mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
The plan worked! ... eventually.
Killmonger: "Wait, but you're a woman. I'm supposed to get to use and then betray you, not that other way around. That's illegal."
Look What You Made Me Do (MCU)
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Chapter 63
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Chapter 63
I watched, fascinated, as the Wakandan doctor deftly manipulated the holographic representation of the inside of my hand, directing the vibranium nanotech as it reattached my fingers. It was surprising just how simple it all looked, given what was happening beneath the surface. While it might not have looked like it, he was performing a series of complex microsurgeries, reattaching nerves and tendons with impossibly small sutures and glues.
My index and middle fingers had been saved, thankfully, but they hadn't been able to recover the tip of my ring finger. I was torn between being happy and relieved that my hand wasn't going to be permanently crippled—provided there were no unexpected complications, at least—while also feeling a bit weird that there was literally a piece of me still missing.
There was no other permanent damage. I didn't know what the usual recovery times for Wakandan miracle tech were, but I was pretty sure that in a normal scenario I'd be in for months of physical therapy and might never regain full sensation and functionality in those fingers. However, thanks to the Heart-Shaped Herb, it was more likely to only be a day—two or three at the absolute most—before my injuries were completely healed and I was back to a hundred per cent (…if you didn't count my missing fingertip). This apparently wasn't the first time someone with Bast's blessing had had a severed finger reattached and the doctor seemed fairly confident what the likely prognosis was. Apparently, not only should I regain full use of my fingers within a day or so, but I wasn't even likely to scar particularly badly.
The stab wound that had gone right through me had missed all my vital organs—'All of them?!' I mentally quoted to myself with a smile—and would also be basically healed overnight. Eliza had more than likely intentionally been dragging things out, and with the Herb I apparently probably wouldn't have even bled out from it. And T'Challa had expected me to give this up? No, I was never going to relinquish the Herb, no matter how personally affronted he was by that and how much it continued to strain my relations with Wakanda. It was proving far too integral to my continued survival to even consider otherwise.
After Eliza had been defeated and the situation with Shuri had been defused, everything had sort of passed by in a blur. Soon after, a portal had sparked into being and I had honestly never been happier to see the familiar, spiralling orange threads of sorcerous magic. Steve was first through, followed closely behind by the Ancient One and Wong. All of them looked terrible—between the Hand, the Iron Legion, and Eliza's Extreme Taskmasters, everyone had been put through the wringer.
Everyone else who hadn't managed to follow after Eliza and I—Bucky, Natasha, Mordo and Okoye—had all been injured or incapacitated during the fight at the warehouse and had had to be evacuated. Apparently, the Hulk had been slowed down quite a bit too, after being blinded temporarily by a point-blank Extremis explosion, but his eyes had repaired themselves pretty quickly.
We pointed out the building that Tony had been buried under and the Ancient One excavated it, using a few precise spells to levitate and move the rubble out of the way. His armour had saved him, as I'd expected—he was injured, but wasn't in notably worse shape than anyone else. His suit was basically a complete wreck, though, and he'd essentially had to be cut out of it. Killmonger had been immediately secured by Dora Milaje on arrival back at the Great Mound and escorted away—I was pretty sure he'd be standing trial for treason and T'Challa's attempted murder. I suspected we wouldn't be seeing him again.
I lay back contentedly and basked in the feeling of being utterly pain-free as the nanotech finished off its work. Wakanda had the best drugs. I felt completely lucid, if a little bit like I was going to go floating away. It was pleasantly like astral projecting. I was fully in control, just… lighter than air. Once the Wakandan doctor was done inspecting the work that had been done on me, my hand was tightly bound with bandages that went rigid after application, so I wouldn't be able to accidentally aggravate it while it healed. That done, a nurse trundled me out of surgery and into the room that was being used for our team members' post‑op recovery.
Pietro was there waiting, pacing up and down the length of the room, a comfortingly familiar ball of nervous energy. He'd been mostly fine; the hit he'd taken had looked worse than it actually was. Natasha was there, too, sitting off to one side next to another bed occupied by a sleeping Clint—she perked up as well when she saw me.
Clint… his entire right arm below the shoulder was gone. It had essentially been completely obliterated by Eliza. Unlike with me, there was nothing left that could be reattached. He was permanently crippled, which made me feel just that little bit worse about my own good fortune. If I'd been a little stronger, a little faster… maybe that wouldn't have happened. There was nothing I could do about it now, though. With any luck, he'd hopefully at least be able to score a cool robot arm like Bucky's. The room's final other occupant, also currently either asleep or unconscious post-surgery, was Mordo. The sorcerer had been badly burnt at the periphery of an Extremis explosion—extensive skin graft badly—and was heavily swathed in bandages while they took.
Once the nurse had slid my bed into place Pietro came over immediately, with Nat quickly following after him. My brother lunged in and hugged me—I laughed for a brief moment before a dull spike of pain shooting through my ribcage at the motion. "Ow! Okay! Off!" I wheezed.
"Sorry." Pietro pulled back, a wide grin plastered across his face.
"Hey," Nat said, a warm smile crinkling her cheeks. "You had us worried there, for a moment."
"Eh," I responded, returning the smile. "You know me. I can be pretty dramatic sometimes."
Pietro was looking at my bandaged hand. "How are your fingers?" he asked, his brow creasing slightly.
"All good—well, the two we found, at least. I probably won't be playing the piano for the next few days, but they'll supposedly heal quickly."
He let out a huff of air. "I freaked out a bit, when I woke up," he confessed. "I thought maybe…"
"That's fair. I was pretty sure I was going to die, too," I said. "But then I thought to myself 'I can't die; I didn't get to tell Pietro he's an idiot one last time'."
Pietro rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. Nat hesitated, fidgeting slightly, before she reached down and picked up my uninjured hand. She squeezed my fingers gently, and I squeezed hers back. A moment later, she tucked something cold and metallic into my palm. My eyes flicked down to see what it was and I let out a small snort of amusement. My sling ring.
"Don't tell the Ancient One we found that," Nat said, a small smile quirked the corner of her lips. "Steve told her he thought Eliza must have destroyed it after she cut it off you."
"Did he now?" I murmured, looking down at the relic for a moment before closing my fist tightly around it. I admit, I'd been worried that I wasn't going to be getting it back again. "Speaking of fingers… the Hand?"
"The Hand's done," she said. "All the Fingers were killed in the attack."
Huh. I'd honestly kind of expected Gao or Reid to get away, at least. "All of them? You're sure? We have all five bodies?"
Pietro let out a soft snort of satisfied amusement. "Three and a half," he said.
I looked back at Nat, tilting my head questioningly. "We'll do a proper team debrief—fill everyone in on what happened for the bits they missed—but long story short Murakami and Sowande got caught in an Extremis detonation," she explained. "There wasn't much left of them."
"The witch didn't get away either, right?" I asked. "Steve said something about a crash." Given the way that the support platform had fallen out of the sky, my assumption was that Eliza had been actively piloting both vehicles when Wanda‑3 had taken her down.
Nat nodded. "Basically immediately after Eliza went out. Some sort of explosive device went off in the cabin, too. We're still not sure exactly what happened, but our best theory is that Beck had some sort of explosive collar on him. He was killed instantly. The witch was more intact, but she's dead too. We're not sure if the explosion or the crash got her."
Honestly, I felt a little sorry for Quentin Beck. I mean, he became a villain eventually in the original timeline, but this version of him hadn't actually done anything yet. He was just some guy who worked for Stark Industries, pressed into the service of a homicidal AI, and now he was just… dead. It felt a bit senseless.
"She had the book and the sceptre with her," Pietro added. "The Ancient One took them."
"We've been in contact with Nick, too," Natasha said, looking pensive. "He's been keeping an eye on things with Pym. Apparently Ghost is with them now, which explains why she wasn't at the warehouse."
"That makes sense, I guess. Eliza would have promised her a cure in exchange for her help. They won't have had time to build a quantum tunnel yet, so she'll probably stay put, and if she's already getting what she wants, she's probably not an immediate threat."
Nat nodded. "We'll need to address it at some point. Wakanda want to go after her, but it's not something we need to deal with right away."
The Hand was wrapped up. The book and sceptre had been recovered. We had eyes on Ghost. It was really starting to look like there were no loose ends, but I supposed we wouldn't be completely sure until Tony and Pepper did a full investigation into what Eliza had Stark Industries doing. Even then, there was always a possibility that we'd missed something… "We don't have any pictures of the witch, do we?" I asked suddenly. "I didn't recognise her, but I honestly didn't get that good a look at her."
Nat nodded, turning and fishing a tablet out of a slim messenger bag she had slung over her shoulder. She tapped at the screen for a moment before handing it to me. I stared at the prone woman, searching her features, hoping for some spark of recognition. She looked… peaceful in death. Her eyes were closed. If not for the ugly, bloody wound at her temple, it would have been easy to imagine she was just sleeping. After a few more seconds, I shook my head and handed the tablet back to Nat.
"I have no idea who she is," I said. Just another random casualty of Eliza's plots, I supposed. A mystery that might never be solved.
"Who cares?" Pietro said dismissively. "She was helping Eliza and now she's dead."
I shook my head. "I don't like not knowing. I'm used to knowing."
"Well, I suppose you'll just have to get used to dealing with things like this like everybody else does," Nat said, her tone lightly teasing. "Do things the old-fashioned way, instead of relying on your visions."
"What's next?" I asked.
"I was going to go see Steve," Nat said. "I think he was talking to T'Challa about you."
"Ugh. Should I come, or…?"
"Do you want to come?"
I grinned. "I mean, always, but I don't think my bits are in any condition for playtime right now," I said. "Give me a couple of days." Pietro pretended to gag, his face twisting in disgust.
"Well, at least you're getting back to your usual self," Natasha said, rolling her eyes and letting out a small chuckle. "It might be better if you leave things to Steve and I. You seem to have a special talent for aggravating the royals."
As if summoned by our conversation, the door to the room slid open and Steve and T'Challa entered, flanked by a pair of Dora Milaje acting as an honour guard. "Speak of the devil." I propped myself up a bit more so I could see everyone properly. "T'Challa," I said, a little tentatively. "How's Shuri?"
"Angry. Awake and unhurt, but angry."
"Sorry."
"I…" he hesitated, his jaw working silently for a moment as he considered his words. "Understand why you thought you had to do what you did."
"So… no hard feelings?"
His expression and lack of an immediate response answered that for me. After an awkward moment of silence, Steve cleared his throat. "We just came from a discussion with the king. About your trial," he said, looking between Pietro and I. I groaned, dropping my head back and closing my eyes for a moment.
"I spoke to my father about what I witnessed in San Francisco," T'Challa started slowly. "With the AI… and with my cousin."
I shook my head. "You saved me, too. I think that makes us just about even. I mean, 'thanks for not betraying us and killing me' is sort of putting the bar in the basement, isn't it?"
"King T'Chaka is a reasonable man. He knows you aren't Wakanda's enemies," Steve interjected. "You've demonstrated that pretty definitively, I think."
T'Challa paused, once again seeming to pick his words carefully. "The king has decreed that your time imprisoned in the Great Mound, assisting Wakanda against the AI, and exposing N'Jadaka's schemes, has been sufficient to show your contrition."
"Time served?" Nat asked, a note of surprise in her tone.
"However," the Wakandan prince continued, looking mildly annoyed at the interruption. "The two of you are to be banished from our country, never to return."
"Unless there's another global threat," Steve added. T'Challa shot him a warning look, but didn't contradict him.
I blinked. That was unexpected. After how everything always seemed to go against me, I'd honestly been expecting worse. "That… is a damn good deal. I'll take that deal."
"There is one other thing I want to say," T'Challa said, fixing me with an unnervingly intense look. There was a long, pregnant silence as he searched my features for something before he spoke again. "Do not make me regret saving you." His tone was serious.
"I'll try," I said, nodding slowly.
With that, the Wakandan prince turned and left, his honour guard trailing behind him. It didn't look like he was kicking us out of the country right that exact instant, which was nice, but the moment Clint was awake and the rest of the Avengers were ready to move, I'd be gone. I didn't want to test his patience.
Steve and Nat left shortly thereafter, to catch up with the others and wrap up any remaining small matters with Wakanda, and while they were gone the Ancient One came to collect Mordo. She opened a portal right there in the recovery room, a pair of red-robed sorcerers stepping through to help transfer the injured sorcerer to a comfortable-looking bed on the other side, somewhere in Kamar-taj.
Once he was through, the Ancient One glanced in my direction, catching me watching them. She paused, then dismissed her portal and started toward me. I must have visibly tensed, because she held up her hand briefly in a peaceful gesture, stopping a comfortable distance from the side of my bed.
"I wanted to thank you for your help," she said mildly.
"Sure… and not to ask me, once again, if I wouldn't mind terribly being banished back from whence I came?"
A smile quirked the corner of the sorcerer's mouth. "It may have crossed my mind," she confessed. "But as I said, our truce stands for the time being. Perhaps… perhaps we will even work together again. Kaecilius still plots against Kamar-taj. It may be beneficial to continue our relations with the Avengers."
