm her down.
“It’s alright honey. You’re safe... .,” Nat cooed.
The events of the day were too much for Hayley and she ended up passing out in the assassin's arms.