The torture had gone on for hours... I'd been a total fool. I'd totally underestimated the Hand. I still didn't understand why the torture had gone on as it had; but it did. Surely Magneto realized he was being played. The Hand was far more powerful than he would ever be. The Hand didn't care for or really need the sentinels in the first place. But I could already infer what Magneto had in mind for them beyond doubt... He would use vibranium sentinels against humanity to make mutant kind dominant; that had always been his MO in the first place. The Hand would use the sentinels for the hell of it because they were useful. But Magneto didn't realize how powerful the Hand really was. Even I could see that now.
We were left alone in our magical restraints and under guard. Sabra said, "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into...?" I said, "Don't blame yourselves. I should have seen this coming. I didn't." Dust said, "What about your hammer Diana? Where did it go?" "Something's blocking me from getting it. It has to be this Beast..." "Can you reach out to your husband?" said Sabra. "I could; but I don't want Peter to be dragged into this." "But he'll worry, as will the rest of the X men. They have to know something's wrong by now." I nodded. "They likely do; but the Beast's power is keeping the professor and other psychics from reaching into here." "Honestly...I don't want them to come here and face a worse mess than we are already in."
"Surely they are listening to everything we are saying," said Dust. I nodded. "Yes. It's all right though. We don't know anything that could help them. Sometimes what you don't know is beneficial as well."
They had indeed stopped the torture; for now. But this was just stage one of what was to come. They'd no doubt be making a move for Wakanda in the near future. They might even hook up with the Sobek followers that hadn't seen their terror attacks against the Bast dominated tribe succeed. So really we hadn't defeated anyone; yet. We'd simply traded one villain for another. It was actually just shifting alliances at this point. There could also be Wakandan mutants as well; either already involved and/or could be drawn into the conflict.
They gave us some time to rest; that puzzled me too. Peter would be getting worried sick by now. I couldn't blame him. Our relationship and marriage had suffered much in a short time. Peter'd said he'd known what he'd signed up for. I believed him. He was my equal; he was my everything; but creation was still mine to protect. That meant Peter was within my creative charge as well. Hopefully he wouldn't try anything stupid; at least not without help. But despite the strain we continued to endure. We would do so again; be it this crisis or another. It was all part of being who I was. For now I had to be here for these X men (To those critics of the X men name out there - "man" in X men did mean a human being of "both" sexes by the way! Use a dictionary! Said by yours truly WW.) and I would be. I would see us through this - no matter what.