"Good," I said, nodding. "You should keep in contact with Wakanda, too. This is… this is what I wanted. What I was trying to do. Start an alliance strong enough to handle what's coming." Despite my words, I frowned as I spoke, a brief shadow passing across my features.
The Ancient One caught my expression. "Is something wrong?" she asked, tilting her head curiously.
I grunted noncommittally and shook my head. Something was bugging me, but it was hard to articulate. I tried anyway. "Something about this isn't sitting right with me. 'Things rhyme', you said, which is true enough. Three fights against Ultron, three against Eliza. Their births, in Avengers Tower. The second fight over resources. Vibranium. The third fight against Ultron was a big one, too, and there are definitely similarities—the army of drones—but he was going to wipe out humanity. We stopped him from basically ending the world. With Eliza… what? There wasn't any great big end planned. No grand scheme that we foiled." I sighed, shaking my head. "I don't know. Maybe it's nothing. I just… I can't help feeling like there's something that we missed."
--
Agatha Harkness let out a small sigh, her shoulders relaxing. Her accommodations at Eliza's warehouse hadn't been uncomfortable, but it really did feel good to be home.
The witch gestured and let go of the Darkhold, a minor expression of telekinetic magic returning it to its stand on one of the tables on the edge of the stone chamber. A second flick of her hand sent the page she'd torn from the Book of Cagliostro floating through the air until it seemingly hit an invisible barrier between two pillars. Threads of Agatha's purple lashed it in place, ready for her to examine it in greater detail at her leisure. The witch took a few steps forward into the centre of the underground chamber, her footsteps echoing hollowly as she looked around. Nothing was out of place; everything was exactly as she had left it.
Eliza was almost certainly dead. Agatha felt fairly confident about that—after the dragon flyer had gone down, there'd been no sign of any of her drones, no attempt at communication. The Avengers had beaten her, somehow. Wanda had beaten her.
As she acknowledged it in her head, Agatha was surprised to feel a small twinge of sadness. She let it sit in her chest, mulling over the feeling. Yes, she was definitely, actually a little sad that Eliza was gone. Not just for the loss of the potential path to power, either. Eliza had been… fun. It had been a long, long time since Agatha had been anything other than a loner; a covenless witch. At her own design, she never really spent an extended period of time with anyone. Not since Nicky—
Agatha took a deep breath, immediately pushing that thought away, her eyes starting to mist over slightly. Why'd she have to go and think about him? A hand went up and rubbed the locket at her throat.
Señor Scratchy—her familiar—hopped out of the shadows, cautiously approaching her feet. Agatha could sense that the demon-in-rabbit-form was worried she was annoyed with him, but she definitely wasn't. "Hey there, mister," she said, bending over to pick him up. The witch hunkered down in a half-kneeling crouch, tucking a hand under his chest to support him while his back legs rested on her leg. "Someone was a good boy while I was gone, weren't you? Pulling yourself back together after what mean old Eliza did to you."
She stroked his soft fur, then smooshed her face into the top of his head to give him a little kiss. He radiated contentment as the fingers of the hand supporting him gently scratched under his chin. Agatha paused for a moment, face still buried in his fur, and inhaled deeply. His scent was comforting.
Stupid sympathetic connections. This was why she didn't like using them. It had been necessary to help reinforce Eliza's trust in her and build up their relationship, but the problem with those sorts of connections were that they cut both ways.
Eliza had been fun. Now she was gone. Agatha would get over it.
Raising her head, she pondered what to do next. Before anything else, of course, she needed to be sure that the Ancient One wouldn't be able to track the missing page from the Book of Cagliostro. She was hoping that they wouldn't notice it was gone at all—they'd gotten the book back, so would they even check? If they did, would they even remember that Kaecilius had only ripped out two pages, not three? On the off chance that they did, she needed to make sure there wasn't a trace remaining of whatever tracking magic the sorcerers had used to locate the book.
It really was a shame she'd had to ditch the Dark Sceptre, but she hadn't had any other choice. As far as she could tell, Kamar-taj and Wanda still had no clue whatsoever that she'd ever even been involved, and she would very much prefer to keep it that way. They had only ever seen her while she was disguised as the Chinese girl, and they would have found her corpse in the crashed aircraft alongside the sceptre and book. Case closed, no loose ends, no need to look more deeply.
Absently, she lifted Señor Scratchy a little higher, squishing his head against the side of her chin as her fingers continued to give him scratchies.
Once she'd taken the time to make sure she couldn't be tracked, though… "I think we need a bit of a break, after all of that," she said, more to herself than to her familiar. It had been less than two weeks since Eliza had first abducted her, but it felt like it had been a lot longer. Maybe she'd have a look around and find another coven of suckers to run the Witches' Road con on. A little time to decompress and relax would be good… Kill a few witches, get back into her usual groove, that sort of thing.
Then, once she had her head back in the game, she could use the page from the book to track down Kaecilius—as originally planned—and find out exactly what he was up to. Eliza had said that they had potentially months before Kaecilius made his move, but Agatha was still in the dark as to what he was actually trying to do. All she knew was that Eliza was convinced that, if the sorcerer succeeded, he would destroy the world.
The AI, of course, had been completely right about Agatha being motivated to put a stop to something like that… It was where she kept all her stuff, after all. Then again, depending on what exactly Kaecilius and his followers were planning, this could even be an opportunity. Wanda, the Avengers, and Kamar-taj were all aware of the threat that he posed and were already planning to try to stop him. She didn't know what he had up his sleeve, but the odds were definitely stacked against him. Maybe she could capitalise on the situation. The power of the Scarlet Witch wasn't quite out of her grasp just yet.
As she turned her head, Agatha noticed something on her shoulder and wrinkled her nose. Reaching up with her free hand, she plucked the small lump off her dress, holding it up between two fingers to examine it for a brief moment. A hard nodule of white—a fragment of bone—attached to a gelatinous grey and red lump. She pulled a face. Looks like she had missed cleaning off a tiny little chunk of Beck's exploded skull and brain matter.
That had been traumatising. Not seeing Beck's head explode when the collar around his neck had detonated—it was far from the first time Agatha had seen something like that—but the fact that it had happened without any warning! She'd been midsentence, right in the middle of telling Beck exactly what a whimpering, whiny little bitch he was being. Her mouth had been open. Ugh. So gross.
The witch clucked her tongue, lowering her hand to wave the grisly morsel in front of Señor Scratchy's nose. He sniffed for a second, nose twitching furiously, before he eagerly chomped down on it, crunching the bone loudly between his teeth for a moment before he finished greedily gobbling it up. She petted him again, letting her hand drape itself entirely over his tiny head.
Agatha glanced over at the page from the Book of Cagliostro, still hanging suspended in threads of her purple. It'd keep for another fifteen minutes. Before she did anything else, she really needed a shower.
I watched, fascinated, as the Wakandan doctor deftly manipulated the holographic representation of the inside of my hand, directing the vibranium nanotech as it reattached my fingers. It was surprising just how simple it all looked, given what was happening beneath the surface. While it might not have looked like it, he was performing a series of complex microsurgeries, reattaching nerves and tendons with impossibly small sutures and glues.
My index and middle fingers had been saved, thankfully, but they hadn't been able to recover the tip of my ring finger. I was torn between being happy and relieved that my hand wasn't going to be permanently crippled—provided there were no unexpected complications, at least—while also feeling a bit weird that there was literally a piece of me still missing.
There was no other permanent damage. I didn't know what the usual recovery times for Wakandan miracle tech were, but I was pretty sure that in a normal scenario I'd be in for months of physical therapy and might never regain full sensation and functionality in those fingers. However, thanks to the Heart-Shaped Herb, it was more likely to only be a day—two or three at the absolute most—before my injuries were completely healed and I was back to a hundred per cent (…if you didn't count my missing fingertip). This apparently wasn't the first time someone with Bast's blessing had had a severed finger reattached and the doctor seemed fairly confident what the likely prognosis was. Apparently, not only should I regain full use of my fingers within a day or so, but I wasn't even likely to scar particularly badly.
The stab wound that had gone right through me had missed all my vital organs—'All of them?!' I mentally quoted to myself with a smile—and would also be basically healed overnight. Eliza had more than likely intentionally been dragging things out, and with the Herb I apparently probably wouldn't have even bled out from it. And T'Challa had expected me to give this up? No, I was never going to relinquish the Herb, no matter how personally affronted he was by that and how much it continued to strain my relations with Wakanda. It was proving far too integral to my continued survival to even consider otherwise.
After Eliza had been defeated and the situation with Shuri had been defused, everything had sort of passed by in a blur. Soon after, a portal had sparked into being and I had honestly never been happier to see the familiar, spiralling orange threads of sorcerous magic. Steve was first through, followed closely behind by the Ancient One and Wong. All of them looked terrible—between the Hand, the Iron Legion, and Eliza's Extreme Taskmasters, everyone had been put through the wringer.
Everyone else who hadn't managed to follow after Eliza and I—Bucky, Natasha, Mordo and Okoye—had all been injured or incapacitated during the fight at the warehouse and had had to be evacuated. Apparently, the Hulk had been slowed down quite a bit too, after being blinded temporarily by a point-blank Extremis explosion, but his eyes had repaired themselves pretty quickly.
We pointed out the building that Tony had been buried under and the Ancient One excavated it, using a few precise spells to levitate and move the rubble out of the way. His armour had saved him, as I'd expected—he was injured, but wasn't in notably worse shape than anyone else. His suit was basically a complete wreck, though, and he'd essentially had to be cut out of it. Killmonger had been immediately secured by Dora Milaje on arrival back at the Great Mound and escorted away—I was pretty sure he'd be standing trial for treason and T'Challa's attempted murder. I suspected we wouldn't be seeing him again.
I lay back contentedly and basked in the feeling of being utterly pain-free as the nanotech finished off its work. Wakanda had the best drugs. I felt completely lucid, if a little bit like I was going to go floating away. It was pleasantly like astral projecting. I was fully in control, just… lighter than air. Once the Wakandan doctor was done inspecting the work that had been done on me, my hand was tightly bound with bandages that went rigid after application, so I wouldn't be able to accidentally aggravate it while it healed. That done, a nurse trundled me out of surgery and into the room that was being used for our team members' post‑op recovery.
Pietro was there waiting, pacing up and down the length of the room, a comfortingly familiar ball of nervous energy. He'd been mostly fine; the hit he'd taken had looked worse than it actually was. Natasha was there, too, sitting off to one side next to another bed occupied by a sleeping Clint—she perked up as well when she saw me.
Clint… his entire right arm below the shoulder was gone. It had essentially been completely obliterated by Eliza. Unlike with me, there was nothing left that could be reattached. He was permanently crippled, which made me feel just that little bit worse about my own good fortune. If I'd been a little stronger, a little faster… maybe that wouldn't have happened. There was nothing I could do about it now, though. With any luck, he'd hopefully at least be able to score a cool robot arm like Bucky's. The room's final other occupant, also currently either asleep or unconscious post-surgery, was Mordo. The sorcerer had been badly burnt at the periphery of an Extremis explosion—extensive skin graft badly—and was heavily swathed in bandages while they took.
Once the nurse had slid my bed into place Pietro came over immediately, with Nat quickly following after him. My brother lunged in and hugged me—I laughed for a brief moment before a dull spike of pain shooting through my ribcage at the motion. "Ow! Okay! Off!" I wheezed.
"Sorry." Pietro pulled back, a wide grin plastered across his face.
"Hey," Nat said, a warm smile crinkling her cheeks. "You had us worried there, for a moment."
"Eh," I responded, returning the smile. "You know me. I can be pretty dramatic sometimes."
Pietro was looking at my bandaged hand. "How are your fingers?" he asked, his brow creasing slightly.
"All good—well, the two we found, at least. I probably won't be playing the piano for the next few days, but they'll supposedly heal quickly."
He let out a huff of air. "I freaked out a bit, when I woke up," he confessed. "I thought maybe…"
"That's fair. I was pretty sure I was going to die, too," I said. "But then I thought to myself 'I can't die; I didn't get to tell Pietro he's an idiot one last time'."
Pietro rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. Nat hesitated, fidgeting slightly, before she reached down and picked up my uninjured hand. She squeezed my fingers gently, and I squeezed hers back. A moment later, she tucked something cold and metallic into my palm. My eyes flicked down to see what it was and I let out a small snort of amusement. My sling ring.
"Don't tell the Ancient One we found that," Nat said, a small smile quirked the corner of her lips. "Steve told her he thought Eliza must have destroyed it after she cut it off you."
"Did he now?" I murmured, looking down at the relic for a moment before closing my fist tightly around it. I admit, I'd been worried that I wasn't going to be getting it back again. "Speaking of fingers… the Hand?"
"The Hand's done," she said. "All the Fingers were killed in the attack."
Huh. I'd honestly kind of expected Gao or Reid to get away, at least. "All of them? You're sure? We have all five bodies?"
Pietro let out a soft snort of satisfied amusement. "Three and a half," he said.
