Xavier's eyes widened slightly as he looked at Mystique and asked, "What did you do to her? Her mind is… It's like her mind isn't there anymore, but I can still feel it."

"I am just showing her what the world will end up like if we don't work together. Hopefully she will talk some sense into Mr. Lehnsherr, it would be a shame to kill someone who can be such a valuable ally."

Xavier looked towards Ezekiel and asked, "So you plan to kill anyone who doesn't want to join you?"

Logan and Storm tensed up and prepared for a fight as Ezekiel started to laugh before he said, "No, not at all. I don't care if someone joins me or not. But I already know Mr. Lehnsherr will try to fight me if he doesn't join me. It's the type of man he is, but hopefully this will help him to at least hear me out."

Xavier frowned a little before he asked, "I will also talk with him."

Ezekiel nodded his head and said, "Good, I will give you a month to talk with him, then we can meet back here again. Till then it has been… Interesting to say the least." As Ezekiel finished talking his body simmered and then cracked like a mirror before he completely disappeared.

vvvvv

Magneto looked around in confusion for a moment, he was just talking to Xavier as they were flying back to the U.S. inside the X-jet. Now he was back in the clearing, the cage was still here with a log inside it. Logan and Storm were standing next to the small pond behind Xavier, who was holding hands with Mystique who looked to be shaking slightly.

Magneto began to float towards them as he asked, "What is going on? Weren't we just on the X-jet, flying back?"

Mystique turned around from her place by the water, she had a slightly haunted look as she said, "You picked the wrong fight, Erik. That man trapped you in your own mind. He could have killed you if he wanted and we wouldn’t have been able to stop him."

The cage next to him rattled slightly before it crumpled into a tiny compressed ball of metal. The log that was inside it was completely destroyed in the process. Magneto let out a measured breath before he asked, "What actually happened?"

"When you placed the cage down in front of you, Ezekiel disappeared and was replaced with a log. At that point you just stood there frozen. I tried to wake you up but you were in some type of trance. Then he walked out of the forest without a care in the world like we were nothing to him. I can't get the image out of my head, it's as if anything we would try didn't matter to him. He told me to give you a warning before he put me in a trance like you were in." Mystique started shaking slightly as she finished. Xavier reached out and held her hand again to help calm her down.

Magneto stayed quiet for a while before he asked, "What was the message?"

Xavier was the one to speak and said, "Ezekiel said he expected you to try something and would have been disappointed if you didn't. But that was your only pass with him. The next time he extends an olive branch, you better come with peaceful intentions or not show up at all."

Mystique was still shaking as she said, "He also wants you to know that the world is already changing and whether or not you are part of that change is up to you. But if anyone gets in his way their corpses will be in the foundation of what he is building."

Magneto scoffed as he said, "He caught me off guard, I just need to figure out how he was able to attack my mind. Charles, do you have any thoughts on how he might have done it?"

Xavier shook his head and was about to reply, when Mystique stepped forward and poked Magneto in the chest as she yelled at him, "Did you not hear a single thing we said!?!"

Magneto glared at Mystique and said, "Watch your tone and remember who you are talking to Raven, I lead The Brotherhood, not you!"

"So what if you lead The Brotherhood, I am done with it! I am going back with Xavier.”

Magneto's face contorted a little as he snarled out, “YOU! You would leave behind everything that we have built?! Our people? For what? Some person you don’t even know? Because he was able to trick me once?”

Mystique’s eyes became a little moist as she choked out in a broken voice, “You… You didn’t see it… None of you. You didn’t see it.”

She started to sob as her body began to shake uncontrollably, both Xavier and Magneto reached out to give her some support. It took a while before she stopped shaking and in a low whisper she said, "He showed me the future and every time, we were dead."

Magneto frowned as he asked, "Don’t you think he might have made it up? He had to be showing you what he wanted you to see, it doesn’t mean that was the actual future, Raven.”

Mystique shook her head before she said in a frightened voice. “He didn’t show me one, he showed me countless!” Her body started to shake again as her voice began to crack as she said, “Each one was worse than the last, a world where all the mutants were dead… It wasn’t even the worst one! I saw one where everything on the planet was dead and the only thing left were the sentient machines that destroyed the world.”

vvvvv

The Ancient One and Ezekiel were watching them from the mirror dimension, when Mystique began to break down The Ancient One said, “You might have been a little harsh with her, she seems to be having a mental breakdown.”

Ezekiel shook his head before he said, “No, this will hopefully bring Magneto to the table.”

“What if it pushes him away and he decides to fight against you?”

Ezekiel let out a sigh before he said, “Then he will die. Let's go Tao, I have more important things to do.”

The Ancient One raised one eyebrow as she looked at Ezekiel. He looked back at her and smiled as he responded, "You don't wanna tell me your name, so you were given a nickname. The Ancient One is too tiring to say every time, so it was shortened to Tao."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The Ancient One shook her head and replied, "Are you really Ezekiel or one of his guests?"

"One hundred percent the original."

The Ancient One moved one hand in a circle and a portal appeared in front of her. As she walked through it she said, "Find your own way back." The portal shut instantly, leaving Ezekiel alone in the mirror dimension.

Ezekiel started to chuckle for a few moments before he sat on the ground and watched Magneto, Mystique and Xavier talking for a little while. Logan and Storm would chime in sometimes, but it was mostly Mystique talking about what Ezekiel had shown her.

After half an hour a portal appeared and Shisui stuck his head inside and asked, “Did you get left behind?”

Ezekiel stood up and walked towards the portal as he said, “Yes, it seems like Tao doesn’t like her new name.”

“Well Naruto was the one who thought of it because he didn’t like calling her The Ancient One.”

