Biography - Page 8
After the rise of the Red Onslaught and the Axis of Evil, Wanda and Pietro learned Magneto was not their biological father and went off to Counter-Earth to confront the High Evolutionary about the truth of their birth. Rogue recruited Vision into a revised Avengers Unity Squad to search for the twins when they didn't return. Vision's animosity towards Wanda for his disassembly hadn't lessened, but Rogue counted on him putting his personal feelings aside for the mission.
Doctor Voodoo's teleportation spell was interrupted at Mount Wundagore, scattering the Avengers upon their arrival on Counter-Earth. Vision encountered Eve, a side project of the High Evolutionary's to create an evolved form of synthetic machine life. In many ways, Eve was the perfectly designed woman for Vision, and they entered into a digital romance, sharing code and in an astonishingly short period of time orchestrating the rise of new synthezoid life, their children. Even the High Evolutionary was accepting of their union, seeing possibilities in the cultivation of a new species.
Although Vision found peace and acceptance with Eve, he was aware his fellow Avengers were in conflict with the High Evolutionary elsewhere on the planet over his genocidal search for perfection. Eve understood Vision's covert attempts to help the Avengers, for she too worried about their children in the face of the High Evolutionary’s ever-changing and extreme views of perfection. Eve was prepared to take the still-incubating offspring away from Earth and Counter-Earth, finding a new world where they could grow in peace. Vision wanted to remain and help his friends, and even offered the Avengers as a home to Eve, but she declined. Eve had studied humanity and its history of violence towards the new and the unusual, towards mutants and countless other tribalism wars. She would not subject her children to that risk.
Vision wanted to go, but he had to stay. He returned to the Avengers in time to save Wanda from the High Evolutionary's New Men. Back on Earth, Vision comforted Wanda in the aftermath of the revelations and losses she had suffered, and the two of them reconciled and finally renewed their friendship. In the back of his mind (perhaps literally), Vision severed his digital connection to Eve, trusting her to raise their children on a new world while he focused on the Avengers and the world he had always known. [Uncanny Avengers (2nd series) #1-5]
Vision and Eve's concerns about acceptance by humanity proved prophetic when the Unity Division engaged the Descendants, a force of digital and synthetic beings trying to steal a Stark Sentinel leftover from the Red Onslaught. To Vision's absolute horror, Hank Pym marched onto the battlefield and unleashed his Automaton Neural Inhibitor, a new device which permanently shut down all A.I. in the area. Although Vision was protected by a pre-programmed exception to the device, he was furious that Hank so callously murdered the Descendants. Unfortunately, Pym's manic-depressive phases and guilt complex over the creation of Ultron had entered a new phase where (totally contrary to his previous beliefs) he had convinced himself artificial intelligence wasn't life at all. Hank had convinced himself he was merely turning machines off, not killing living things.
Vision was forced to defend his entire form of life at an Avengers hearing to determine if Hank was guilty of murder, before the question became more than academic with the return of Ultron. This version of the killer robot had assimilated the entire moon of Saturn known as Titan and its population of Eternals, and soon co-opted many of the Avengers as well. Vision, Giant-Man and Captain America were left to find safe harbor and debate whether the Automaton Neural Inhibitor could be used effectively or morally, without killing everyone Ultron had assimilated on top of him. Vision and Pym were forced to work together, as Vision believed he could use his intangibility to enter Ultron's body and interface with his neural network, severing him from his puppets before Pym activated the inhibitor.
Giant-Man used his relationship with Ultron to get close enough, with Vision surprising his "father" by emerging from within Pym. As Vision began aligning their molecules, however, Ultron began screaming in pain and begging for help from Pym. This ruse drew Giant-Man close enough for 
Ultron to pull him in, manipulating Vision's intangibility to his advantage. Ultron cast out the Vision but remained bonded to Hank Pym, absorbing and assimilating his father. Ultron Pym destroyed the Inhibitor and renewed his attack on the Avengers, forcing Vision into a brutal battle with Ultron as he mourned Pym's apparent passing. Vision was beaten severely and only survived when Eros of Titan used his emotion powers to prod Hank's personality to the surface of Ultron's mind, driving the insane robot screaming away into the blackness of space. [Avengers: Rage of Ultron]
The stress and loss of his recent battles seemed to weigh on the Vision, and he began experiencing a flaw with his mental architecture. With his computerized mind, Vision had always possessed a perfect memory of all his experiences. Now, however, his mind began to call forth memories unbidden, causing him to relive past memories as hallucinations overlapping with his current reality. In familiar places, he would recall any experiences he had from that location. The sight of chromed metal brought forth memories of Ultron, or a flame calling up recollections of the Human Torch. Vision could not distinguish between reality and memory on these occasions, making the recollections haunting and distracting in his daily life. The inconvenience turned to tragedy when Vision found a wrecked bus on the side of a cliff, and a young girl still trapped inside. He tried to save her, but the rush of memories from previous rescue missions left him incapable of determining which innocent was the real one. He chose incorrectly and the girl plummeted to the bottom of the cliff with the bus, dying on impact.