I looked back at Nat, tilting my head questioningly. "We'll do a proper team debrief—fill everyone in on what happened for the bits they missed—but long story short Murakami and Sowande got caught in an Extremis detonation," she explained. "There wasn't much left of them."
"The witch didn't get away either, right?" I asked. "Steve said something about a crash." Given the way that the support platform had fallen out of the sky, my assumption was that Eliza had been actively piloting both vehicles when Wanda‑3 had taken her down.
Nat nodded. "Basically immediately after Eliza went out. Some sort of explosive device went off in the cabin, too. We're still not sure exactly what happened, but our best theory is that Beck had some sort of explosive collar on him. He was killed instantly. The witch was more intact, but she's dead too. We're not sure if the explosion or the crash got her."
Honestly, I felt a little sorry for Quentin Beck. I mean, he became a villain eventually in the original timeline, but this version of him hadn't actually done anything yet. He was just some guy who worked for Stark Industries, pressed into the service of a homicidal AI, and now he was just… dead. It felt a bit senseless.
"She had the book and the sceptre with her," Pietro added. "The Ancient One took them."
"We've been in contact with Nick, too," Natasha said, looking pensive. "He's been keeping an eye on things with Pym. Apparently Ghost is with them now, which explains why she wasn't at the warehouse."
"That makes sense, I guess. Eliza would have promised her a cure in exchange for her help. They won't have had time to build a quantum tunnel yet, so she'll probably stay put, and if she's already getting what she wants, she's probably not an immediate threat."
Nat nodded. "We'll need to address it at some point. Wakanda want to go after her, but it's not something we need to deal with right away."
The Hand was wrapped up. The book and sceptre had been recovered. We had eyes on Ghost. It was really starting to look like there were no loose ends, but I supposed we wouldn't be completely sure until Tony and Pepper did a full investigation into what Eliza had Stark Industries doing. Even then, there was always a possibility that we'd missed something… "We don't have any pictures of the witch, do we?" I asked suddenly. "I didn't recognise her, but I honestly didn't get that good a look at her."
Nat nodded, turning and fishing a tablet out of a slim messenger bag she had slung over her shoulder. She tapped at the screen for a moment before handing it to me. I stared at the prone woman, searching her features, hoping for some spark of recognition. She looked… peaceful in death. Her eyes were closed. If not for the ugly, bloody wound at her temple, it would have been easy to imagine she was just sleeping. After a few more seconds, I shook my head and handed the tablet back to Nat.
"I have no idea who she is," I said. Just another random casualty of Eliza's plots, I supposed. A mystery that might never be solved.
"Who cares?" Pietro said dismissively. "She was helping Eliza and now she's dead."
I shook my head. "I don't like not knowing. I'm used to knowing."
"Well, I suppose you'll just have to get used to dealing with things like this like everybody else does," Nat said, her tone lightly teasing. "Do things the old-fashioned way, instead of relying on your visions."
"What's next?" I asked.
"I was going to go see Steve," Nat said. "I think he was talking to T'Challa about you."
"Ugh. Should I come, or…?"
"Do you want to come?"
I grinned. "I mean, always, but I don't think my bits are in any condition for playtime right now," I said. "Give me a couple of days." Pietro pretended to gag, his face twisting in disgust.
"Well, at least you're getting back to your usual self," Natasha said, rolling her eyes and letting out a small chuckle. "It might be better if you leave things to Steve and I. You seem to have a special talent for aggravating the royals."
As if summoned by our conversation, the door to the room slid open and Steve and T'Challa entered, flanked by a pair of Dora Milaje acting as an honour guard. "Speak of the devil." I propped myself up a bit more so I could see everyone properly. "T'Challa," I said, a little tentatively. "How's Shuri?"
"Angry. Awake and unhurt, but angry."
"Sorry."
"I…" he hesitated, his jaw working silently for a moment as he considered his words. "Understand why you thought you had to do what you did."
"So… no hard feelings?"
His expression and lack of an immediate response answered that for me. After an awkward moment of silence, Steve cleared his throat. "We just came from a discussion with the king. About your trial," he said, looking between Pietro and I. I groaned, dropping my head back and closing my eyes for a moment.
"I spoke to my father about what I witnessed in San Francisco," T'Challa started slowly. "With the AI… and with my cousin."
I shook my head. "You saved me, too. I think that makes us just about even. I mean, 'thanks for not betraying us and killing me' is sort of putting the bar in the basement, isn't it?"
"King T'Chaka is a reasonable man. He knows you aren't Wakanda's enemies," Steve interjected. "You've demonstrated that pretty definitively, I think."
T'Challa paused, once again seeming to pick his words carefully. "The king has decreed that your time imprisoned in the Great Mound, assisting Wakanda against the AI, and exposing N'Jadaka's schemes, has been sufficient to show your contrition."
"Time served?" Nat asked, a note of surprise in her tone.
"However," the Wakandan prince continued, looking mildly annoyed at the interruption. "The two of you are to be banished from our country, never to return."
"Unless there's another global threat," Steve added. T'Challa shot him a warning look, but didn't contradict him.
I blinked. That was unexpected. After how everything always seemed to go against me, I'd honestly been expecting worse. "That… is a damn good deal. I'll take that deal."
"There is one other thing I want to say," T'Challa said, fixing me with an unnervingly intense look. There was a long, pregnant silence as he searched my features for something before he spoke again. "Do not make me regret saving you." His tone was serious.
"I'll try," I said, nodding slowly.
With that, the Wakandan prince turned and left, his honour guard trailing behind him. It didn't look like he was kicking us out of the country right that exact instant, which was nice, but the moment Clint was awake and the rest of the Avengers were ready to move, I'd be gone. I didn't want to test his patience.
Steve and Nat left shortly thereafter, to catch up with the others and wrap up any remaining small matters with Wakanda, and while they were gone the Ancient One came to collect Mordo. She opened a portal right there in the recovery room, a pair of red-robed sorcerers stepping through to help transfer the injured sorcerer to a comfortable-looking bed on the other side, somewhere in Kamar-taj.
Once he was through, the Ancient One glanced in my direction, catching me watching them. She paused, then dismissed her portal and started toward me. I must have visibly tensed, because she held up her hand briefly in a peaceful gesture, stopping a comfortable distance from the side of my bed.
"I wanted to thank you for your help," she said mildly.
"Sure… and not to ask me, once again, if I wouldn't mind terribly being banished back from whence I came?"
A smile quirked the corner of the sorcerer's mouth. "It may have crossed my mind," she confessed. "But as I said, our truce stands for the time being. Perhaps… perhaps we will even work together again. Kaecilius still plots against Kamar-taj. It may be beneficial to continue our relations with the Avengers."
"Good," I said, nodding. "You should keep in contact with Wakanda, too. This is… this is what I wanted. What I was trying to do. Start an alliance strong enough to handle what's coming." Despite my words, I frowned as I spoke, a brief shadow passing across my features.
The Ancient One caught my expression. "Is something wrong?" she asked, tilting her head curiously.
I grunted noncommittally and shook my head. Something was bugging me, but it was hard to articulate. I tried anyway. "Something about this isn't sitting right with me. 'Things rhyme', you said, which is true enough. Three fights against Ultron, three against Eliza. Their births, in Avengers Tower. The second fight over resources. Vibranium. The third fight against Ultron was a big one, too, and there are definitely similarities—the army of drones—but he was going to wipe out humanity. We stopped him from basically ending the world. With Eliza… what? There wasn't any great big end planned. No grand scheme that we foiled." I sighed, shaking my head. "I don't know. Maybe it's nothing. I just… I can't help feeling like there's something that we missed."
--
Agatha Harkness let out a small sigh, her shoulders relaxing. Her accommodations at Eliza's warehouse hadn't been uncomfortable, but it really did feel good to be home.
The witch gestured and let go of the Darkhold, a minor expression of telekinetic magic returning it to its stand on one of the tables on the edge of the stone chamber. A second flick of her hand sent the page she'd torn from the Book of Cagliostro floating through the air until it seemingly hit an invisible barrier between two pillars. Threads of Agatha's purple lashed it in place, ready for her to examine it in greater detail at her leisure. The witch took a few steps forward into the centre of the underground chamber, her footsteps echoing hollowly as she looked around. Nothing was out of place; everything was exactly as she had left it.
Eliza was almost certainly dead. Agatha felt fairly confident about that—after the dragon flyer had gone down, there'd been no sign of any of her drones, no attempt at communication. The Avengers had beaten her, somehow. Wanda had beaten her.
As she acknowledged it in her head, Agatha was surprised to feel a small twinge of sadness. She let it sit in her chest, mulling over the feeling. Yes, she was definitely, actually a little sad that Eliza was gone. Not just for the loss of the potential path to power, either. Eliza had been… fun. It had been a long, long time since Agatha had been anything other than a loner; a covenless witch. At her own design, she never really spent an extended period of time with anyone. Not since Nicky—
Agatha took a deep breath, immediately pushing that thought away, her eyes starting to mist over slightly. Why'd she have to go and think about him? A hand went up and rubbed the locket at her throat.
Señor Scratchy—her familiar—hopped out of the shadows, cautiously approaching her feet. Agatha could sense that the demon-in-rabbit-form was worried she was annoyed with him, but she definitely wasn't. "Hey there, mister," she said, bending over to pick him up. The witch hunkered down in a half-kneeling crouch, tucking a hand under his chest to support him while his back legs rested on her leg. "Someone was a good boy while I was gone, weren't you? Pulling yourself back together after what mean old Eliza did to you."
She stroked his soft fur, then smooshed her face into the top of his head to give him a little kiss. He radiated contentment as the fingers of the hand supporting him gently scratched under his chin. Agatha paused for a moment, face still buried in his fur, and inhaled deeply. His scent was comforting.
Stupid sympathetic connections. This was why she didn't like using them. It had been necessary to help reinforce Eliza's trust in her and build up their relationship, but the problem with those sorts of connections were that they cut both ways.
Eliza had been fun. Now she was gone. Agatha would get over it.
Raising her head, she pondered what to do next. Before anything else, of course, she needed to be sure that the Ancient One wouldn't be able to track the missing page from the Book of Cagliostro. She was hoping that they wouldn't notice it was gone at all—they'd gotten the book back, so would they even check? If they did, would they even remember that Kaecilius had only ripped out two pages, not three? On the off chance that they did, she needed to make sure there wasn't a trace remaining of whatever tracking magic the sorcerers had used to locate the book.
It really was a shame she'd had to ditch the Dark Sceptre, but she hadn't had any other choice. As far as she could tell, Kamar-taj and Wanda still had no clue whatsoever that she'd ever even been involved, and she would very much prefer to keep it that way. They had only ever seen her while she was disguised as the Chinese girl, and they would have found her corpse in the crashed aircraft alongside the sceptre and book. Case closed, no loose ends, no need to look more deeply.
Absently, she lifted Señor Scratchy a little higher, squishing his head against the side of her chin as her fingers continued to give him scratchies.
Once she'd taken the time to make sure she couldn't be tracked, though… "I think we need a bit of a break, after all of that," she said, more to herself than to her familiar. It had been less than two weeks since Eliza had first abducted her, but it felt like it had been a lot longer. Maybe she'd have a look around and find another coven of suckers to run the Witches' Road con on. A little time to decompress and relax would be good… Kill a few witches, get back into her usual groove, that sort of thing.
Then, once she had her head back in the game, she could use the page from the book to track down Kaecilius—as originally planned—and find out exactly what he was up to. Eliza had said that they had potentially months before Kaecilius made his move, but Agatha was still in the dark as to what he was actually trying to do. All she knew was that Eliza was convinced that, if the sorcerer succeeded, he would destroy the world.
The AI, of course, had been completely right about Agatha being motivated to put a stop to something like that… It was where she kept all her stuff, after all. Then again, depending on what exactly Kaecilius and his followers were planning, this could even be an opportunity. Wanda, the Avengers, and Kamar-taj were all aware of the threat that he posed and were already planning to try to stop him. She didn't know what he had up his sleeve, but the odds were definitely stacked against him. Maybe she could capitalise on the situation. The power of the Scarlet Witch wasn't quite out of her grasp just yet.
As she turned her head, Agatha noticed something on her shoulder and wrinkled her nose. Reaching up with her free hand, she plucked the small lump off her dress, holding it up between two fingers to examine it for a brief moment. A hard nodule of white—a fragment of bone—attached to a gelatinous grey and red lump. She pulled a face. Looks like she had missed cleaning off a tiny little chunk of Beck's exploded skull and brain matter.
That had been traumatising. Not seeing Beck's head explode when the collar around his neck had detonated—it was far from the first time Agatha had seen something like that—but the fact that it had happened without any warning! She'd been midsentence, right in the middle of telling Beck exactly what a whimpering, whiny little bitch he was being. Her mouth had been open. Ugh. So gross.
The witch clucked her tongue, lowering her hand to wave the grisly morsel in front of Señor Scratchy's nose. He sniffed for a second, nose twitching furiously, before he eagerly chomped down on it, crunching the bone loudly between his teeth for a moment before he finished greedily gobbling it up. She petted him again, letting her hand drape itself entirely over his tiny head.
