Chapter 15

With great power came great responsibility

Those were words Peter Parker had tried to live his life by, that he'd sacrificed countless chances at success and happiness for, all in the desperate attempt at living up to the advice left to him by a beloved uncle, now long-dead. Or, if he was honest with himself, which he usually tried to avoid, a desperate attempt at punishing himself, because it was his fault Uncle Ben had died. He usually tried to avoid acknowledging the truth in those words, but having them thrown in his face like earlier tonight made them harder to ignore.

He had been responsible with his powers, ever to his own detriment, more times than he could remember, and his reward for decades of selfless heroism was currently lying in the hospital bed in front of him, hooked up to machinery that was barely keeping her alive. Aunt May had been frail for most of his life, but he'd never seen her this small, this weak. And all because he'd tried to be responsible. Or rather, because he'd listened when Stark told him this was the way to be responsible.

How much longer was he to be punished for one selfish moment as a teenager? Was anything he did ever going to be enough?!

"Tiger? Are you sure?" MJ looked at him in concern, her arms wrapped around his shoulders as he stared down on the glowing gem in his open palm, her voice snapping him out of his thoughts.

"It's called the Reality Gem, MJ. It has limited ability to change reality itself, if that isn't enough to help Aunt May, I honestly can't imagine there being anything that can." He'd begged Stark and Reed to help him, for ANYTHING to save his aunt, and they had lied to his face when they said there was nothing they could do, when they'd had the gems the whole time. Because his aunt wasn't important enough for Stark and Reed and their fucking bigger picture.

"No, I meant... are you sure you want to use it? I love May too, but she wouldn't want you to endanger reality just to save her."

He actually had to stop himself from snapping at her and immediatly a heavy feeling of shame flooded him. She was right, Aunt May wouldn't have wanted him to endanger everyone else just to help her, but he couldn't just let her die when he had the power to stop it either. What was it Ginnungagap had said? He was giving out the gems to people who'd use them and not just hide them away.

"...no, I'm not sure. But I'm going to do this anyway."

Peter closed his hand over the gem. And focused.

And May Parker opened her eyes.

.....

"Vell, professor, it vould seem ze X-Men have found themselves in possession of TWO cosmic artifacts ve are reluctant to use, ja?"

Professor Xavier was mildly surprised when Kurt Wagner teleported into his study that evening, which quickly blossomed into far more genuine surprise when the man revealed that not only did he know about Xaviers possession of the Mind Gem, he had himself been gifted with the Soul Gem, an artifact that Xavier had last seen in the possession of Stephen Strange, who was unlikely to just have left it on the bus like a cheap paperback. While Xavier was certain that Ginnungagap would move against the Illuminati, what he hadn't expected was for him to hand the Gems out to new owners after confiscating them. He wasn't sure if he should feel flattered or not that the reality warper hadn't seen fit to give the Mind Gem to anyone else.

Nodding thoughtfully, Xavier looked at the gem floating around Kurt's head "We do seem to get us into these situations quite often, don't we? And I hope I do not need to impress upon you just how much of a responsibility that new Gem of yours carries, Kurt."

Kurt shook his head "Nein, professor, Ginnungagap was most insistant, but even if he hadn't been, the Gem itself tells you. Ze power over the souls of others, it is a heavy burden, one I am apprehensive about. Ze human soul is ze most sacred of all things, not a plaything for mortal men."

"I understand, I feel the same way about my own gem, but it really only expanded on what I already felt about my telepathic ability. Just like the soul, the human mind should be sacrosanct, but even then, there will be times when you will feel tempted to abuse it, if only for the greater good."

"I would never-"

"Kurt, you're a good man, but you're still a man, we both are. Temptation is an inescapable part of who we are, one that only gets worse the more powerful we are. Perhaps me and my former associates were wrong in just hiding away the Gems, but you've been given an opportunity to succeed where we failed. I am not an expert on the soul, but from what I understand, it can be damaged or diseased just like the mind can. You now have the ability to heal the truly broken."

The gem came to a stop in front of Kurt, hovering in front of his face "To heal, not harm. Yes. Yes, I would like zat. But... I wouldn't know where to start..."

Xavier thought for a moment "I'd suggest seeking out someone with an expertise on souls, in a more direct sense than you're used to. Tell me Kurt, have you ever heard of a man named Jericho Drumm?"

....

"Honey, you would friggin BELIEVE the day I've had"

Jessica Jones looked up from the mat where she was currently sitting, keeping an eye on Danielle while she was crawling around and playing with a stuffed animal. "Luke? Why... are you GLOWING?!"

"Oh it ain't me babe, it's this thing" Reaching into his tank top, Luke pulled out a glowing gem hanging from a silver chain around his neck. "It's sort of related to my day and why I was about to tell you about it."

Jessica quickly scooped up Danielle who grumbled at having her playtime interupted "Uhuh, followup question, why are you bringing a glowing rock into our house, where our daughter is? When have either of us ever had a good experience with stuff that glows?"