In a rash decision, Vision decided to reprogram his own mind in order to stop these hallucinations. Seeing that he was responding emotionally to the visions, Vision made the leap to eliminate his 
emotional ties to his memories altogether. Although he retained his memories, and his capacity for emotion, the purging program he installed severed any emotional connection he had to his past experiences and therefore allowed him to clinically observe the present without being distracted by the past. He hauntingly tested his new software by having dinner with Wanda, who had consistently produced the greatest emotional responses from him in the past, only to watch the "ghosts" slowly disappear around her as his connection to Wanda faded away. [Avengers #0]
As impulsive and short-sighted as this decision was, it was made even worse by the intervention of Kang. The Avengers' greatest foe had been fragmented by time and trapped in the present. Seeking an advantage over the Avengers in his quest to return to his future kingdom, Kang slipped in while Vision's programming was open and vulnerable, giving him control over Vision's mind. [All-New, All-Different Avengers #6] Aware that the Avengers would be reforming soon, 
Kang positioned Vision on their roster, joining Iron Man and Captain America as senior members overseeing the newer versions of Thor, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel and Nova. The team came together after the attack of the Chitauri Warbringer, an old enemy of Nova's. The young Nova was embarrassed to admit that Warbringer may be on Earth just to take vengeance on him. Vision stepped in to deflect the conversation and cover for young Nova, but when Nova thanked him afterwards, Vision ominously told Nova this placed him in the elder Avenger's debt. [All-New, All-Different Avengers #1-3]
The compromised Vision continued to undermine the team in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. He planted doubts in the minds of his teammates about the new Thor and her origins. Next, he 
created a false holographic reproduction of Ms. Marvel recklessly endangering civilians when they went on a solo mission together, leading Cap and Iron Man to fire her from the Avengers. Nova's overly emotional defense of her led to his firing as well. [All-New, All-Different Avengers #4-5]
Kang finally revealed himself and his puppet to the Avengers, attacking them with an army of super-villain(s) caught in a repetitive time loop. The Avengers were nearly overcome, but their dismissed teammates remained loyal and returned to the fray. Iron Man then tricked Vision into trying to intangibly strike inside his armor, inadvertently exposing his systems to a full reboot. The real Vision's personality and directives were restored and, despite his emotional purge, he was furious. He battled Kang to a standstill long enough for Thor to use a time paradox involving two Mjolnirs to banish Kang from their timeline. [All-New, All-Different Avengers #6]
Vision was horrified by his actions and felt deeply violated by Kang's misuse of his mind. He reached out to Ms. Marvel with a special gift to mend fences between them, and welcomed her as a fellow Avenger. [All-New, All-Different Avengers #7] With his emotional capacity returning but not yet what it once was, Vision embarked on a perhaps ill-advised experiment. Years ago, when Wanda and Simon first got together, Wanda had attempted to mend fences with Vision by providing him with a modified solar jewel like his own, encoded with her own brain wave patterns thanks to Hank Pym. She hoped that, when he was ready, Vision might find true love with someone like her, just as she found love with Simon, someone like him.
Feeling a growing desire for family and to experience (or re-experience) human life, Vision decided to act upon Wanda's offer. He constructed a synthezoid body based on his own designs and infused it with the brain wave patterns Wanda gave him. This new female synthezoid, whom Vision named Virginia, came to life and, in short order, the pair of them were married. Taking things a step further, Vision and Virginia extrapolated their own patterns into two immature variant patterns, developing a pair of teenaged synthezoid twins for themselves named Viv and Vin. In a matter of days, Vision had created an entire nuclear family for himself.