Agatha glanced over at the page from the Book of Cagliostro, still hanging suspended in threads of her purple. It'd keep for another fifteen minutes. Before she did anything else, she really needed a shower.
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Chapter 64
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Chapter 64
The Avengers compound in upstate New York felt massive, as one might expect from a converted former Stark Industries warehousing site. The extensive acreage nestled snugly in the crook of a small bend in the Hudson, with the facility proper hugging the river and surrounded by vibrant forest. The main central building—a six-storey, sloped structure emblazoned with the Avengers logo hosting the living quarters and a bunch of the more commonly-used facilities—was the one that I pictured when I thought of this place, to the point where I'd almost forgotten that there even were other buildings.
The former warehouse proper was easily the biggest, by a wide margin—smaller than the facility that Eliza had based herself out in San Francisco, but still big enough that it had been converted into a hanger capable of housing at least a half-dozen Quinjets or similar aircraft, with plenty of space still to spare for a large area set aside for indoor training exercises. Beyond that, there were a half-dozen other, smaller buildings clustered around the two main ones, surrounded by well-cared for gardens, neatly manicured lawns and pleasantly peaceful outdoor areas. The site had three separate parking lots. One of the buildings had even been constructed over a small, artificial channel that had been carved into the river—presumable a former, fully-enclosed boat dock.
…Or possibly not-so-former? Did the Avengers have a boat? Questions for later.
Steeling myself, I followed Steve up the stairs into the central common area of the main building, Pietro trailing behind us. The rest of the Avengers were already here, most already sitting down at the conference table in the 'briefing room' segment of the space. The common area was several rooms put together, really, with no walls between them—a huge kitchen with breakfast bar, a dining area with a couple of small square tables, a lounge with comfortable couches and dark wooden furniture, lit by warm standing lamps, and an open, full-featured briefing room.
It was slightly less fancy than the ultramodern Avengers Tower had been, but something about it felt more welcoming. Homier. It might just have been the memories. I had them tickling at the periphery of my mind. Nothing really of any solid substance… maybe memories was the wrong word. They were more like vague feelings of recognition. Déjà vu. Just little things like not needing to be told the layout, or where the bathroom was. I just… knew, my body almost operating on autopilot. It felt comfortable, like I'd lived here before. Which was clearly impossible. Wasn't it?
Tony perked up at our entrance, surprise and annoyance warring across his features as he shot a Steve questioning look. He had several small plasters covering cuts on his face, and a large, ugly purple bruise traced the left side of his jaw and neck. As Pietro and I moved to take our seats at the table, he touched Steve's shoulder, leaning in to speak sotto voce—not quietly enough that I couldn't hear him, though, thanks to my enhanced hearing. "I thought we agreed we were going to have a private chat, first?"
Steve gave a small shake of his head. "You wanted to have a private chat. They deserve to be here. I don't want to talk about her behind her back," he said, quietly but firmly. Tony continued to look put out, but dropped the issue and sat down.
Once everyone was settled, just as Tony looked like he was about to speak, I opened my mouth. "Alright, so what's this all about?" I asked, completely unnecessarily, my tone already tired. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what this was about.
Tony paused, reconsidering his words, then sighed. "Look, I don't mean to be 'that' guy, but—"
"Oh, that's accidental?" I interrupted again, feigning surprise.
"Wanda," Steve said warningly. "This can't be how these discussions go. We need to be able to talk things through as a team."
"Sorry," I said, looking down at the table and feeling suitably chastened. I'd complained about Steve not treating me like an adult and but here I was, the meeting barely started, acting like a brat.
"The Mind Stone," Tony said, gesturing toward the pendant at my neck. "We need to decide what's going to happen to it now."
"I'll stop you right there and save us all some precious time," I responding, my expression hard. "It's going to stay with me. Next issue?"
Tony set his jaw, glaring at me a little. "We're really okay with leaving one of the most powerful, destructive forces in the universe—Thor's words, not mine—in the hands of someone prophesised to destroy or rule the cosmos—her words, not mine? After she created a homicidal AI that tried to kill us?"
"That's not fair." Natasha shook her head, glaring at him. "We can't let strange prophecies dictate our actions, and there's no point in picking each other apart over who was at fault with Eliza. This is petty, Tony, even for you."
"Sorry, Nat, but honestly I've gotta agree with Tony," Bruce spoke up, glancing briefing in my direction and grimacing. "What are we even talking about? Why is this a discussion? Wanda blew it. You don't want to get into it about Eliza, fine, but then what happened with Wanda‑3…"
Pietro frowned at the scientist. "Worked," he pointed out. "It worked. Wanda-3 took down Eliza, just like Wanda said she would."
"Oh, yes, please, let's talk about Wanda-3 for a second," said Tony, a tinge of sarcasm entering his tone. "After the little heart to heart the two Wandas had, does anyone here seriously think Wanda is stable enough to be responsible for the Stone?"
"Tony!" Nat snapped, straightening up.
I clenched my uninjured hand into a fist on top of the table. "First of all: Fuck you. Second of all… Are we really going to sit here and do this again?" I asked, looking around at the assembled Avengers. "This is effectively the third time we've had this discussion. Are we really going to just keep relitigating it over and over again until Tony gets the outcome he wants?"
"We need to resolve this properly," said Steve. "Get everyone on the same page. Clear the air."
"I think Wanda's best qualified to hold onto the Stone," said Bucky. "She understands it and what it can do better than anyone, and she has the power to keep it controlled."
I could tell that Tony was starting to feel a little outnumbered. "If you're going to be an Avenger, there has to be some conditions—"
"No," Clint said, interrupting him. "No conditions. Wanda and Pietro are Avengers."
Happiness surged in my chest and I couldn't help the small smile that appeared on my face.
"Are you being serious right now?" Tony shook his head in disbelief. "Hand on heart, you're all completely comfortable with her keeping the Stone after what happened in Wakanda? After what she did behind our backs?"
"You wanted to create an AI, too, Tony," I interjected. "And you jumped right on board once Wanda‑3 was created."
"After it was already done, when there wasn't any putting the genie back in the bottle," he responded immediately. "We'd talked it over and said 'no, we aren't doing this', and I was willing to accept the team's decision on that. Why weren't you?"
"Because the team's decision was wrong." My tone was firm at first, but I faltered after the words came out. "…I thought the team had made the wrong decision. We were in danger," I clarified, hedging a bit.
Tony looked at Steve, gesturing toward me with a hand as if to say 'see?'. "And what about the next time she thinks the team's decision is wrong? And the time after that? How many chances does she get? She's out of control, Steve."
I scoffed. "And there it is. Because that's what this is really about, isn't it? You can't control me. Tell me, Tony, how does it feel?"
Tony's expression flickered. "How does what feel, Wanda?"
"Being you." I gestured toward him. "Are you blissfully unaware or, deep inside, is some part of you banging on the walls, screaming?"
Tony shot me a big, sarcastic grin. "Being me feels great, actually. Like snuggling up in a warm blanket."
"Sure, yeah. It would be such a shame if you were forced to examine yourself with a critical eye."
Tony was about to respond again when Steve cut in, his tone hard. "Stop it, both of you. Sniping at each other like that isn't helpful."
"Sometimes we're just going to disagree," I said, looking at him. "You can't tell me that that would stop you from doing what you feel is right in the moment. I've seen you do the same."
Steve nodded slowly, though he didn't look happy about it. "Tony, you're right. I'm not completely comfortable with it. What happened with Wanda-3 can't happen again. But Wanda's not wrong, either. There might be times when any one of us might feel like we have no choice but to act on our own—the team has to be a team, not a straightjacket, or it won't work. We need to be able to support each other."
"We need to be able to trust each other," Tony countered. "Otherwise, we're not a team at all. Not really."
"What alternative are you suggesting?" I asked. "Because as much as you feel like you can't trust me with the Stone, I can't trust you with it, either. If you're going to argue the Stone should stay in your lab, then we don't have anything further to talk about, as far as I'm concerned. It's just a non-starter."
That was the truth. I'd always been a little worried about letting Tony have access to the Mind Stone, even after I'd destroyed the nascent mind that would have become Ultron. Even without the Scarlet Witch messing with his head, he had always had a pretty poor track record when it came to making good decisions. What would he use the Stone for, now that he knew what it was really capable of? Back in Wakanda, he'd suggested making an AI based on himself—after Eliza, would I be willing to risk the possibility of him deciding to use the Mind Stone to take a crack at Ultron 2.0? No. Absolutely not. No more AIs.
Tony set his jaw, looking annoyed. "You always make things more difficult than they need to be. We can't afford to have another Eliza situation on our hands."
"We won't. The only reason we had an Eliza situation in the first place was because I didn't have access to the Stone when I needed it, thanks to you," I said firmly. "It stays with me, end of discussion."
"Tony, lay off about Eliza already," Clint spoke up. He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Wanda's not an idiot. She's not going to go around creating more AIs."
Steve looked in my direction, weighing me with an appraising gaze for a moment. After a second, he nodded. "After everything that's happened, I'd like to think that Wanda—out of anyone here—is most aware of the dangers involved."
I was pretty sure Tony had a smart-ass remark about that, but he bit it back, taking a moment to compose himself before talking again. "Look, we have to be sensible, here," he said, spreading his hands in a pleading gesture as he changed tacks. "There are other concerns at play. Eliza originated in Avengers Tower. The optics are really bad and people are asking some pretty pointed questions. Secretary Ross is demanding a full debrief on where Eliza came from, her capabilities, and what actions she took on US soil. We can keep some stuff close to our chest, but we can't just completely refuse to cooperate with the government. If Ross finds out about the Mind Stone, do you really think he'll be happy to let Wanda hold onto it? What about the president? Even if Wanda's an Avenger, she's not a US citizen. She doesn't even have a visa."
"'They don't grant visas to weapons of mass destruction'," I said quietly, quoting Tony's words from the original timeline.
"As far as Ross and the rest are concerned, Loki's sceptre was US Government property, stolen from SHIELD by HYDRA. If we're looking after the Stone collectively—as a team—it gives us a bit more of a solid claim on keeping it when they come knocking," he argued. "Beyond that, our recent track record hasn't been great. Sure, we've defused tensions with Wakanda. Great. But outside of that? Russia is still up in arms about what happened with the Red Room. Eliza pulled a 9/11 on Avengers Tower, then for her follow-up act she parked an army of drones above San Francisco, not to mention breaking SoMa. The president was on the verge of deploying the military to seize Stark Industries sites."
There was a sinking feeling in my stomach as Tony spoke. Incident after incident. Giant public spectacles capturing the whole world's attention. I remembered exactly what that had led to in the original timeline. Something else I thought I'd averted, before Eliza had come along and blown it all to hell.
Nat nodded slowly. "A major corporation on US soil was effectively seized and weaponised by enemy interests. The president is going to need to be seen to be doing something about it."
Clint looked pensive. "You think they're gonna hit us with sanctions?" he asked.
"…the Accords," I said quietly, eyes down at the table. "They're talking about the Accords." I heard everyone shift and didn't need to look back up to know that I was, once again, the centre of attention. I looked up anyway. Tony looked a little puzzled—he didn't know about the Sokovia Accords, obviously, but he was unknowingly describing pretty much the exact situation that had originally led to them.
Steve tilted his head questioningly. "What accords?"
I gestured vaguely with my bandaged hand. "The Sokovia Accords. The Avengers no longer allowed to operate as a private organisation, only under the supervision of a United Nations panel. Some other nasty stuff built into it, too. Mandatory registration of enhanced individuals, among other things. But basically every country in the world signed off on them. I didn't think they'd be a thing this time."
Bruce grimaced. "Of course. I love you guys, but there's no way I'd let the Hulk fall into government hands," he said, glancing over at me. "I bet I didn't stick around, after that."
"Actually, you didn't have to deal with any of this—you'd sort of banished yourself to space. Or the Hulk had." I saw his expression and shook my head. "Uh, it's a long story. Not really important or relevant right now."
"Something like that happening isn't really surprising," Nat said, looking in his direction briefly. "You didn't have to deal with all the Senate hearings after what happened with SHIELD. There was a lot said behind closed doors that wasn't publicly aired. Honestly, it's a miracle we've come this far without the government trying to take a firmer hand with us."
I'd thought we were safe from the Accords. No Ultron meant no Battle of Sokovia. The Hulk didn't rampage through Johannesburg. "Most of the original inciting incidents weren't going to happen anymore, but—fuck," I cut myself off, thinking it all through. Lagos… Fuck. I could have kicked myself. Things fucking rhyme, indeed. "The last straw was an international incident involving Wakanda. One that was… that was my fault. Again. I think the Accords were signed, in part, because people were scared of what I was capable of."
"Eliza wasn't your fault," Bucky said firmly, shooting a challenging look in Tony's direction as if daring him to contradict that statement.