Ezekiel nodded as he walked through the portal, before it closed behind him. He let out another chuckle as he said, “I swear that guy has some uncanny ability to make great nicknames.”

Ezekiel looked at Master Kaecilius and said, “I appreciate the lift.” The man just nodded in reply before he walked out of the room.

Ezekiel shook his head as he started to walk out of the room with Shisui and said, “We really need to do something about him.”

“You think he will follow that timeline?”

“No, Tao said she already had many conversations with him and the other masters. He won’t turn out like that, but he is still a burdened man. I would like to help him out, but the only option would be to use Edo Tensei. I am just not sure how it would work here with the aspect of death around.” Ezekiel frowned a little as he finished.

Shisui smirked as he put an arm over Ezekiel’s shoulder and said, “Only one way to find out, we just need to try it.”

“But we would need a sacrifice and someone who is dead we want to talk with.”

“That’s easy, just ask Fury for a death row prisoner and the body of someone he would want to talk with.” Shisui smiled at Ezekiel as he stopped walking.

Ezekiel was nodding his head a few times as he went over everything before he also smiled and said, “Lets go talk to Orochimaru, Tobirama and Kabuto. I wanna make sure we have everything we need, and think of anything that could go wrong.”

vvvvv

A few days later a small group of people were standing in a secure room, with the corpse of Arnim Zola and a man with red hair. Fury looked over to Ezekiel who was standing next to a few of his clones. Fury still didn’t know why all of his clones looked different and had different names. Ezekiel said it was because of different people who were currently sharing his mind. It sounded like a load of bullshit, but the more Fury interacted with them he could tell that they were each completely different people.

Fury turned his head slightly and looked at Peggy, Steve, Hank and Tao as he asked, “You think this is going to work?”

Tao shook her head as she said, “I don’t think it will because their soul is no longer here and has passed on. But Ezekiel’s powers work in weird ways.”

Steve also shook his head as he said, “I still don’t like that this uses someone as a sacrifice. Isn’t there a better way to do this?”

Peggy reached over and held Steve’s hand as she said, “I didn’t like the idea at first either, but you saw what this man has done. If anyone should serve as a sacrifice it would be him.”

Ezekiel finished talking to his clones and walked over to the man who was strapped to a table with a ball gag in his mouth. Ezekiel pointed over to his clones as he said, “Well Mr. Kasady, I would like you to know that this will be extremely painful. My friends over there made sure of it.”

Ezekiel began to do hand signs before he said, “Kuchiyose, Edo Tensei!” He pushed his hand down on the paper covering the man’s head for a few seconds before the man started to writhe in agony. Ezekiel stepped away and watched in fascination as the man’s body tore itself apart, the pieces that came off slowly landed on the floor. Before combining together, it took almost ten minutes before the man completely stopped moving and screaming into his gag, but once he did the process sped up and finished in another minute.

Tao said almost in a whisper, “Incredible, his soul was ripped apart and somehow reformed into this man’s soul.”

Before them stood a short man with chalk white skin in a slate gray, three piece suit. The man started to open his black colored eyes as Ezekiel shoved a dagger with a small talisman attached to it, into the man’s head.

The man looked around for a moment before his eyes settled on Steve as he said, “You are still alive Rogers and you somehow look like you haven’t aged a single day.”

Fury spoke up and asked, “Tell us who were hidden Hydra agents that helped form S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Zola turned to look at Fury as he said, “I am not sure how you brought me here, but I don’t need to answer anything.”

Ezekiel smiled at that and said, “Actually Mr. Zola, you need to answer any question they ask you from now on.”

Peggy was the first to speak and asked, “Did you help Hydra grow inside of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

Zola looked at Peggy, his face was twitching slightly as he tried not to speak before he said, “Of course I did, you think Hydra was finished just because the Red Skull died? That man was just one of the heads. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.”

Peggy squeezed Steve’s hand tightly as Fury smiled and said, “Good, we have a lot of questions we need answered about Hydra and who was part of it, while you were still alive.”

vvvvv

Theo’s mother was sitting on the couch with her daughter in her lap and her husband holding her hand as they listened to Theo tell a story. The story was fascinating, she had heard the start of it one night while she was cuddling with her husband on the couch. The next morning she had asked her son what book he was reading to Milly the night before and was surprised to find out it was a story he was making up.

She knew her son was special, a little too special in fact. But to come up with a story that was so fleshed out and well made, it didn't seem possible for the almost three year old child. She had noticed his intelligence before, he had tried to hide it from her and Jacob, but even he noticed how intelligent Theo is and they have talked about it more than a few times.

It was his eyes that truly gave him away. They never noticed it before, because Theo is their son and their vision was colored with love. But she really noticed it the first time they went to the library, his eyes were calculating, he was planning something. She had seen those same eyes many times when she negotiated contracts with other lawyers. He had acted well enough when he was looking through the books, but there was a purpose to his movements. She caught on quickly enough and moved to where she could see the ‘how to' bookshelf he was working towards. When he finally got there, he instantly found two books and pulled them out.

He glanced at both of them for a moment or two and then brought them back asking if he could check them out. She gave in because she wanted to see what he was up to. To their surprise he completely memorized the coding book, they could ask him what was on any page, paragraph, even sentence and he could tell them. That was when they both started to watch him more closely, to try and find out how intelligent Theo actually was. It took them no time at all to realize he was some kinda super genius. When they started to watch him not as their son, but just as a person. He was definitely trying to hide it for some reason and they didn’t know why. They had talked about it a few times and decided they would let him tell them if and when he wanted to. No matter what happens, he will always be their lovely and helpful son who has a soft spot for his little sister.