00058. Testing an idea. old chapter.

This is an old draft now, I have taken this and split it. Going to keep this here in case someone wants to read it.

You should now be 5 chapters ahead with this one. I should have another chapter done and posted sometime on Sunday. Hope you have a good weekend.

Tao met Itachi at the portal room and pulled him into the mirror dimension before she made a portal to go get Theo. They appeared in Aunt May’s house and found Theo in the living room reading a book. Tao moved right next to Theo before she started a spell and then whispered into his ear, "It's time to switch."

Theo placed his book down on the couch and then walked towards the back of the house towards the bathroom. After he closed the door, he was pulled into the mirror dimension where Itachi tapped his forehead transferring information. Itachi then transformed into Theo and Tao put him back into the real world. A portal was then opened to Kamar Taj and Theo who was now transformed into Ezekiel walked through it with Tao.

As Ezekiel followed Tao he asked, "So what are the chances of this working?"

Tao smirked as she said, "Sixty percent, probably less. Yao and the others before him never tried it to my knowledge. But your theory does have merit though, so I am willing to try it out. I assume the idea was from comics you have read?"

Ezekiel smiled back as he said, "Actually no, it wasn’t. It just made sense that the future is cloudy because the One Above All wanted to hide me. But if I try to look into the future, I should be able to see it clearly because I can’t hide from myself… I think." Tao nodded her head in understanding and they fell into silence as they walked.

They walked through dimly lit hallways till they made it to the inner sanctum where the Eye of Agamotto was kept. Tao released the seals keeping it in place and took it with her as she walked to her room with Ezekiel. Once they made it to Tao's room, she set up two patterns on the floor.

The first pattern was large and shaped like a star burst inside a circle with an inverted triangle on the outside of it. The tip of that triangle connected to a smaller circle which had another star burst pattern in the middle of it. She directed Ezekiel to sit in the smaller pattern as she sat in the other one. Once they were seated she began to weave her hands in a pattern as she chanted, “Unconnected become connected. My eyes become your eyes.”

As she chanted the starburst patterns lighted up and started to pulse slightly. Tao lifted the Eye of Agamotto as she said, “What the future holds, we will know.” She unlocked the Eye of Agamotto and the entire pattern ignited in orange and green before both Tao and Ezekiel went into a trance as a sphere of orange and green enveloped them.

The light from outside the room slowly brightened as neither moved inside the sphere of orange and green that swirled around them. Master Hamir arrived at some point with some tea and breakfast. After he watched the orange and green sphere for a little while, he set up the tea and food on the table. He then placed a stasis spell to keep the food and tea fresh for Tao and her guest.

It was past noon when the sphere collapsed to release Tao and Ezekiel. Ezekiel looked a little out of it and continued to stay seated as Tao got up. Tao released the spell over the table and poured two cups of tea. She waited for a few minutes before Ezekiel finally stood up as he said, “That was… different.”

Tao nodded her head as she said, “It was a little weird but not much different then when I use The Eye of Agamotto alone.”

Ezekiel sat down next to Tao and picked up one of the cups of tea. He took a sip before he said, “I'm not a fan of tea, but this is enjoyable."

Tao nodded her head but before she spoke, Ezekiel grinned as he said, "Yes, I know… You know."

Tao gave Ezekiel a flat look before he smiled brightly as he said, "I couldn't help myself… Anyways, so at least we know it works now.”

Tao frowned a little as she said, “Yes, but I am not sure if we should rely on it. It was taxing to keep up the spell with two people.”

Ezekiel nodded as he said, “I just wanted to make sure the timeline wouldn’t be ruined. Now that we know, we shouldn’t need to do this again. It was kinda fun to see certain things always happen though.”

Tao smiled as she said, “It’s good to know Strange will still come to Kamar Taj.”

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “And that Tony will become Ironman.”

Tao drank some more tea before she said, “Do you want to eat before we go back?”

Ezekiel looked over the food on the table before he said, “Sounds good to me.”

After they ate, Tao took Ezekiel back home so he could switch places with his clone. He also made sure to share his memories with Itachi before they switched. Tao took Itachi back to the base where he shared the memory packet with Ezekiel who was in the meeting room with everyone else. Once finished, Ezekiel smiled as he said in a completely different voice than normal, “Good news everyone!"

Everyone seemed a little confused at Ezekiel’s statement and the voice he used. Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Never mind…"

Ezekiel scratched the back of his head for a moment before he said, "It worked, we can go ahead with the mission.”

Bucky and Steve looked relieved but Fury frowned as he asked, “What about Romanoff? Won’t this ruin the timeline?”

Ezekiel grinned as he said, “She will be fine, actually she will be better than before.”

Everyone else besides Tao was a little lost as Steve asked, “Mind filling the rest of us in, who is Romanoff?”

Ezekiel typed on his computer and a profile for a young girl came up, she had her hair dyed blue and bright green eyes. It displayed her full name as Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanova. Ezekiel pointed at the screen as he said, “In a different timeline she becomes one of the world's best assassin’s before she turned into one of the world's heroes. She is currently in the red room program along with her sister Yelena Belova.”