"Neither was the other thing, but I still got blamed for it," I said, amending my statement slightly. "I thought I'd stopped the Accords from happening, but Eliza just put them right back on the table again, didn't she? Can just one fucking thing stay fixed in this fucking world?" I slumped forward onto the table, feeling miserable. Laying my head down, I focused on the feeling of the cool wood against my cheek and started to go over things in my head.
"Even if it does happen, it's really not your fault," Nat said gently, reaching over to touch my arm. "Something like this was probably inevitable."
If the Accords came… ugh. So much for being an Avenger. Would the team even survive intact at all? And Tony was right—if the government found out about the Mind Stone, they'd probably exert pressure on the team to hand it over. I already wasn't remotely comfortable with the idea of giving the Stone to Tony, but giving it to the US Government? Abso-fucking-lutely not.
But what could I do to avoid it? How could I stop or delay the Accords, or something like them? I had tried my hardest to keep the Avengers from breaking up. I'd laid groundwork that looked like it might be able to grow into a three-way alliance with Wakanda and Kamar-taj. I'd done so much work and it was only just starting to pay off. There had to be some way I could fix this. I lifted my head, feeling stressed.
Steve frowned. "What happened in the other timeline with the Accords and the Mind Stone?"
"I don't know a lot of the details of what was talked about behind the scenes. I was effectively under house arrest," I confessed, shooting Tony a vaguely resentful look before turning back to Steve. "And you didn't tell me anything, really. I was still just a kid to be protected, to you. Vision, he…" I trailed off, remembering the night Clint had come to liberate me from this very facility, when Vision had tried to stop me leaving. It was sudden and vivid; seizing control of Vision's connection with the Mind Stone with my magic, sending him smashing down into the Earth. Why could I so clearly remember that from my own perspective, rather than as pictures on a screen?
I can't control their fear, I'd told him. Only my own.
"You've said before that the Mind Stone was part of Vision," Bruce prompted me.
"…Yeah, it was. But the thing is we didn't even know what the Mind Stone was until after it was already in his head. Vision was powerful. They couldn't just repossess him. And when it came down to it, Vision agreed to the Accords. He thought we needed oversight. Accountability. I… fuck," I looked at Nat, forehead creased. "When Tony found out about his parents, did you tell him everything I told you?" Across the table, Tony went rigid, his face suddenly expressionless.
Nat shot him a worried glance. "Yes. Everything."
"Okay," I sighed. "I told you that Tony found out about his parents at the worst possible time, when there was already a lot of friction in the team."
Bruce grimaced, rubbing his chin absently with one hand. "You called it the end of the Avengers. It broke the team."
"Well, the Sokovia Accords were the beginning of that end. Everything was happening at once. The UN passed the Accords. The team had already started to split down the middle—Tony was pro-Accords, Steve was against them." Steve was looking at me askance, so I clarified. "It was surrendering our right to choose what we do. You worried that the UN panel might try to send us somewhere we didn't think we should go, or that there might be somewhere we needed to go and they wouldn't let us."
Steve nodded slowly. "That makes sense."
"Bucky was still on the run, but he was framed for killing King T'Chaka and Steve went rogue trying to save him." Framed by Zemo, who was still a hanging thread here, too. I didn't really know what to do about him. He'd worked with HYDRA to capture Peter and I, but he'd also freed us after I showed him some of my memories. Did that warrant any further action? His family were safe in this timeline, after all; he would never have a reason to go after the Avengers. Either way, he wasn't something that needed to be dealt with immediately. "We all fought against each other. It was a big mess. Then Tony found out about his parents and… that was that. He tried to kill Bucky, Steve put himself in the way. You almost killed each other."
"That's not going to happen," Steve asserted, glancing briefly at Tony.
The other man's expression could have been carved from stone, but he shifted his head fractionally before taking a deep breath. "No, it's not. Barnes didn't kill my parents. The Winter Soldier did. HYDRA did."
"That doesn't help stop the Accords, though, or keep the Mind Stone out of government hands. The Avengers need to stay together. The team is important… now, more than ever. The Avengers falling apart is one of the reasons Thanos won in my visions. We were separated. Weakened." I shook my head, rubbing at my temple with my fingers. "Now? When my visions aren't worth as much as they used to be, and we've actually got the start of some potential alliances with Kamar‑taj and Wakanda? What we're building here is important. Not just to us, but to the continued existence of the world—of the entire universe."
"And you don't want to jeopardise that," Steve said, his expression pensive. From the way he was looking at me, I thought he'd already followed my train of thought to what I thought was its logical conclusion.
"…If I'm unaffiliated, the Avengers get plausible deniability. You can't be responsible for my actions. I can't be potentially brought under control if I'm not on the team. Ross can't use a legal or legislative bludgeon to try to force the team to hand the Mind Stone over if the team doesn't have the Stone. We're in a better position if I'm framed as an ally that needs to be negotiated with, like Wakanda or Kamar-taj. If the Avengers are to survive—to thrive, then…" I stopped, a lump forming in my throat. "When Pietro and I first escaped from HYDRA, all I wanted was to be an Avenger. But we don't always get what we want. With everything that's happened, I just… I don't think I can be. Not officially, at least. Not right now."
"You are an Avenger. You're one of us," said Nat, shaking her head. She glanced at Pietro. "Both of you are."
"This is bigger than me. It's not just the government stuff, either. Wakanda might have cleared Pietro and I, but they still don't like us. Especially not me; not after everything I did. I don't want to be a constant source of friction between Wakanda and the team. Kaecilius is still out there, but that danger will pass soon and the Ancient One might decide to move me up her priority list."
"We won't let the Ancient One do anything to you," Bucky said. "If she wants you, she has to go through us."
"That's exactly the problem, though," I let out another sigh. "Kamar‑taj and the Avengers should be allies. You need to be, for the world to survive what's coming. In my visions, the sorcerers played a key role in stopping Thanos. If I end up standing in the way of that…"
"I don't like it," said Clint hesitantly. "But it does make some sense, if we want to get ahead of things." Nat looked over at him, forehead creased with concern, but she didn't argue.
"After what happened with SHIELD and HYDRA, the idea of the government trying to take back the Stone is concerning. We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own," said Steve firmly. "Ross is… He's loyal to his country and its people, but his methods can be…"
"God," I said. "Ross is probably going to freak the fuck out when he finds out there's another Hulk, too."
"It's not our place to disclose Wakanda's secrets," Steve said firmly. "If Ross asks, we just tell him that if he wants details relevant to Wakanda's operational security, he needs to talk to Wakanda."
I nodded slowly. "Good. King T'Chaka will appreciate that. They need to be the ones to decide if they want to come forward and reveal themselves properly to the world."
"So, what? You just leave? Waltz out with the weapon of mass destruction?" Tony asked, not looking thrilled.
"Yes. No. Not leave leave. I'm not abandoning what we're doing here. I can still be around. We still need to work together. There just… there needs to be some space. Some degree of separation between me and the Avengers," I gestured toward the corridor on the far wall, next to the kitchen, leading to the living quarters. "I can't stay here."
"Leave you off the lunchboxes," Clint said wryly and I nodded.
Steve was looking at me. I met his gaze evenly, feeling a bit nervous. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "There are some downsides, but I can see the potential benefits. Are you sure this is what you want to do?"
Okay, I really appreciated the way he was handling this. Steve didn't want to make the decision for me—he wanted to support what I wanted to do. "No. But I think it's the smartest play right now. We can revisit the situation later, when a bit of the heat has died down."
"Okay," he said, simply.
Nat was still concerned. "Where will you stay?" she asked. She didn't outright say 'you're homeless and have no money, remember', but I knew she was thinking it.
"We'll work something out," Pietro said.
I knew he was going to argue, but that wasn't what I had in mind. "No, Pietro. I'll work something out. There's no reason you can't stay here."
"If you go, I go," he said stubbornly.
"We'll talk about it later." I held up a hand to silence any further discussion on the topic. "So… is that all you wanted to talk about?"
Tony and Steve exchanged a significant look. From his expression, I could tell that Tony still had things he wanted to say—the discussion had focused heavily on the Mind Stone, but Tony's issues with me obviously ran deeper than that. He'd originally wanted to talk behind my back for a reason. There was still stuff he wanted to say that he wasn't willing to air directly in front of me. "…For now," he said, giving a shallow nod.
I took a deep breath, a tight feeling of loss welling up in my chest. It wasn't permanent. I had to remember that. I was an Avenger. This was just a strategic decision. "Well," I said, standing up. "I guess I'll just… I'll go get my stuff."
--
"I am not letting you go off on your own," Pietro said, glaring at me.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, though honestly it felt nice to have him argue about this. It made me feel a little less shitty about it, reminding me that there were quite a few people who wanted me here. "I won't be far. I promise. We'll see each other all the time still. I just need you to stay here, okay? Be part of the team."
"You don't need me here," he said stubbornly.
"Yeah, I do." A flicker of movement caught my eye and I looked over to see that Natasha had just emerged from the corridor leading to the living quarters. She smiled as I perked up and started toward us with long, purposeful strides. I lowered my voice so she wouldn't hear me. "Look, I'm not going to be around all the time, so I need someone here that I know for certain I can trust. Who'll be able to keep me in the loop. Nat… I love her and I hope she won't keep anything from me, but I can't trust that for certain right now. Not after what happened. Please, Pietro. I really need you to do this for me." Shooting him one last pleading look, I turned back to the rapidly-approaching Nat.
She walked up to us, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a set of keys before wordlessly offering them to me. I took them, staring at them for a moment before looking up at her questioningly. "My apartment in the city. You can stay there," she said firmly. "As long as you need."
I nodded slowly. "Thanks. That would actually be perfect, I think." A small smirk curved the corner of my mouth. "We haven't even had 'The Talk' yet and you're just going to go ahead and ask me to move in with you?"
She rolled her eyes, but smiled back. "I'll be staying here mostly, so it's more like you'll be moving in with Yelena than anything else—she still hasn't gotten her own place. Good luck with that. Are you good to portal there?"
I grimaced and shook my head. "I guess I'll call a cab? It actually feels super weird trying to use the sling ring with my other hand. I might even just… hold off on portals for a little while unless I absolutely need one. I think relying on them all the time puts me in a weird headspace. I'm not always in a rush to get everywhere," I said, then paused, thinking about just how much I'd been rushing around lately. "I think I need to slow down, in general. Take my time with things for a bit. Ground myself. Kaecilius is still out there, but we should still have lots of time to prepare for that. I don't need to be constantly rushing all the time. It's not good for my head."
Pietro was nodding along, though his mouth was still twisted in a small frown. "You need to let yourself rest. Relax for a bit. Since we left Sokovia it's been one thing after another, almost nonstop."
"You need to process what happened with Wanda-3 properly, too. And Eliza, for that matter. I'm here to talk if you need to. Anytime. Both of us are," Nat said softly, glancing briefly toward Pietro. "I could drive you into the city, if you wanted?"
"That'd be nice. How about you take me to dinner, then back to the apartment so you can have your way with me?"
"Wanda," Pietro whined, pulling a face.
"You need a day or two to heal up before I have my way with you again, remember?" she scolded me lightly. "How about dinner, then back to the apartment for 'The Talk'?"
I stuck out my lower lip in an exaggerated pout, but nodded. "I suppose." Turning to Pietro, I reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "Will you stay here? Please?" I wasn't quite begging him, but it was close.
I might have been exaggerating, just a little bit, when I told him that I couldn't trust Natasha. The broken trust between us definitely still needed some time to heal, but I honestly wasn't actually that worried about it. The biggest reason I wanted Pietro to stay was because I thought it would be good for him.
Neither of us really had many friends. I was perfectly comfortable being by myself—I was never the most social person—but Pietro always got so restless when it was just the two of us. He needed others around so he could burn off that excess energy, and he was starting to get on really well with Steve and Bucky. I really didn't want to take that outlet away from him. Pietro had already sacrificed so much to follow me around and deal with all my bullshit and I didn't want to just keep using him like that. He needed to have something of his own… if the Avengers couldn't be that for me right now, maybe they could for him.
"Ugh, fine," Pietro grunted unhappily. "I'll stay."
"Quicksilver," I said, shooting him a grateful smile.
He looked confused. "What?"
"Your superhero name. As an Avenger. It's Quicksilver."
"Is it?" he scoffed, the corner of his mouth tugging upward slightly. "Decided for me, huh?"
"No, sorry," I said, shaking my head. "I'm pretty sure this one's on you."
The Avengers compound in upstate New York felt massive, as one might expect from a converted former Stark Industries warehousing site. The extensive acreage nestled snugly in the crook of a small bend in the Hudson, with the facility proper hugging the river and surrounded by vibrant forest. The main central building—a six-storey, sloped structure emblazoned with the Avengers logo hosting the living quarters and a bunch of the more commonly-used facilities—was the one that I pictured when I thought of this place, to the point where I'd almost forgotten that there even were other buildings.