Shoving the stone back under his shirt, Luke continued "Well, it's kind of a funny story. You know how all the mutants got their powers back and crap?"

Jessica rolled her eyes "No Luke, I've been sitting in a closet with my eyes shut and my fingers in my ears for the past few days. Haven't heard a thing about it on literally every piece of technology we own, or the noise coming from M-Town. Or the guy next door who suddenly grew wings and scales while mowing the lawn."

"Well, the Magic Man who turned everyone's powers back on apparently found out that Stark and his little fascist book club have apparently been sitting on the Infinity Gems on top of all the other shit they've pulled over the past few years, and he didn't like that, so he swiped them and handed them out to new holders who weren't just going to hide them under their beds or whatever the hell Stark's crew did with them."

Jessica looked back at the glow lighting up Luke's chest "And one of those guys were you, I'm guessing. Didn't your mom ever tell you not to accept cosmic objects of immeasurable power from reality warping strangers?"

Luke shrugged and crouched down to Danielle's level, who was immediatly captivated by the glow from the gem and grabbed for it, making Jessica push her hand down. "Yeah but he said his b-option for the Power Gem was giving it to D-Man. I mean, come on. Friggin D-Man! I think he might have been fucking with me, but I wasn't going to take that chance."

Jessica snorted as she kept Danielles attention from the glow "So, now that you got cosmic power, what new stuff can you do?"

Luke was silent for a second "...well, there's a whole bunch of space babble around it, but it basically boils down to punching things really, really hard. Like, blow up a planet hard"

"Well, atleast the guy knew you had the right skill set."

....

Life had never been kind to Violet Lightner. Just one of many American kids lost in the foster system, her life had been nothing but one miserable foster home after another, knowing full well the entire time that she didn't have any future to look forward to afterwards either. For one brief shining moment, it seemed like she might finally have something to live for when a suicide attempt led to her being bonded with the mysterious alien weapon known as the Tactigon, but like every other good thing in her life, it turned to dust before she had time to enjoy it. Her time as Armory was cut short during her first few days as an Initiative recruit when a training session turned bad and one of Trauma's fear illusion caused her to panic. The Tactigon had responded to her fear, and began firing blindly.

MVP had died because she couldn't let go of her stupid phobia of spiders.

And that was that, no more Tactigon, no more heroics, she got shipped right back to San Francisco so the Initiative could keep their dirty secret, and her life was just as meaningless as before. More than once she had wished that she had never found the Tactigon at all, just so she'd never have felt what it was like to have something worth being alive for, just to lose it again.

Walking into her small room at the Burke Wellness Center, she was drawn out of her misery by an unexpected guest sitting by her desk.

"Long time no see, Violet."

Violet blinked "...Abby?! What... how did you get in here?!" She hadn't seen Cloud 9 since she got thrown out of the Initiative, and even if they had been friends, which they hadn't, the fact that MVP died saving her from Violet's panicked shooting had made her assume that she'd never see the other girl again. Why would she ever even think of visiting her?

"Let's just say I had a bit of a growth spurt with my powers, so walls aren't much of a hindrance to me anymore. I thought we were long overdue for a talk."

Violet quickly looked outside, making sure no one had noticed what was going on, before closing the door to her room and sitting down on her bed. "I...I didn't think I'd ever see you again. Hell, I never thought I'd see ANY of you guys from the Initiative again. Why would they even let you visit me?"

Abby shrugged "I quit."

"You...wait, what? How could you just quit? They said they'd depower anyone who tried to leave, I thought you were really attached to your flying."

"Like I said, growth spurt. Things didnt get better after you got thrown out, Violet. They weren't trying to make us heroes, they were trying to turn us into child soldiers so the SRA could look good. I was angry at you for what happened to MVP for a long time, but I finally realized it wasn't really your fault. It was theirs. Gyrich and Pym and Stark and every other jackass who only cared about their careers or trying to force us to make up for their stupid mistakes. All I wanted to do was fly, but they tried to make into a damn sniper!" Abby took a deep breath, before reaching down and picking up a leather bag by her side, which she held out to Violet. "Before I left, I took this with me."

Hesitating briefly, Violet accepted the bag, and unzipped it. Peering inside, her eyes widened at the familiar object.

The Tactigon.

"Why...why would you do this for me? I killed MVP. I almost killed you!"

"Because being a hero actually matters to you. Because the Initiative just threw you away like you were nothing, and no matter how badly you screwed up, you didn't deserve that. Because they don't have any goddamn right to treat us like garbage, especially not when our mistakes pale compared to the laundry list of bullshit they've pulled for longer than we've been alive. And because I'm tired of them stepping on us with no consequences."

Abby's voice sounded almost faint as the familiar feeling of the alien weapon attaching itself to her arm washed over Violet, and it felt like coming home. "So...now what?"

"Now? Now is up to you. Me, I'm going to go flying."