Steve frowned a little as he asked, “Are you planning to train her?”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “Yes, if that is what she wants. If you don’t want to help, that's fine. But keep in mind, Romanova and the other girls we rescue from the red room are coming here and they have been trained for years to be assassins and spies. I will have my clones help deprogram them, but if they want to join us… I won’t tell them no.”

Steve looked upset as he was going to speak again, but Bucky placed his hand on Steve’s shoulder as he said, “I know how you think, you want those girls to have a normal life. But those girls are anything but normal. We might be able to help the youngest ones to have a normal life. But the girls who have been there for years are already trained killers.”

“But they should have a chance at a normal life also.”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “And I will offer them that chance, but I won’t force them to live a normal life if they don't want to.”

Steve still looked unhappy as Ezekiel said, "I know you aren't happy with training kids, but just pulling them out of the red room is keeping them alive."

Ezekiel typed on his computer and some files popped up on the screen. They showed how many girls had been brought into the program over the years and the number of graduates it had. The number was less than one percent of more than ten thousand. Everyone was surprised at the low number and Peggy asked, "Why is it so low?"

Ezekiel pulled up a video on the screen, it showed two young girls as they talked with each other happily. The video cut and the same girls were displayed but both of them looked a little older and they were fighting each other. Both of them were covered in wounds and bleeding heavily. One girl lagged behind in her defense and the other girl was able to plunge a knife into her throat. The winner stood over the other girl as she watched her bleed out.

The video cut out as Ezekiel said, "They pair the girls up with a friend and after a few years they make them fight to the death. They take the winners and do it again with other winners. It's terrible but also the most effective way to make them obey without question. The last thing they do is to sterilize the girls for their graduation, so they are even more loyal."

Ezekiel looked at Steve as he said, "I will do what I can to help them, but I can only do so much. From what Tao and I saw, almost every one of those girls joins us."

Tao nodded her head in agreement as she said, "what Ezekiel said is true, only a handful of girls didn't want to fight. But those few still joined us and helped in other ways."

Peggy reached over and clasped Steve's hand as she said, "I know how you feel, but this is the best outcome for these girls."

Steve nodded his head in defeat as he said, "I know, I just wish it wasn't."

Ezekiel took a moment before he said, “On to less depressing issues. We already scouted and planned out the rescue mission. The only real issue is housing, which I have my clones currently working on to expand the base to add more rooms."

Ezekiel typed on his computer and the screen pulled up a camera feed which showed his clones currently working on making new rooms with earth jutsu and then reinforcing them. Ezekiel looked at everyone as he said, "They should be finished by tomorrow for the rough layout. I had them placed by the gym area. As for the plumbing, electrical, flooring and the rest, that will be done in a few days once Koenig has all the supplies for my clones."

Jarvis spoke next as he said, "We will also need to start stocking more food and get some more kitchen help. The kids have been wonderful, but I could really use a competent helper or two for food preparation. Does anyone know someone we might be able to bring in? From the look of it, we will have at least a hundred new mouths to feed."

Peggy shook her head as she said, "Unfortunately I do not know anyone who could work under our special circumstances." She looked at Fury when she was done talking.

Fury also shook his head as he said, "I don't have anyone in Shield who could fill the role currently." As he finished Peggy looked at Tao.

"I could spare someone to help part time, but they mostly cook Asian dishes."

Ezekiel smiled at that before he said, "I can have two of my clones help out. They are amazing cooks, but since they are clones they can't taste anything which is why I never offered before. But they should be able to help out a lot with the prep work."

Jarvis nodded his head in thanks as Bucky asked, "So when are we going to recuse those kids?"

Ezekiel typed on his computer for a moment before he looked up as he said, "In about a week, I want to make sure we have everything ready to support them. Unfortunately we are late with our rescue, they just did their 'testing' of the girls three months ago."

Everyone frowned at the news before Ezekiel said, "During this week we also need to try and recruit a few people who can help us." He typed on his computer and a few pictures appeared on the screen.

Fury was the first to react as he said, "Are you out of your mind? Those people are enemies!"

Peggy nodded her head as she said, "I have to agree with Fury."

Ezekiel glanced back at Fury and Peggy as he asked, "Who exactly are they enemies with?"

Fury frowned as he said, "With us."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "I never had a confrontation with them before and as far as I know they don't even know we exist."

Fury and Peggy both looked displeased but it was Hank who said, "I remember fighting one of them before when I was still in Shield."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "I could see that since the U.S.S.R. never joined the world security council. But we aren't Shield so we should try to make contact and recruit them."

Fury still looked upset as he said, "How will we even vet them?"

"I am going to use my clones for that. That way I can make sure there won't be any issues. I am confident in recruiting two of them, since in almost every future we looked at, they were with us. The other two joined us also, but it wasn't as consistent."

Fury and Peggy still looked reluctant so Ezekiel said, "Fine let's vote on it. All in favor?"

The vote count was split dead even, with Tao, Ezekiel, Steve and Jarvis who voted for it. While Fury, Peggy, Bill, and Hank voted against it. Ezekiel looked a little disappointed as Bucky asked, "I know I am new but do I get to vote?"

Ezekiel looked at Bucky for a moment before he looked at everyone else. Peggy shared a conversation with Fury from just a momentary glance. She then looked at everyone else for a moment before she said, "I don't think anyone has an issue with it."

"Great, I vote for trying to recruit them."

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