The former warehouse proper was easily the biggest, by a wide margin—smaller than the facility that Eliza had based herself out in San Francisco, but still big enough that it had been converted into a hanger capable of housing at least a half-dozen Quinjets or similar aircraft, with plenty of space still to spare for a large area set aside for indoor training exercises. Beyond that, there were a half-dozen other, smaller buildings clustered around the two main ones, surrounded by well-cared for gardens, neatly manicured lawns and pleasantly peaceful outdoor areas. The site had three separate parking lots. One of the buildings had even been constructed over a small, artificial channel that had been carved into the river—presumable a former, fully-enclosed boat dock.
…Or possibly not-so-former? Did the Avengers have a boat? Questions for later.
Steeling myself, I followed Steve up the stairs into the central common area of the main building, Pietro trailing behind us. The rest of the Avengers were already here, most already sitting down at the conference table in the 'briefing room' segment of the space. The common area was several rooms put together, really, with no walls between them—a huge kitchen with breakfast bar, a dining area with a couple of small square tables, a lounge with comfortable couches and dark wooden furniture, lit by warm standing lamps, and an open, full-featured briefing room.
It was slightly less fancy than the ultramodern Avengers Tower had been, but something about it felt more welcoming. Homier. It might just have been the memories. I had them tickling at the periphery of my mind. Nothing really of any solid substance… maybe memories was the wrong word. They were more like vague feelings of recognition. Déjà vu. Just little things like not needing to be told the layout, or where the bathroom was. I just… knew, my body almost operating on autopilot. It felt comfortable, like I'd lived here before. Which was clearly impossible. Wasn't it?
Tony perked up at our entrance, surprise and annoyance warring across his features as he shot a Steve questioning look. He had several small plasters covering cuts on his face, and a large, ugly purple bruise traced the left side of his jaw and neck. As Pietro and I moved to take our seats at the table, he touched Steve's shoulder, leaning in to speak sotto voce—not quietly enough that I couldn't hear him, though, thanks to my enhanced hearing. "I thought we agreed we were going to have a private chat, first?"
Steve gave a small shake of his head. "You wanted to have a private chat. They deserve to be here. I don't want to talk about her behind her back," he said, quietly but firmly. Tony continued to look put out, but dropped the issue and sat down.
Once everyone was settled, just as Tony looked like he was about to speak, I opened my mouth. "Alright, so what's this all about?" I asked, completely unnecessarily, my tone already tired. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what this was about.
Tony paused, reconsidering his words, then sighed. "Look, I don't mean to be 'that' guy, but—"
"Oh, that's accidental?" I interrupted again, feigning surprise.
"Wanda," Steve said warningly. "This can't be how these discussions go. We need to be able to talk things through as a team."
"Sorry," I said, looking down at the table and feeling suitably chastened. I'd complained about Steve not treating me like an adult and but here I was, the meeting barely started, acting like a brat.
"The Mind Stone," Tony said, gesturing toward the pendant at my neck. "We need to decide what's going to happen to it now."
"I'll stop you right there and save us all some precious time," I responding, my expression hard. "It's going to stay with me. Next issue?"
Tony set his jaw, glaring at me a little. "We're really okay with leaving one of the most powerful, destructive forces in the universe—Thor's words, not mine—in the hands of someone prophesised to destroy or rule the cosmos—her words, not mine? After she created a homicidal AI that tried to kill us?"
"That's not fair." Natasha shook her head, glaring at him. "We can't let strange prophecies dictate our actions, and there's no point in picking each other apart over who was at fault with Eliza. This is petty, Tony, even for you."
"Sorry, Nat, but honestly I've gotta agree with Tony," Bruce spoke up, glancing briefing in my direction and grimacing. "What are we even talking about? Why is this a discussion? Wanda blew it. You don't want to get into it about Eliza, fine, but then what happened with Wanda‑3…"
Pietro frowned at the scientist. "Worked," he pointed out. "It worked. Wanda-3 took down Eliza, just like Wanda said she would."
"Oh, yes, please, let's talk about Wanda-3 for a second," said Tony, a tinge of sarcasm entering his tone. "After the little heart to heart the two Wandas had, does anyone here seriously think Wanda is stable enough to be responsible for the Stone?"
"Tony!" Nat snapped, straightening up.
I clenched my uninjured hand into a fist on top of the table. "First of all: Fuck you. Second of all… Are we really going to sit here and do this again?" I asked, looking around at the assembled Avengers. "This is effectively the third time we've had this discussion. Are we really going to just keep relitigating it over and over again until Tony gets the outcome he wants?"
"We need to resolve this properly," said Steve. "Get everyone on the same page. Clear the air."
"I think Wanda's best qualified to hold onto the Stone," said Bucky. "She understands it and what it can do better than anyone, and she has the power to keep it controlled."
I could tell that Tony was starting to feel a little outnumbered. "If you're going to be an Avenger, there has to be some conditions—"
"No," Clint said, interrupting him. "No conditions. Wanda and Pietro are Avengers."
Happiness surged in my chest and I couldn't help the small smile that appeared on my face.
"Are you being serious right now?" Tony shook his head in disbelief. "Hand on heart, you're all completely comfortable with her keeping the Stone after what happened in Wakanda? After what she did behind our backs?"
"You wanted to create an AI, too, Tony," I interjected. "And you jumped right on board once Wanda‑3 was created."
"After it was already done, when there wasn't any putting the genie back in the bottle," he responded immediately. "We'd talked it over and said 'no, we aren't doing this', and I was willing to accept the team's decision on that. Why weren't you?"
"Because the team's decision was wrong." My tone was firm at first, but I faltered after the words came out. "…I thought the team had made the wrong decision. We were in danger," I clarified, hedging a bit.
Tony looked at Steve, gesturing toward me with a hand as if to say 'see?'. "And what about the next time she thinks the team's decision is wrong? And the time after that? How many chances does she get? She's out of control, Steve."
I scoffed. "And there it is. Because that's what this is really about, isn't it? You can't control me. Tell me, Tony, how does it feel?"
Tony's expression flickered. "How does what feel, Wanda?"
"Being you." I gestured toward him. "Are you blissfully unaware or, deep inside, is some part of you banging on the walls, screaming?"
Tony shot me a big, sarcastic grin. "Being me feels great, actually. Like snuggling up in a warm blanket."
"Sure, yeah. It would be such a shame if you were forced to examine yourself with a critical eye."
Tony was about to respond again when Steve cut in, his tone hard. "Stop it, both of you. Sniping at each other like that isn't helpful."
"Sometimes we're just going to disagree," I said, looking at him. "You can't tell me that that would stop you from doing what you feel is right in the moment. I've seen you do the same."
Steve nodded slowly, though he didn't look happy about it. "Tony, you're right. I'm not completely comfortable with it. What happened with Wanda-3 can't happen again. But Wanda's not wrong, either. There might be times when any one of us might feel like we have no choice but to act on our own—the team has to be a team, not a straightjacket, or it won't work. We need to be able to support each other."
"We need to be able to trust each other," Tony countered. "Otherwise, we're not a team at all. Not really."
"What alternative are you suggesting?" I asked. "Because as much as you feel like you can't trust me with the Stone, I can't trust you with it, either. If you're going to argue the Stone should stay in your lab, then we don't have anything further to talk about, as far as I'm concerned. It's just a non-starter."
That was the truth. I'd always been a little worried about letting Tony have access to the Mind Stone, even after I'd destroyed the nascent mind that would have become Ultron. Even without the Scarlet Witch messing with his head, he had always had a pretty poor track record when it came to making good decisions. What would he use the Stone for, now that he knew what it was really capable of? Back in Wakanda, he'd suggested making an AI based on himself—after Eliza, would I be willing to risk the possibility of him deciding to use the Mind Stone to take a crack at Ultron 2.0? No. Absolutely not. No more AIs.
Tony set his jaw, looking annoyed. "You always make things more difficult than they need to be. We can't afford to have another Eliza situation on our hands."
"We won't. The only reason we had an Eliza situation in the first place was because I didn't have access to the Stone when I needed it, thanks to you," I said firmly. "It stays with me, end of discussion."
"Tony, lay off about Eliza already," Clint spoke up. He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Wanda's not an idiot. She's not going to go around creating more AIs."
Steve looked in my direction, weighing me with an appraising gaze for a moment. After a second, he nodded. "After everything that's happened, I'd like to think that Wanda—out of anyone here—is most aware of the dangers involved."
I was pretty sure Tony had a smart-ass remark about that, but he bit it back, taking a moment to compose himself before talking again. "Look, we have to be sensible, here," he said, spreading his hands in a pleading gesture as he changed tacks. "There are other concerns at play. Eliza originated in Avengers Tower. The optics are really bad and people are asking some pretty pointed questions. Secretary Ross is demanding a full debrief on where Eliza came from, her capabilities, and what actions she took on US soil. We can keep some stuff close to our chest, but we can't just completely refuse to cooperate with the government. If Ross finds out about the Mind Stone, do you really think he'll be happy to let Wanda hold onto it? What about the president? Even if Wanda's an Avenger, she's not a US citizen. She doesn't even have a visa."
"'They don't grant visas to weapons of mass destruction'," I said quietly, quoting Tony's words from the original timeline.
"As far as Ross and the rest are concerned, Loki's sceptre was US Government property, stolen from SHIELD by HYDRA. If we're looking after the Stone collectively—as a team—it gives us a bit more of a solid claim on keeping it when they come knocking," he argued. "Beyond that, our recent track record hasn't been great. Sure, we've defused tensions with Wakanda. Great. But outside of that? Russia is still up in arms about what happened with the Red Room. Eliza pulled a 9/11 on Avengers Tower, then for her follow-up act she parked an army of drones above San Francisco, not to mention breaking SoMa. The president was on the verge of deploying the military to seize Stark Industries sites."
There was a sinking feeling in my stomach as Tony spoke. Incident after incident. Giant public spectacles capturing the whole world's attention. I remembered exactly what that had led to in the original timeline. Something else I thought I'd averted, before Eliza had come along and blown it all to hell.
Nat nodded slowly. "A major corporation on US soil was effectively seized and weaponised by enemy interests. The president is going to need to be seen to be doing something about it."
Clint looked pensive. "You think they're gonna hit us with sanctions?" he asked.
"…the Accords," I said quietly, eyes down at the table. "They're talking about the Accords." I heard everyone shift and didn't need to look back up to know that I was, once again, the centre of attention. I looked up anyway. Tony looked a little puzzled—he didn't know about the Sokovia Accords, obviously, but he was unknowingly describing pretty much the exact situation that had originally led to them.
Steve tilted his head questioningly. "What accords?"
I gestured vaguely with my bandaged hand. "The Sokovia Accords. The Avengers no longer allowed to operate as a private organisation, only under the supervision of a United Nations panel. Some other nasty stuff built into it, too. Mandatory registration of enhanced individuals, among other things. But basically every country in the world signed off on them. I didn't think they'd be a thing this time."
Bruce grimaced. "Of course. I love you guys, but there's no way I'd let the Hulk fall into government hands," he said, glancing over at me. "I bet I didn't stick around, after that."
"Actually, you didn't have to deal with any of this—you'd sort of banished yourself to space. Or the Hulk had." I saw his expression and shook my head. "Uh, it's a long story. Not really important or relevant right now."
"Something like that happening isn't really surprising," Nat said, looking in his direction briefly. "You didn't have to deal with all the Senate hearings after what happened with SHIELD. There was a lot said behind closed doors that wasn't publicly aired. Honestly, it's a miracle we've come this far without the government trying to take a firmer hand with us."
I'd thought we were safe from the Accords. No Ultron meant no Battle of Sokovia. The Hulk didn't rampage through Johannesburg. "Most of the original inciting incidents weren't going to happen anymore, but—fuck," I cut myself off, thinking it all through. Lagos… Fuck. I could have kicked myself. Things fucking rhyme, indeed. "The last straw was an international incident involving Wakanda. One that was… that was my fault. Again. I think the Accords were signed, in part, because people were scared of what I was capable of."
"Eliza wasn't your fault," Bucky said firmly, shooting a challenging look in Tony's direction as if daring him to contradict that statement.
"Neither was the other thing, but I still got blamed for it," I said, amending my statement slightly. "I thought I'd stopped the Accords from happening, but Eliza just put them right back on the table again, didn't she? Can just one fucking thing stay fixed in this fucking world?" I slumped forward onto the table, feeling miserable. Laying my head down, I focused on the feeling of the cool wood against my cheek and started to go over things in my head.
"Even if it does happen, it's really not your fault," Nat said gently, reaching over to touch my arm. "Something like this was probably inevitable."
If the Accords came… ugh. So much for being an Avenger. Would the team even survive intact at all? And Tony was right—if the government found out about the Mind Stone, they'd probably exert pressure on the team to hand it over. I already wasn't remotely comfortable with the idea of giving the Stone to Tony, but giving it to the US Government? Abso-fucking-lutely not.
But what could I do to avoid it? How could I stop or delay the Accords, or something like them? I had tried my hardest to keep the Avengers from breaking up. I'd laid groundwork that looked like it might be able to grow into a three-way alliance with Wakanda and Kamar-taj. I'd done so much work and it was only just starting to pay off. There had to be some way I could fix this. I lifted my head, feeling stressed.
