Chapter 1: Here We Go Again

The avengers mansion, a building housing the earth's mightiest heroes, serving as a base of operations for their day-to-day battles. Over the years, the old building had seen its fair share of attacks. It had seen villainy at its worst. It had seen it all and each time the avengers had come out on top. Even in recent months, Alex summers had succeeded in saving the world from a near apocalypse. Saving the world from a world dictated by his brother and mutants like him, with his same narrow view of the world and its inhabitants. So why now, with this victory, did Alex feel so defeated?
Alex stood in front of his bedroom mirror, his crystal blue eyes scanning his scared face, His trophy for saving the world. He used to be so beautiful, a pure work of chiseled art, now his once angelic face resembled the monster he felt like inside. His eyes scanned down his face to the scars to the upper right of his peck. The burns mostly stopped there with a few marks lingering over the waistline of his pitch-black briefs.
So this was his life now. People starring at him everywhere he goes. His own wife not even wanting to sleep in the same bed as him, the same room even. His own daughter, gone, lost in a world that could've been.
All Alex had to show of his so-called victory was this scar. This damning scar. Alex punched the mirror in front of him, the glass shattering into a webbed formation. It was broken now. Just like him. He watched as the blood dripped down into the cracks of the glass, staining it with the Crimson color of red. He panted loudly. He was so wrapped up in his inner thoughts that he didn't notice the woman behind him, sitting, admiring his inner turmoil as if it were some sort of sick poem.
She smiled gleefully as he punched the mirror, As he shattered it. She could feel the rage boiling inside of him. It was intoxicating. So much like the man she had fallen for so long ago. So much like the man she had created. He was still there. She was sure of it now more then ever. This may be easier then she thought.
"Now now," she began with a scolding tone to her voice. "Alex summers, what did that mirror ever do to you. Show you the truth? It is its job. Maybe you shouldn't look if you don't like what you see."
Alex's eyes glanced over his shoulder in the mirror, not bothering to turn. He saw her distorted body through the cracks in the glass, sitting there on his bed, On Janet's bed. There, Madelyn Pryor sat with a certain entitled pride, as if she owned everything in the room. As if she owned him. He glared at her angrily.
"Get. Out." He snarled through gritted teeth.
"Like Janet?" Madelyn asked innocently raising an eyebrow.
"Get! Out!" Alex spoke sterner this time, turning around to face the woman. Her green eyes peering into his, as if she was peering into his very soul, absorbing his anger, letting it fuel her.
"Like Lorna?" Maddy questioned again, a grin starting to form on her face.
"Get! Out!"
"Like Katie?" Madelyn's grin turned into a full on giddy smile as if she were winning at this little game they were playing.
Alex lunged out her, wrapping his large hands around her frail neck and tackling her to the bed. "GET OUT MADELYN! NOW! GET OUT OF HERE!" His hands clamped tightly around her, squeezing the air out effectively. He wanted her dead. He wanted to end her for everything she had done, for the manipulation, the Satanism, the mention of his daughter. But he couldn't. Could he?
"Oooooh that's it," Madelyn coughed out with her ecstatic smile never leaving her face. "I remember this part. This is where you rip off my clothes isn't it? You were also the more kinky of the two." She laughed slightly.
"STOP IT!"
"No Alex you stop. You're not going to kill me. We both know you could never kill me. We both know you always loved me more then any of them. Heh Yknow what's funny? Usually I have to manipulate or use mind control to make slave but you, you loved it. It's like you like being bossed around. Having the power of choice taken from your hands. At the end of the day, you love being someone else's bitch Alex summers."
"You don't know me you psychotic cunt!" He screamed out, a single tear falling from his eye. "You don't know anything about me." He knew that he was lying. She knew everything about him. Out of all of the women Alex knew, Madelyn was the only one that knew him, truly knew him. Maybe that's why he couldn't bring himself to do this, to end it, to stop the suffering, because if he killed her, he killed himself.
