Vision was aware that Sif found his silence disconcerting, but his social graces were not what they usually were; his thoughts were far too preoccupied. Even if he had had the mind stone, he doubted he would have been able to fully comprehend the scope of what Sif was suggesting.

"What you propose is not possible," Vision said at length. He looked up to Sif, who sat across the table beside Coulson in the dull grey break room.

"With all due respect, master Vision, there is no one in the nine realms who could say whether or not it is possible." She gave him a pointed looked. "You are unprecedented."

Vision pursed his lips, unable to admit that the novelty of his existence was wearing thin on his conscience. "Yes." He said, looking down at the steaming cup of tea that had been set in front of him some time ago. Briefly his mind strayed to the excitable Englishwoman who had prepared it for him; she was scatterbrained and acted somewhat like the ladies Mr. Stark referred to as 'fangirls', but she was also intelligent and kind. She had been beside herself with glee to meet Vision, and apologize for his abduction, and express that she had every faith in him.

Every faith. Humans were odd. Did they not realize that he was not worthy of all that? But Sif wasn't human. She was Asgardian, which somehow was even worse. Vision did not know what to think of her delusion.

"Are you at least willing to try?" Sif asked. Coulson, silent as he'd been for nearly an hour, glanced expectantly at Vision.

Vision gathered his thoughts. "It is not a matter of whether or not I am willing, milady, but whether it will work. And I can tell you right now that it will not."

"You can't tell me that for certain."

"I could have."

"Well you can't now."

Vision felt his jaw and neck stiffen angrily at the suggestion, but could find nothing to say in reply. The truth was, he was afraid to find out if it would work. Perhaps it would, perhaps he could manage it, but would he be strong enough to make it count? Sif seemed to understand his reservations, but she remained stubborn. Her gaze begged to be met, and though he didn't want to, Vision found himself staring into her steely eyes. They held him there as she said,

"You may not have the mind stone with you now, but its power is unfathomable. You were born into that power, and that is far more than Thanos will ever have within his grasp." As Sif stared unblinkingly at him, Vision was reminded of the fact that she had trained some of Asgard's most formidable warriors. "Regardless of the mind stone's long history, it is your birthright, and you are its heir. If I am right, you have retained far more of your powers than you perceive. With training, I can help you master them once more."

Vision knew that he would relinquish this argument to Lady Sif before long. Still, he would not do so quietly. "You are asking a blind man to fly a aeroplane," he analogized dryly.

"I am asking a recently blinded world-class pilot to fly an aeroplane – and not without help." Sif retorted. Vision pursed his lips and looked away. "It will be difficult, but not impossible, and when you face Thanos – and you must – it could save all of our lives."

Vision watched her quietly. She watched him back. Both of them knew she'd already won, so he did not feel the need to say so. Beside Sif, Coulson suddenly touched his earpiece, listening. He pulled back his sleeve to look at his watch. "Right," He said to whomever was on the other side of the radio. "Have FitzSimmons bring the bus back around – and please tell them the night-night gun will not be necessary this time." He stood, and Vision stood as well, sensing that their meeting was over. He glanced down at his baggy shirt and sweatpants and realized he would have to fall back asleep after this. He wasn't sure if he could overcome his whirring brain to manage it. He looked back up at his more snappily dressed companions as Coulson spoke.

"My team will get you home before the others wake up. Try to get some sleep. It's been an honor," Coulson extended his hand, and Vision shook it gratefully.

"The very same to you, Agent Coulson," he said.

"Please, call me Phil. With any luck, I'll see you around. And you'll be seeing a lot of Lady Sif, of course," He looked to Sif, who nodded at Vision. The synthezoid nodded back. "Best of luck to you both. Fury will be keeping an eye on the Avengers, and I'll keep an eye on your progress," He said to Vision. "In the meantime, don't mention me, forget that you know that I am alive, and have a good moving day."

"I don't suppose your 'bus' could deliver me there straightaway?" Asked Vision.

The jibe made Coulson smile. "I'm afraid not. FitzSimmons already knocked you out today, I'm not sure it would be a good idea to have them break into another one of Stark's facilities. Speaking of, they've just hacked back into Avengers tower and have only an hour window to get you back inside before Stark's firewall rewrites itself. Time to go."