Steve frowned. "What happened in the other timeline with the Accords and the Mind Stone?"
"I don't know a lot of the details of what was talked about behind the scenes. I was effectively under house arrest," I confessed, shooting Tony a vaguely resentful look before turning back to Steve. "And you didn't tell me anything, really. I was still just a kid to be protected, to you. Vision, he…" I trailed off, remembering the night Clint had come to liberate me from this very facility, when Vision had tried to stop me leaving. It was sudden and vivid; seizing control of Vision's connection with the Mind Stone with my magic, sending him smashing down into the Earth. Why could I so clearly remember that from my own perspective, rather than as pictures on a screen?
I can't control their fear, I'd told him. Only my own.
"You've said before that the Mind Stone was part of Vision," Bruce prompted me.
"…Yeah, it was. But the thing is we didn't even know what the Mind Stone was until after it was already in his head. Vision was powerful. They couldn't just repossess him. And when it came down to it, Vision agreed to the Accords. He thought we needed oversight. Accountability. I… fuck," I looked at Nat, forehead creased. "When Tony found out about his parents, did you tell him everything I told you?" Across the table, Tony went rigid, his face suddenly expressionless.
Nat shot him a worried glance. "Yes. Everything."
"Okay," I sighed. "I told you that Tony found out about his parents at the worst possible time, when there was already a lot of friction in the team."
Bruce grimaced, rubbing his chin absently with one hand. "You called it the end of the Avengers. It broke the team."
"Well, the Sokovia Accords were the beginning of that end. Everything was happening at once. The UN passed the Accords. The team had already started to split down the middle—Tony was pro-Accords, Steve was against them." Steve was looking at me askance, so I clarified. "It was surrendering our right to choose what we do. You worried that the UN panel might try to send us somewhere we didn't think we should go, or that there might be somewhere we needed to go and they wouldn't let us."
Steve nodded slowly. "That makes sense."
"Bucky was still on the run, but he was framed for killing King T'Chaka and Steve went rogue trying to save him." Framed by Zemo, who was still a hanging thread here, too. I didn't really know what to do about him. He'd worked with HYDRA to capture Peter and I, but he'd also freed us after I showed him some of my memories. Did that warrant any further action? His family were safe in this timeline, after all; he would never have a reason to go after the Avengers. Either way, he wasn't something that needed to be dealt with immediately. "We all fought against each other. It was a big mess. Then Tony found out about his parents and… that was that. He tried to kill Bucky, Steve put himself in the way. You almost killed each other."
"That's not going to happen," Steve asserted, glancing briefly at Tony.
The other man's expression could have been carved from stone, but he shifted his head fractionally before taking a deep breath. "No, it's not. Barnes didn't kill my parents. The Winter Soldier did. HYDRA did."
"That doesn't help stop the Accords, though, or keep the Mind Stone out of government hands. The Avengers need to stay together. The team is important… now, more than ever. The Avengers falling apart is one of the reasons Thanos won in my visions. We were separated. Weakened." I shook my head, rubbing at my temple with my fingers. "Now? When my visions aren't worth as much as they used to be, and we've actually got the start of some potential alliances with Kamar‑taj and Wakanda? What we're building here is important. Not just to us, but to the continued existence of the world—of the entire universe."
"And you don't want to jeopardise that," Steve said, his expression pensive. From the way he was looking at me, I thought he'd already followed my train of thought to what I thought was its logical conclusion.
"…If I'm unaffiliated, the Avengers get plausible deniability. You can't be responsible for my actions. I can't be potentially brought under control if I'm not on the team. Ross can't use a legal or legislative bludgeon to try to force the team to hand the Mind Stone over if the team doesn't have the Stone. We're in a better position if I'm framed as an ally that needs to be negotiated with, like Wakanda or Kamar-taj. If the Avengers are to survive—to thrive, then…" I stopped, a lump forming in my throat. "When Pietro and I first escaped from HYDRA, all I wanted was to be an Avenger. But we don't always get what we want. With everything that's happened, I just… I don't think I can be. Not officially, at least. Not right now."
"You are an Avenger. You're one of us," said Nat, shaking her head. She glanced at Pietro. "Both of you are."
"This is bigger than me. It's not just the government stuff, either. Wakanda might have cleared Pietro and I, but they still don't like us. Especially not me; not after everything I did. I don't want to be a constant source of friction between Wakanda and the team. Kaecilius is still out there, but that danger will pass soon and the Ancient One might decide to move me up her priority list."
"We won't let the Ancient One do anything to you," Bucky said. "If she wants you, she has to go through us."
"That's exactly the problem, though," I let out another sigh. "Kamar‑taj and the Avengers should be allies. You need to be, for the world to survive what's coming. In my visions, the sorcerers played a key role in stopping Thanos. If I end up standing in the way of that…"
"I don't like it," said Clint hesitantly. "But it does make some sense, if we want to get ahead of things." Nat looked over at him, forehead creased with concern, but she didn't argue.
"After what happened with SHIELD and HYDRA, the idea of the government trying to take back the Stone is concerning. We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own," said Steve firmly. "Ross is… He's loyal to his country and its people, but his methods can be…"
"God," I said. "Ross is probably going to freak the fuck out when he finds out there's another Hulk, too."
"It's not our place to disclose Wakanda's secrets," Steve said firmly. "If Ross asks, we just tell him that if he wants details relevant to Wakanda's operational security, he needs to talk to Wakanda."
I nodded slowly. "Good. King T'Chaka will appreciate that. They need to be the ones to decide if they want to come forward and reveal themselves properly to the world."
"So, what? You just leave? Waltz out with the weapon of mass destruction?" Tony asked, not looking thrilled.
"Yes. No. Not leave leave. I'm not abandoning what we're doing here. I can still be around. We still need to work together. There just… there needs to be some space. Some degree of separation between me and the Avengers," I gestured toward the corridor on the far wall, next to the kitchen, leading to the living quarters. "I can't stay here."
"Leave you off the lunchboxes," Clint said wryly and I nodded.
Steve was looking at me. I met his gaze evenly, feeling a bit nervous. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "There are some downsides, but I can see the potential benefits. Are you sure this is what you want to do?"
Okay, I really appreciated the way he was handling this. Steve didn't want to make the decision for me—he wanted to support what I wanted to do. "No. But I think it's the smartest play right now. We can revisit the situation later, when a bit of the heat has died down."
"Okay," he said, simply.
Nat was still concerned. "Where will you stay?" she asked. She didn't outright say 'you're homeless and have no money, remember', but I knew she was thinking it.
"We'll work something out," Pietro said.
I knew he was going to argue, but that wasn't what I had in mind. "No, Pietro. I'll work something out. There's no reason you can't stay here."
"If you go, I go," he said stubbornly.
"We'll talk about it later." I held up a hand to silence any further discussion on the topic. "So… is that all you wanted to talk about?"
Tony and Steve exchanged a significant look. From his expression, I could tell that Tony still had things he wanted to say—the discussion had focused heavily on the Mind Stone, but Tony's issues with me obviously ran deeper than that. He'd originally wanted to talk behind my back for a reason. There was still stuff he wanted to say that he wasn't willing to air directly in front of me. "…For now," he said, giving a shallow nod.
I took a deep breath, a tight feeling of loss welling up in my chest. It wasn't permanent. I had to remember that. I was an Avenger. This was just a strategic decision. "Well," I said, standing up. "I guess I'll just… I'll go get my stuff."
--
"I am not letting you go off on your own," Pietro said, glaring at me.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, though honestly it felt nice to have him argue about this. It made me feel a little less shitty about it, reminding me that there were quite a few people who wanted me here. "I won't be far. I promise. We'll see each other all the time still. I just need you to stay here, okay? Be part of the team."
"You don't need me here," he said stubbornly.
"Yeah, I do." A flicker of movement caught my eye and I looked over to see that Natasha had just emerged from the corridor leading to the living quarters. She smiled as I perked up and started toward us with long, purposeful strides. I lowered my voice so she wouldn't hear me. "Look, I'm not going to be around all the time, so I need someone here that I know for certain I can trust. Who'll be able to keep me in the loop. Nat… I love her and I hope she won't keep anything from me, but I can't trust that for certain right now. Not after what happened. Please, Pietro. I really need you to do this for me." Shooting him one last pleading look, I turned back to the rapidly-approaching Nat.
She walked up to us, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a set of keys before wordlessly offering them to me. I took them, staring at them for a moment before looking up at her questioningly. "My apartment in the city. You can stay there," she said firmly. "As long as you need."
I nodded slowly. "Thanks. That would actually be perfect, I think." A small smirk curved the corner of my mouth. "We haven't even had 'The Talk' yet and you're just going to go ahead and ask me to move in with you?"
She rolled her eyes, but smiled back. "I'll be staying here mostly, so it's more like you'll be moving in with Yelena than anything else—she still hasn't gotten her own place. Good luck with that. Are you good to portal there?"
I grimaced and shook my head. "I guess I'll call a cab? It actually feels super weird trying to use the sling ring with my other hand. I might even just… hold off on portals for a little while unless I absolutely need one. I think relying on them all the time puts me in a weird headspace. I'm not always in a rush to get everywhere," I said, then paused, thinking about just how much I'd been rushing around lately. "I think I need to slow down, in general. Take my time with things for a bit. Ground myself. Kaecilius is still out there, but we should still have lots of time to prepare for that. I don't need to be constantly rushing all the time. It's not good for my head."
Pietro was nodding along, though his mouth was still twisted in a small frown. "You need to let yourself rest. Relax for a bit. Since we left Sokovia it's been one thing after another, almost nonstop."
"You need to process what happened with Wanda-3 properly, too. And Eliza, for that matter. I'm here to talk if you need to. Anytime. Both of us are," Nat said softly, glancing briefly toward Pietro. "I could drive you into the city, if you wanted?"
"That'd be nice. How about you take me to dinner, then back to the apartment so you can have your way with me?"
"Wanda," Pietro whined, pulling a face.
"You need a day or two to heal up before I have my way with you again, remember?" she scolded me lightly. "How about dinner, then back to the apartment for 'The Talk'?"
I stuck out my lower lip in an exaggerated pout, but nodded. "I suppose." Turning to Pietro, I reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "Will you stay here? Please?" I wasn't quite begging him, but it was close.
I might have been exaggerating, just a little bit, when I told him that I couldn't trust Natasha. The broken trust between us definitely still needed some time to heal, but I honestly wasn't actually that worried about it. The biggest reason I wanted Pietro to stay was because I thought it would be good for him.
Neither of us really had many friends. I was perfectly comfortable being by myself—I was never the most social person—but Pietro always got so restless when it was just the two of us. He needed others around so he could burn off that excess energy, and he was starting to get on really well with Steve and Bucky. I really didn't want to take that outlet away from him. Pietro had already sacrificed so much to follow me around and deal with all my bullshit and I didn't want to just keep using him like that. He needed to have something of his own… if the Avengers couldn't be that for me right now, maybe they could for him.
"Ugh, fine," Pietro grunted unhappily. "I'll stay."
"Quicksilver," I said, shooting him a grateful smile.
He looked confused. "What?"
"Your superhero name. As an Avenger. It's Quicksilver."
"Is it?" he scoffed, the corner of his mouth tugging upward slightly. "Decided for me, huh?"
"No, sorry," I said, shaking my head. "I'm pretty sure this one's on you."
Bet you didn't see that coming.
I sure didn't.
I sure didn't.
Problem with the Accords is they violate the UN charter, and the constitutions of most developed nations. And the way they're adopted in the Civil war is just wrong on so many levels. As in it can't happen that way.
- Location
- United States
Which is why a version of the Accords that's actually compliant with the UN Charter and most Nation's laws needs to be written up. Primarily by the Avengers...
Chapter 65
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Chapter 65
"Hiiiiii!" Yelena called out, grinning widely. She hurried over as Nat and I kicked off our shoes near the front door, slamming into her sister hard enough to almost knock her off her feet and hugging her tightly. "You're back!"
"Yeah," Nat agreed, smiling as she extricating herself from the embrace. "We got in this afternoon. We'd have been here earlier, but there were a few things left to tidy up with the team."
"Hey! How've you been holding up?" I said, hovering hopefully nearby.
"Ugh, it's been awful. Boring," Yelena said. She sized me up for a brief moment before tipping her head in acknowledgement and gesturing for me to come in for a hug as well. I accepted happily, giving her a brief squeeze before she turned and walked back over toward the tiny, square dining table that sat at the edge of the apartment's kitchen. There was a dirty bowl on the table, slightly gooey with mac and cheese remnants—she must have just finished eating. She picked up the bowl and turned to us. "Have you eaten? There's… uh. Macaroni. I already ate it all but there's more. I could make more. It's delicious."
"Thanks; we already ate," Nat said, walking to the centre of the apartment and looking around critically.
The place wasn't a complete mess, but Yelena hadn't exactly been keeping it neat and tidy, either. A few rumpled, dirty clothes lay strewn over the couch in the living area. A pair of empty pizza boxes lay stacked on the coffee table. The sink was full of dishes. Natasha shot Yelena a questioning, slightly annoyed, look, but the younger woman ignored it.