"Don't I? You're favorite dish is pizza but usually you try to be fancy and pretend it's something stupid like caviar or some French word for salad that no one can pronounce. You twitch your right eye when you lie, like right now. Lastly you're no leader. Which brings me to my next question: what are you doing here Alex summers," Madelyn questioned, the smile fading from her face.
Alex's arms when limp and he let his hold on Madelyn's neck go. She was right. Every last word of it. He was never a leader. That was Scott. He was a follower. Alex climbed off the bed and walked over to the window of the room, looking out it onto the city before him. Sirens and car horns polluted the streets as the light did the sky. It was a plague. Just like the crime. But he never wanted to stop it. He never wanted to lead a team. He just wanted to mean something. To someone. Something he had never done. Never had.
Madelyn sat up, her flaming red hair falling down into her face. She looked at him standing there, so tall, so muscular, yet he did not carry himself as a leader. He carried himself with loss, with a chip on his shoulder. She had noticed it well before she had decided to come into contact with him.
Madelyn got up and walked over to him. His mind was cluttered with conflicting thoughts. It would be so easy for her to mold his mind into servitude. But that would be no fun. No, she had to pick out their fondest memories, making them stick out in the mans mind. She had to pick out his doubts, his fears, his hatred and mold them to suit her.
Madelyn stood next to him, her hand landing on his back, running up and down its toned and muscular scape. She then looked up him. His charred face was so... Interesting to her. He thought of it as a curse but she saw it differently, as a mark of defeat, of a new man, a broken man. She always had loved those.
"It's all an act," he finally stated, not taking his eyes off the city before him. "This whole squad is a sham, led by the terrorists baby brother. I never wanted this. I never was cut out to be a leader Madelyn. God... I've lost so much... So much for what? My own pride? To prove something to Scott? Prove what? That I'm a failure? Just look at me. I'm done for. Not even my wife wants to look at this face. This damned face, the face of failure. The face of broken promises."
"The face of a solider," Madelyn objected, placing her hand on the scar. Alex turned to look at her. Sorrow and dread filled his aqua colored eyes. The pain pierced Madelyn's soul, or at least what she had left of one.
"You are beautiful Alex summers. Where you see imperfections, I see opportunity. I see perfection waiting to happen. This face is not damned. It is beauty. It is art. I love it almost as much as I love you my prince."
"I'm not you're prince Maddy," Alex turned away in frustration and pain. He wanted nothing more then to throw caution to the wind once more. To be the prince to Madelyn's queen. He always loved her ruling over him. Making all of his decisions for him. He loved being her warrior. Her protector. But he couldn't. He had Janet to look after. He loved her... Even if she didn't love him at the moment. He couldn't go back to being bad. He couldn't abandon the avengers.
"No... But you could be. Alex please come back. Help me bring Scott to his knees. We can destroy him, save this world from his tyranny. You saw what happens if he wins."
"I saw what happens if the apocalypse twins win."
"Is Scott winning really any different? He's already on a collision course to destroy everything is mutants have worked so hard for. He's setting us back. If he wins millions of innocence will die."
"Since when do you care about innocence Maddy?" Alex questioned with a sneer.
"I could care less about them. But I do care about Scott being happy. Winning will make him very happy and I cannot have that happen. Together with you as my warrior, we can stop him. We can be happy. Together. Forever. Like it always should have been. I'll make it so you'll never be hurt again Alex. I can fix you."
Alex stood there a moment, examining Madelyn. He wanted to end this. End all of this madness. He wanted to recount her betrayal, Her acts of tyranny. But could. All he could remember was their late nights of laughter, of pure of utter happiness. Alex leaned in quickly, kissing Madelyn passionately on the lips, letting her control flow over him, Her sweet control. His eyes closed as they kissed but hers stayed open wide. She smirked sinisterly, weaving through his brain, leaving her psychic imprint, branding him. He would never leave her again.
He pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes. "I never stopped loving you...," Alex spoke getting down on one knee. "... My queen."
Madelyn smiled sinisterly. She had won.