Chapter 232: Relief

Chapter 232: Relief

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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23rd March 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Selene looked down, "I'm sorry for your loss."

I nodded. There were very few people who knew how close Erebus and I were, and Selene was one of them. She understands that the moment we're alone, I'm probably going to break down in tears and that I was holding on for the sake of the kids.

Speaking of the kids, I looked down to Wanda and Rose, "So, did you spend the whole day worrying about me?"

The two young women shared an odd look before Rose spoke out, "Jasmine, you've been gone for six months."

Ah, fuck, this was going to be problematic.

I forced a smile on my face. The two girls didn't seem to notice anything, but Selene obviously noticed what I was doing. Truthfully, I didn't feel like talking too much. I just wanted to go to sleep and mourn my friend in peace. However, the girls haven't seen me in months, meaning that I have to catch up with them. I'll try to get out of this conversation when I can to go to bed, "So, what's new?"

Wanda glared at me, "This is the second time you disappeared without a trace. Is this going to be a recurring thing?"

Oh, she was mad. Well, it was understandable. She already has abandonment issues stemming back to her birth father, who had just given up on her and put her in a psychiatric facility who resembled a prison more than a hospital.

Selene nodded in agreement, "I put her in touch with my representative in Genosha to help out. She was growing restless in here and wanted to get involved. It was the safest way I could see of her helping out without getting herself killed. They're a team of professionals that have been doing this for years."

I raised an eyebrow. Seriously, has Fury been doubling down with this. I didn't really understand why he was collecting mutants all over the world, and honestly, I didn't care. It was probably some plot to pressure the UN to keep him going. So, that by disbanding SHIELD, all these mutants with powers will be free to do what they wished, and that wouldn't bode well for the stability of the countries involved.

Still, it was curious that Genosha was finally getting involved in this, even if the rest of the world didn't know it. This was a nation of mutants, one that was previously under Selene's control, before the got bored and chose a successor in Emma Frost, one of the main pharmaceutical manufacturers in the world and currently the white queen of the hellfire club.

She was a mutant capable to turning her skin to diamonds but her most impressive power was her very precise telepathy. It didn't rival mine in any way, considering how much time I've been training that particular ability, but she was impressive for someone her age, nonetheless.

Selene had chosen to give up control over the country and hand it over to her fellow Queen so that it would remain a safe haven for mutants. Honestly, Selene didn't care about it. She could probably take over the country is a weekend if she was bored, but she gave it to Emma Frost of all people because while she tried to hide it, she was a good person deep down. She was manipulative, very power hungry, and had a very skewed moral compass thanks to her father, but she wouldn't hurt the mutants under her supervision, and would make sure that they would have happy lives if she could. Even then, if she went mad and started to do some weird shit, Selene was just going to set her straight. For now, Emma was the temporary leader of Genosha until Jean steps into the role.

Still, what Emma had done was impressive. She had created a very sophisticated spy network all over the world, and in conjunction to a very powerful mutant called the Doormaker, who could make a portal to anywhere on Earth he could visualize, she was able to keep a visual on known mutants and would send a team to save them if they're attacked by bigots or power hungry groups. Then, they would be offered a place in Genosha where they would be safe from such dangers. It was a very efficient system and the main reason why the mutant population all over the world was plummeting. They didn't stop appearing, they just moved somewhere safer.

Honestly, Jean 'interning' with Emma was a good choice. It gave the redhead a good idea what she would have to deal with when she takes over eventually, and it allowed her to make bonds inside the place, meaning that she was more likely to accept a position there if I offer it for her.

Mutants didn't have the protection the wizards usually had, also known as the mist, meaning that their safety was far more difficult to secure if they're not in a single location. It was why I took over Genosha after I defeated Nathaniel Essex, after all.

Still, I will admit that the situation with SHIELD was very curious, "I never imagined Fury being this heavy handed with the recruitment of mutants." I commented out loud.

Rose chuckled, "It's actually our fault, a bit. Bucky has been trying to take down the remaining Hydra cell while you were gone, and he needed help with the mutants, since he didn't know if they were brainwashed or voluntarily joined the organization. Either way, we used the doormaker network to put them in cells in Genosha. Emma and Jean then looked in their heads for signs of tampering and fixed it if there was any. If there wasn't they remained imprisoned, but if there were, after they fix it, they would offer them a position in Genosha, and removed their memories of the place if they refused. We did this to the mutants in SHIELD as well. Unfortunately, SHIELD was a lot more compromised than we thought, which means that Fury lost most of his super powered assets. It's why he's been so heavy handed with the recruitment right now."

I nodded. It made sense, after all. One of the main arguments in keeping SHIELD as an organization is the fact that it made dealt with super powered criminals and presented as a safe alternative for mutants to be useful for their administration. It was a good way of getting rid of troublesome teenagers with too much power by convincing them of playing superhero.

But with half their mutant roster gone, and the decrease in mutant criminals due to the mass migration to Genosha, it proved that SHIELD wasn't needed for things to remain stable. Fury was doing his best in proving the contrary by trying to either recruit or arrest as many mutants as he could.

It was a very dangerous policy to take, not to mention incredibly risky. But, for now, Fury was a man with nothing to lose, and that was a scary thought to have.

If anything, the next few days will prove to be interesting at the very least. I ended up spending hours with Selene, Wanda and Rose, chatting up, making jokes. It was nice to see that the ritual didn't seem to have affected the way I felt about them. I chose not to overthink things, as the day concluded, and I went to sleep. I'll worry about it tomorrow. For now, I will sleep and mourn my friend's death in peace.