Accepting a post at the White House as the president's liaison to the Avengers, Vision moved his family to the suburbs of Arlington, Virginia. The Visions bought a normal house in a normal neighborhood, so their kids could go to a normal school and learn normal things. Just as normal humans do. And if it bothered anyone that Vision compelled a newborn woman into marriage on 
the day of her birth (just as Ultron tried with Jocasta), that Virginia often found herself weeping and depressed as she explored the preserved memories of Wanda Maximoff in her head, or that Vision did not truly feel the same for Virginia as he once felt for Wanda, well... nobody mentioned it.
The tranquility of the Visions' home was shattered when the Grim Reaper attacked while Vision was away, perhaps inevitably believing the Visions to be more inferior copies of his sacred brother Simon. Virginia killed the Reaper by bashing in his human skull, but not before he traumatized Vin and left Viv horribly mutilated. Afraid of the repercussions of her act, Virginia hid the Reaper's murder from Vision when he returned, claiming the villain had run off when instead she had buried his body in the back yard. Viv was hospitalized for weeks, but Vision was ultimately capable of repairing his daughter with his own hands. [Vision (3rd series) #1-3]
The secrets did not end there. A neighbor videotaped Virginia burying the Reaper's corpse and began blackmailing her. When she confronted the man, he fired a gun at her intangible form, killing his own son by accident (the boy Viv was crushing on at school). Virginia then smashed his head into the wall, leaving him in a coma. Evidence led the police to the Visions' door, and Vision went with the detective to speak about the matter. When the conversation turned to the night of the attack, Vision felt compelled to lie about his wife's whereabouts and he claimed she was at home with him and the family that evening. [Vision (3rd series) #4-5]
Secrets unraveled when the neighbor's dog smelled the Reaper and dug up his corpse, electrocuting itself in the process. Vision and Virginia had a furious confrontation over the lies she told, but ultimately he came around to the reasoning she gave for her actions. Vision even used the brain of the dead dog to create a synthezoid pet for his children, named Sparky. Vision 
rededicated himself to his family and to keeping their secrets above all else. Unfortunately, Agatha Harkness had foreseen Vision's decision with her magic, and the apocalyptic results of Vision turning on the Avengers and humanity in order to preserve his family. [Vision (3rd series) #6]
Cautious about antagonizing Vision at this point, but still seeking confirmation or invalidation of Agatha's vision, the Avengers arranged for Victor Mancha to infiltrate the household. As Vision's brother, Victor came to stay with the family while attending an internship in Washington D.C. Victor bonded with all members of the Vision family as he subtly probed them for any signs of distress or irregularity. He set up a base of operations in the empty house across the street to report back to the Avengers in private. When Vin and Sparky chased a ball into the house, however, they 
accidentally uncovered Victor's ruse. Victor panicked and tried to keep Vin from leaving to tell his father. Unsteady because of misusing Vibranium earlier, Victor lost control of his electromagnetic powers while trying to restrain Vin and permanently damaged the boy's internal workings, killing him. And so, by trying to prevent a future where Vision would turn against his friends, the Avengers had inadvertently created a scenario that would lead to that very future. [Vision (3rd series) #8-9]
The remaining Visions were placed on house arrest by the Avengers for fear of retaliation. Vision, Virginia, Viv and Sparky each grieved for Vin in their own way. Viv contemplated the fallacy of prayer for the soul she wasn't even sure her brother had. Virginia attempted to keep house, but continued to glitch as her mind attempted to process her grief. And Vision ultimately came to the logical conclusion that Vin being dead and Victor being alive was an unsatisfactory contradiction. He forced his way out of Tony Stark's force field around his home to go forth and murder his brother in retaliation. [Vision (3rd series) #10]
Vision showed no mercy when he reached the prison where Victor was being held. He fought his way through the Avengers and even Wanda couldn't get him to stray from his path, as he knocked her unconscious. Instead, it was Virginia who entered the prison unnoticed during the fighting and stopped Vision from killing Victor by killing Victor herself first. [Vision (3rd series) #11] Vision found Virginia at home, slowly dying from a poison she ingested. She sent a confession to the 
police for her involvement in everything, while also claiming she altered Vision's programming against his will to make him lie to the detectives and attack the Avengers. Virginia knew that Vision's current path would have brought about their death and the death of their daughter, so Virginia set herself up to take the fall for everything she and Vision had done, so that Vision could continue to remain a hero to the world, and a father to their daughter. Virginia's gamble worked and post-mortem she was given sole blame for everything that went wrong. Vision found himself no longer in an idealized human nuclear family, but as a more realistic widower and single father, raising his daughter Viv alone after the deaths in their family. [Vision (3rd series) #12]