Vision surprised himself by waking up the next morning.

In truth it wasn't the waking that surprised him; it was the fact that he'd had to have fallen asleep in order to now wake up, and last he'd checked, he was far too preoccupied to fall asleep after his clandestine abduction last night. And yet, the sun was in the east and Friday was telling him the time.

He had, apparently, awoken because Tony Stark was moving quickly down the hallway making a terrible racket and shouting, "Bring out yer dead! bring out yer dead!" which made no sense. A few doors down, a grumpy sounding Steve Rogers emerged from his room and said as such, to which Tony replied, "Oh my god, it's Monty Python, Rogers, you said you were with the times. Oh, whatever. Go put on your big boy pants and get your crap in the car. It's moving day!"

Ah, yes, that was today. Upish and Statish, as Tony had said.


After an hour or so of chaos, all the avengers and their personal effects (which was embarrassingly sparse, except in the case of Mr. Stark himself) were loaded onto the Quinjet and strapped into their seats. Natasha was piloting as usual, but she'd allowed Vision to play copilot (even if she didn't need one). He'd flown the jet plenty of times before – as JARVIS, of course, not as himself. Even though it was not quite the same, the displays, knobs, levers, and gauges were all familiar to him, programmed into his instincts like a second skin.

A recently blinded world class pilot, Sif's words appeared in his mind. Vision let his eyes drift shut, imagining he were flying the plane, mentally rehearsing all of things he needed to do to keep it aloft and headed straight on their path. For a brief moment, he thought he was doing rather well. Then, Natasha tilted the controls to turn sharply north. Vision's eyes jumped open and he realized that they were far lower in the sky than he'd been imagining. He sighed, disappointed in himself.

"You alright there, Red?" Natasha asked, not looking at him. He composed himself.

"As ever, Miss Romanoff," he replied quietly, heart still in his gut.


Tony swapped seats with Natasha about halfway through the flight (because he was bored, he said), and Vision had been listening to him chatter and banter with FRIDAY for nearly an hour. As JARVIS, he had sometimes wondered whether Tony meant any of the things he said to his AI assistant. Now, as a bystander, he realized that his instincts back then had been well-founded: Tony liked messing with him. And Friday as well, it seemed.

"Ah, there she is," Tony said as a large, white building appeared amid the green horizon. "Hello, beautiful. Friday, unlock the front door for us?"

"Of course, boss. It looks like someone is waiting for you."

"What?" Tony's smile disappeared and he glanced down at the computer display, bringing up security footage from the ground. "Who? It's not Fury, is it? That guy has got to work on his neighborly attitude."

"It's not Director Fury, boss. My facial recognition does not have her on file."

"Her?"

"I believe so, boss."

Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket. "JARVIS, take the wheel," He said out of habit. Vision took the controls, glancing at Tony as he tapped furiously at his phone and put it to his ear. Silence for a few beats, then,

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing on my porch?" There was a long pause, and Vision could just make out a feminine voice on the other end of the phone. Eventually, Stark said, "Oh. Well… okay." He actually did sound a touch contrite. He cleared his throat and recovered. "Don't get your alien germs all over everything. We're headed down right now."

As Vision lowered the Quinjet onto the landing pad, he could see where Lady Sif was waiting by the front door.


"Lady Sif of Asgard," Natasha said, following behind an annoyed Tony to meet their guest. She smiled and reached out a hand. "Finally get to meet you. Long trip?"

Sif nodded appraisingly. "Through the Bifrost the journey from Asgard to Midgard takes mere seconds," Said Sif seriously, not noticing how Natasha had to bite back a smile. "It as an honor to meet the Widow of Black," She shook Natasha's hand firmly. "I have heard tell of your fierceness in battle. I look forward to seeing proof of it." She gave a sly grin. As the others gathered, she turned her attention to Tony.

"Master Stark," She nodded to him. Tony glanced around her, as if looking for something.

"So Xena, are you here to sell cookies, or what?" He glanced around as if looking for someone. "Where's Hammertime?"

Sif frowned at him. Natasha leaned over to her. "He means Thor," She translated. Sif nodded, and looked back at Tony.

