[GENERAL POV]
After finishing dinner, Anakin returned to his room. He did it quietly, walking through the wide corridors of the base. His emotions were tangled in ways he didn't quite know how to sort out.
The group didn't disperse immediately. They were all still there, lingering after the meal.
Sam was the first to speak. "I knew he'd seen things, but that was a lot."
"Yeah," Steve nodded. "He's a kid. But he has the story of a veteran. And not just any veteran, one who didn't have a choice."
Wanda, who was sitting on the edge of the table, spun a spoon between her fingers. "The way he said I was a slave, like it was part of a report. His voice didn't even shake. That's not normal."
"It is for someone who learned not to feel it," Natasha said. "If you're trained from childhood not to form attachments, you bury those things. Until one day, it explodes."
Gwen, who had been silent, spoke without looking at anyone.
"He didn't say it, but you could see it. The thing about his mother it weighs on him. You can tell when he looks away and frowns."
"And he can't go get her," Sam added. "Not because he lacks the power. Because of rules."
Vision tilted his head slightly. "The Jedi Order appears structured to protect balance, but not necessarily people. Their doctrine forbids emotional attachments, which raises a profound ethical dilemma when it comes to injustices such as slavery."
"So, those Jedi know his mother is enslaved and they just decide not to do anything?" Gwen said, her fists tightening.
"From what Anakin told us," Natasha said seriously, "they freed only him. Most likely because he had a connection to the Force. But they left his mother behind. As if she didn't matter."
Sam nodded slowly, though there was an uncomfortable glint in his eyes.
"And thinking about it from their logic… why would they save her?" he said, without irony but with clear disagreement. "To them, she'd be nothing more than a potential distraction. A bond that might prevent him from following the right path. An emotional attachment they don't want him to have."
Gwen looked at him in disbelief. "Are you saying leaving her enslaved was part of the training?"
"I'm not justifying it," Sam clarified. "I'm just saying that's what it looks like if you follow the ideals he explained to us."
"And that's exactly what bothers me," Gwen said, slamming her hand on the table. "That their system sees love as a weakness. As a threat."
Steve, who had remained silent for the last few seconds, straightened slightly, resting his arms on the table.
"If attachment can make you fall… then maybe the problem isn't attachment," he said. "Maybe the problem is that no one ever taught you how to live with it. How to manage it."
Vision then spoke, his voice calm and filled with carefully measured nuance.
"From a logical perspective, the Jedi philosophy does not appear arbitrary. It is a millennia-old order, with centuries of experience maintaining peace and training individuals with extraordinary abilities. Their structure did not emerge without reason."
Gwen crossed her arms, still frowning. "Are you saying they're right?"
"Not necessarily," Vision replied. "I'm saying that if they have endured for so long, there must be a functional reasoning behind it. Perhaps the level of power wielded by Force users requires stricter emotional discipline. Perhaps their fears do not come from love itself, but from what that love might unleash if left uncontrolled."
"Like an explosion that isn't properly contained?" Wanda asked curiously.
"Yes," Vision said. "According to a brief conversation I had with Anakin two days ago, strong emotional bonds can lead to fear of loss, and that fear can lead to anger, possessiveness, and ultimately the dark side of the Force. From their perspective, detachment is not coldness, it is a form of spiritual control."
"And that is why the Jedi try to prevent those bonds from forming in the first place," Vision added.
"Then how can you protect others if you can't connect with them? Doesn't that make them inhuman?" Wanda said, still unconvinced.
"Yes. In his case they're being suppressed. And suppressing everything only creates a pressure cooker, it could be even more dangerous in the future. We saw it with his mother. They didn't save her, they left her there, and by their own principles he's probably forbidden from going back to help her. The only thing they planted was pain, and I'd even dare say resentment," Steve said with a somber expression.
"Exactly!" Gwen said. "He didn't say it outright, but you can see it. There's something in his eyes when he talks about them. It's not anger, not yet. But there is distance. Doubt. Maybe disappointment."
"Whoa, you're pretty deep for a teenager. I see you don't just kick criminals' asses," Sam said, looking at Gwen with a slight smile.
"Thanks. I've read a few psychology and self-help books," Gwen replied with a faint grin.
Sam crossed his arms. "And if he was forced as a kid to ignore everything he felt, it's a miracle he's still on the good side."
Steve nodded slowly. "Without meaning to they turned a boy who wants to do the right thing into someone who walks alone. And even so, he still fights to do the right thing."
Meanwhile, Vision closed his eyes, not from fatigue, but as if he were processing an immense quantity of data, sensations, variables, and philosophies.
When he spoke again, his voice was soft. Almost human.
"Perhaps the mistake is not in the Force. Not even in the dark side as a concept. Perhaps the mistake lies with the Jedi."
"Translate," Sam said.
"The Jedi have built their order upon control. Upon suppression. And perhaps that rigidity worked for them, but it is not universal. It should not be for their galaxy. If the Force flows through everything, through everyone… should it not also embrace what makes us alive? Should emotions like love, sadness, attachment be part of the balance? Instead of being treated as threats. The real threat would be negative emotions."
"A more flexible way of interpreting the Force?" Natasha said, raising an eyebrow.
"Not exactly," Vision replied without hesitation. "A more complete one. Neither absolute repression nor uncontrolled surrender. Neither extreme nor the other. Rather, the capacity to recognize both sides without allowing either to consume you."
There was a brief silence before Vision continued.
"In many philosophical systems on this world, there exists the concept of duality. Light and darkness. Order and chaos. Yin and yang. Not as enemies, but as complementary forces that balance one another."
After saying that, he placed a hand over his forehead, where the Mind Stone glowed faintly.
"This stone grants me a consciousness beyond the human. But it also compels me to constantly seek harmony within myself. I cannot disconnect from what I am. But neither can I allow myself to be consumed by it."
"Inner balance," Steve said.
"Exactly. And if the Force is a living energy that flows through everything then true wisdom lies not in isolating oneself from it, but in learning to walk between its two currents."
"So according to you, the dark side isn't inherently evil. It's part of the balance…" Sam said with a strange expression.
It felt odd to say it. As if, in the middle of after-dinner conversation, they had suddenly shifted from talking about training and missions to debating cosmic philosophy.
Vision nodded. "It is excess, imbalance, that corrupts. The problem is not emotion. The problem is when emotion controls you."
"Neither a repressed monk nor an unhinged lunatic," Gwen summarized, and Vision nodded with a faint smile.
There was a brief silence after that.
Then Sam raised an eyebrow, looking around. "Do you think he'll listen to our brand-new kitchen philosophy cooked up in… ten minutes?"
Gwen let out a short laugh. Wanda hid a smile behind her hand.
Vision answered completely naturally. "Considering it comes from a sentient intelligence powered by the Mind Stone, I would say it is not exactly foolish."
Steve chuckled under his breath. "Still, it won't be easy for him."
"No," Vision said, more serious now. "That doctrine has been ingrained in him since he was nine years old. It is his core. His compass. Asking him to abandon it because of a group of strangers he has known for barely a week would be asking him to dismantle his entire world."
Natasha, still standing by the window, murmured, "Then let's not tell him to dismantle it. Just to question it. At his own pace."
"And in the process not fall to the dark side of the Force, okay? I don't know… red eyes, lightning from the hands, evil laughter," Gwen joked.
Sam laughed quietly. Wanda smiled as well. Even Natasha let out a short snort.
But Steve didn't laugh. Not entirely. He straightened slightly, his gaze firm.
"He won't. And if he does we'll bring him back. No matter the cost."
Gwen raised her eyebrows, genuinely impressed.
"Wow…" she said, placing a hand over her chest with mock solemnity. "Do you always talk like you're about to give a speech in the middle of an epic battle?"
Natasha turned her head slightly, a half-smile on her lips. "Stop pretending to be sarcastic. We all know you just fell for him a little."
Gwen pretended to be offended. "Me? For Captain Perfect? Never."
Sam raised an eyebrow, joining the game with his usual half-smile. "So you fell for the tragic Jedi with the dark past. The one who stares at the horizon like he's seen things the rest of us only dream of forgetting."
He said it as a joke, expecting another ironic comeback from Gwen, some witty remark with playful venom.
But that's not what he got.
Gwen went silent for a fraction of a second.
And in that second her cheeks turned a faint shade of red.
Wanda noticed it. Natasha did too. Even Steve raised an eyebrow slightly.
Gwen blinked quickly, cleared her throat, and raised her hands.
"What? No! I just felt a little sorry for his past. That's all!"
Natasha said nothing, but her smile widened as she opened the door. "Sure. Come on, Spider-Woman. Before you say anything else we can use against you tomorrow."
Gwen walked out first without looking back. But her pace was a little faster than usual, like she was escaping something she didn't want them to notice.
When the door closed behind them, Sam let out a quiet laugh.
"Didn't think I'd hit the mark with that one."
Steve shook his head, amused but not mocking. "Don't tease her, Sam. They're kids."
Wanda stayed silent. Her expression was unreadable, as if she were processing more than she said.
Vision interlaced his fingers on the table, speaking in his characteristic analytical tone.
"It is unlikely that she is truly in love. The human concept of teenage infatuation can be confusing and multifactorial. However, considering that Anakin possesses the classic profile of a tragic hero, dark past, intense gaze, exceptional abilities, a rigid code that suffocates him, and a heavy burden from what I can deduce, and that Gwen is currently in the most emotionally volatile stage of adolescence…"
"Vision…" Sam interrupted, raising a hand. "That's a lot of information, man."
"I spoke too much, didn't I?" Vision said, tilting his head slightly.
"Yes," Wanda nodded with a small smile, taking a sip from her glass.
...
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