"Thor is unfortunately unable to return to Midgard at present. Asgard has been… a tumultuous place in recent days, at it was only after great effort that he was able to gather his war brothers together. They journey now across the nine realms in pursuit of Thanos – when last I saw their company, they were departing for Vanaheim. Heimdall watches over them." She paused gravely to remember them in her prayers. "Thor has sent me here as a messenger, and as an ally." She stood to attention and put her right fist firmly over her heart. "I am here to join your service, Master Stark, to protect your world, and prepare you all for the return of Thanos – whenever that may come." She glanced meaningfully at Vision.

Tony's eyebrows were up in his hairline because of her high-browed speech. "Well," He said, "is that all. I um… thanks." He noticed her staring, and looked back to Vision. "Introductions: First, this is Vision. He's a new addition. Maybe Thor mentioned him? He can lift the hammer, you know." Tony gave Vision a pat on the back. Sif took a breath and Vision knew what she would say: That oh, she did know him, because they'd been talking over email (or whatever other BS she and Coulson had contrived to cover their tracks) and that she had some rather interesting ideas for his training. Vision didn't know exactly why he didn't want them all to know about it when he said,

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Lady Sif," He smiled fakely and reached out a hand. "Thor has mentioned you in the past, it is nice to put a face to the name."

She frowned at him as she shook his hand. Still, she said nothing. "The pleasure is mine, Master Vision," She glared at him in confusion. Tony did not seem to notice.

"Right, you've just met Natasha. This is Sam – say hi, Sam – and Rhodey. Sorry, Colonel Rhodes, and Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, and…" The rest of the introductions went on with little fuss, and Sif was welcomed into the newly-minted Avengers HQ as part of the crew.

Vision lost track of Sif over the course of the day. People were everywhere, buzzing here and there with crates and boxes. There were movers and scientists and even SHIELD agents buzzing about overseeing the assembly of Tony Stark's millions. Pepper was shouting orders to half a dozen men with boxes, and Dr. Helen Cho and Bruce were both mother-henning over their laboratories' reconstruction in the massive science wing of their facility. The others scattered around the building, finding somewhere to be useful or out of the way. Vision opted for the latter.

He found his bedroom just where Tony had said it would be. The walls were muted beige, a calming color that he had requested, and had simple furnishings as well as a bubbling water fountain in one corner. Someone had already delivered his wardrobe – with a few new expensive additions, he noticed, no doubt courtesy of Tony. As he approached the windows, the blinds lifted automatically and he could look out across the clear, green yard to the tightly guarded treeline beyond. A reflection appeared next to his in the window.

"Why did you act as though I were a stranger?" Sif asked, stepping quietly into the room. Vision watched her in the glass.

"I do not know," He admitted. "I felt… apprehensive." He meditated on this for a moment, wondering how he had ever started to allow human emotions to dictate his actions so brashly. "I apologize, it was wrong of me to deceive them." He turned to face her. "I suppose I feared that, should the others learn of your plans, they would express more expectations for me than are due. We still do not know if I am capable of what you wish."

Sif nodded, understanding. "A fair point." She glanced back at the door. Everyone was so busy, she knew neither of them would be missed until it was dinnertime, at least. "We will train in secret, until you feel comfortable letting the others know." Vision frowned at the idea, looking distraught. He still felt it was wrong. Sif intercepted his forthcoming protest: "If this is going to work, you need to be focused and centered in your mind. If achieving that focus means keeping the other Avengers deceived about the exact nature of your training, then so be it." After a moment, Vision nodded. "Would you like to get started now?" Sif asked him. Vision took in deep breath and made himself be ready.

"Yes."

Sif shut the door and came closer to him. She pulled the blinds back down over the windows and found a spot of ground to sit comfortably. After Vision was seated across from her, he glanced up and saw that her face had transformed into an unsettling mix of eagerness and danger – a look with which her Asgardian trainees would have been familiar.

"Well then, Master Vision," She said once he was settled. "If I'm going to teach you how to use magic, I must start by asking what you already know."

"Nothing," he told her honestly. Sif seemed unsurprised.

"Very well. In that case, let us start at the beginning."

They had a long way to go.