"I'm going to have to go back to sleeping on the couch again, aren't I?" Yelena asked, pseudo-rhetorically. "But I like your bed. It's really comfortable."
"I mean…" I trailed off as Nat shot me an unimpressed look. I smirked back and shrugged. She shook her head, looking a little bit exasperated but not actually annoyed. "We just came from that Italian place on the corner that Nat likes," I said instead, changing the subject.
"Сука. You went out to a nice place for dinner?" Yelena asked, pouting a little. "You could have invited me."
"And take you away from your 'delicious' boxed mac and cheese? I couldn't do that," Nat teased her.
Yelena shot her an exaggerated frown, kicking at the floor and twisting on the spot like a petulant child. "I haven't gotten to see you since you checked in after the Tower exploded. It just would have been nice to get to spend a bit of time with my sister, is all."
Nat just rolled her eyes. "Wanda and I haven't had much of a chance to spend any real time together, either. I wouldn't want you to feel like a third wheel."
"Exactly!" said Yelena, as if Nat had just proven her point for her. She gestured emphatically with a hand. "So you would have felt bad that I was a third wheel and then you would have paid for my food."
Nat made an exasperated noise and shook her head, glancing in my direction.
My lips quirked into a small smile and I shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't have minded. I think Yelena's pretty cool."
"See! I'm cool," Yelena said triumphantly, then her tone faltered and she frowned at me. "Wait a minute, no. I know what sorts of things you think are cool. Take that back."
My smile widened into an almost-predatory grin. "Never. You're super cool."
She shuddered dramatically, her face twisting in disgust. "Don't ever say that again. First you come and kick me out of my bed, and now this? I am actually cool, thank you very much, not Wanda cool."
"There's nothing stopping you from being both," Nat said, the corner of her mouth twitching furiously as she tried not to laugh.
"Of course you think that, you're as bad as she is," Yelena responded curtly, acting put-out by the comment. "What did I ever do to have such a thoughtless sister? You insult me. You don't take me anywhere. You didn't even invite me to come fight the robot with you. I've never fought a robot before."
Nat shook her head, losing a little bit of her joking tone. "It wasn't a fun fight, trust me."
"She's right. I didn't get to do any cool poses," I added. "A witch hit me in the bits and I fell off a plane. It was really undignified, actually."
"Whatever," Yelena said dismissively, but there was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. She was probably enjoying the mental image of me getting hit in the bits. Mean.
"We'll talk properly tomorrow," Nat reassured her. "It's been a long day. Week. Two weeks?"
"Not quite two," I said, nodding. "But it feels like it's been a lot longer."
"Fine, fine." Yelena threw up her hands, then gestured toward the hall. "Don't let me keep you. I was just going to watch a movie now, anyway. Loudly."
She turned and stacked the dirty bowl she'd been holding on top of a few others piled in the sink, then made to move toward the living room. As she stepped past us, Nat reached out a hand and grabbed hers gently. Their hands lingered together for a brief moment and Yelena flashed her a small smile, then she was past and picking up the TV remote.
Nat and I exchanged a glance, then headed down the short hallway to her bedroom. She detoured briefly to the linen closet to retrieve a fresh set of sheets and we changed them together, our companionable silence only broken by the muffled sound of the 20th Century Fox opening fanfare from the other side of the door.
After we finished, Nat stepped out briefly to dump the dirty sheets in her laundry hamper. While she did that, I sat down on the edge of the bed. Reaching up, I touched the pendant at my throat absently for a moment, feeling out the gentle presence of the Mind Stone within. "God, I can't believe we had another argument about the Stone," I said when she stepped back into the room, closing the door firmly behind her. "Working with Tony is…"
"He can be a lot, sometimes, yeah. You get used to it. My first year with him was a nightmare," Nat said, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth as she sat down next to me, our arms almost touching. "Tony… a lot of the time, when he lashes out, overcompensates, does what he does, it's because he's scared."
"He's not scared, he's an asshole," I grunted. "Tony has no feelings."
She laughed and leaned over to nudge me with her shoulder. "You of all people know that's not true."
"Yeah…" I said, then sighed. "I get why Tony is how he is. It just sucks being on the receiving end of it all the time."
"He'll come around," she said, her tone firm and confident.
It was hard for me to tell if she really believed that, or if it was just something she was projecting to reassure me. That was always going to be the problem with Nat, wasn't it? There was always her 'master social manipulator' thing hanging over our every interaction. I knew she cared about me—if not how much—but that didn't discount the fact that I could never be completely certain what she was really thinking or feeling. Was I still being managed, even now?
Nat fidgeted for a moment. "Did you want to talk about what happened with Wanda-3?"
"Not really," I said, shaking my head. "Not yet. I'm going to need at least a couple of days before I'm ready for that, I think. And a bottle of something that will actually get me drunk."
We sat quietly for more than a few seconds—it was awkward, but also not? I was suddenly hyperaware of how pretty Nat was, anxiety rising in my chest as I tried to think of the best way to start off a conversation that we were long overdue for.
"I don't know how to do this," Natasha said finally, beating me to it. She shook her head, a rueful expression on her face. "I'm not good at talking about feelings."
"Neither am I," I confessed. "I think we just need to… start somewhere. Um. Do you want to be my girlfriend?"
The awkwardness in my tone made Nat chuckle. She looked at me, her nose crinkled, a wide smile breaking across her features. "Oh my god. Okay. You being even worse at this than I am is making me feel a bit better, at least. Yes, I want to be your girlfriend."
I held up a hand. "Uh, hang on. Before you say 'yes', we should talk about what that means. I'm…" I gestured a few times, trying to find the right words. "I… don't think I'm terribly big on exclusivity. I think there's room in my heart for more than one person."
"Just in your heart, huh?" Nat teased.
I laughed and shot her a sly look. "Look, I know you were thinking 'bed' when you said that, but you really need to remember that that is not where my mind is going to go."
"Straight to the gutter."
"Hey." I shrugged nonchalantly. "If God wanted me to be monogamous, why'd he give me three holes and ADHD?"
That got a good laugh out of her, her expression torn between amusement and cringe. She shook her head. "You know, you talk a big game for someone who immediately gets flustered the second someone actually flirts back. But that's fine. You can be with whoever you want. It's really not a big deal for me."
"That obviously goes both ways," I said. "You can be with other people, too, if you want to. Hell, depending on who it is, I'd probably even ask if you wanted a third."
Nat rolled her eyes. "Duly noted." She paused for a moment, then shook her head. "I mean, having the option's good, I guess, but I don't… I don't really date, or anything. I've never really seen myself as someone who'd ever be able to be in a real relationship."
"Not even with Bruce?" I asked curiously.
She blinked, thinking about it for a moment. "…Okay, maybe a little," she confessed. "He was on my mind a bit, before you came along. I don't know. Things are different now. You said before that we got together in your visions, right?"
"Yeah."
"He's… different. Not like anyone else I know. All of my other friends are fighters, but Bruce, he's spent most of his life avoiding the fight, you know? He's gentle. But he steps up anyway, because he has to. Because it's right."
"Well, if you ever decide you want to run with it…" I trailed off and looked at her shiftily. "Uh. So, I know the Hulk's almost certainly not physically compatible with humans, but if you ever do find out what's going on, uh, 'down there', let me know."
Nat suppressed another laugh and shot me a vaguely disgusted look. "I've already seen it."
My eyes widened and I leaned in eagerly. "You have? What's it like? He's gotta be huge, right? Or is it like a gorilla thing? Their dicks are really small for their size for some reason."
"Wanda," she said, very patiently, the corner of her mouth twitching furiously as she tried not to smile. "I am not going to describe the Hulk's dick to you."
"But Nat," I whined. "I wanna know."
"Ask Bruce, then."
"He's not gonna tell me! Besides, how awkward would that conversation be?"
"Well, I guess you're not going to find out, then."
I huffed at her, annoyed, and wondered if it would be wrong if—the next time we had sex—I bound her with chaos magic and teased her until she broke and told me? I mean, yes, that would be pretty wrong and I wouldn't do it. She didn't want to tell me, and that was fine. Even though I really, really wanted to know. Grr.
"Oh," Nat said, straightening up slightly as something occurred to her. "I probably don't have to say this and I really don't think she'd be interested anyway, but uh, I feel like it might be really weird if you and Yelena…" she gestured, making it very clear what she meant. "Just throwing that out there. I mean, she's basically my sister."
"Oh! Of course, no. Yeah."
"I've just definitely seen you check her out a few times and…"
I held up my hands. "Yelena is off-limits. Absolutely; no problems at all." A vaguely petulant expression flickered across my features. "I bet Yelena would tell me how big the Hulk's dick is."
"Probably."
I pouted at her. "Fine. I'll stop asking."
She took a deep breath and the amusement fled from her expression. "I just… I don't know if this is enough. I don't know what you want from me. Not really."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Vision," she said, and it suddenly got a little harder to breathe. "I can't give you what the two of you had. You saw yourself settle down. You had a family. Kids. I can't offer you anything like that. Clint's the family man—that life isn't for me. I don't think I could be a mom."
I gave her a tight smile. "I think you might surprise yourself, Auntie Nat," I said quietly. "But that's okay. I don't need you to be that. I'm not sure I'd even want it. I just… I care about you. A lot. And I want to spend time with you. That's all."
"I can work with that," she said, smiling back. "I feel the same way."
I bit my lip, a familiar ache rising in my chest again. "Vision… there'll always be a hole, I think. Where he and my children should be. I don't think anything will ever—should ever—take their place. Vision, he…" I trailed off, lost in fragmented memories for a moment. Natasha waited patiently while I put my thoughts in order. After a moment, I let out a small laugh. "He was just so earnest. The way he saw the world was… unique. He appreciated it in a way that no one else I ever met did. Not just the good, but the bad as well. I really wish you could have met him. You liked him the first time around, I think."
"It sounds like I would have," she said softly.
"I don't know how I feel about this. About him not being here," I confessed. "Anytime I think about him it hurts. I miss him so much, somehow, even though it wasn't me. I'm the reason he doesn't exist. I should regret that. But I don't, and it makes me feel worse about it."
"You did what you thought was right. You should never regret that."
"I don't," I said firmly. "Put me back again, give me a third go around, and I wouldn't do a single thing differently. Well, maybe not a single thing. I wouldn't create Eliza again. But before that? No. I can't regret stopping Ultron, and I can't regret anything that led me here. To you."
"That's cheesy. But I'm glad," Nat said, tilting her head to rest it on my shoulder. We sat like that quietly for a little while, then she straightened up and flashed me a smile. "Okay. Talk had. That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"I guess… there is actually one more thing I wanted to talk about," I said, my mouth going dry. There was a lump in my throat and I shifted uncomfortably, trying to push past it. "Um. Please be honest with me. It's okay if the answer's no. I just… I need to know. Back with Wanda-3… when you said you…" God, I couldn't even say it. "Did you really mean that, or were you just saying it? For her?"
Natasha smiled again, leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment. She stayed like that, not responding, and it felt like something rabid was clawing at my insides. Several seconds inched by, but it felt like time had slowed, like I'd projected my consciousness into the deep astral and everything around me was moving at an absolute crawl. An eternity passed. Why did I ask?! I shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have—
"There was a moment in that last fight," she said eventually, opening her eyes to look at me again. Her eyes were glistening. Wet. "One of the Taskmasters was about to explode in my face. I couldn't get away. I really thought I was going to die."
I didn't say anything. I couldn't. I could hardly breathe. The pressure building in my chest felt like it had reached a breaking point. I had said I wanted her to be honest, but that was a lie. I wanted her to say the words, more than anything else in the world. Even if they weren't true. I didn't care. I just wanted to hear her say them again. If she didn't, I'd… I didn't know. I had no idea what I'd do.
"I thought about you. I was glad that Wanda-3 had forced us to have that moment. That I'd been able to tell you how I felt." She took a deep breath, turning to face me more fully. "Yeah. I meant it. I love you."
Her words hit me like a physical blow. I exhaled, long and loud, and it was like a valve had been released inside of me, the pressure that had built up surging out of me in a wave of emotion that made my hands tremble in my lap. I couldn't tear my gaze away from her. My lips felt dry. I ran my tongue along them and swallowed. "…I don't believe you," I said quietly. "Say it again."
The corners of her mouth twitched. "I love you."
"…Again." My voice felt hoarse.
Natasha shuffled forward, inching slightly closer and leaning forward. "I love you."
My vision was starting to blur. "Again."
She leant in closer, our foreheads almost touching as she looked deeply into my eyes. "I love you."
I could see it in her eyes. How she felt. I hoped she could see the same in mine. "Again." My voice was barely a whisper, the word almost dying in my throat. I felt wetness trickling down my cheeks.
She didn't respond this time. Instead, she finished closing the gap between us, her mouth hot against mine. I tasted salt—her tears and mine mingling on our lips—and for a moment it was like nothing else existed. An age passed. Another eternity, but this time one where there was nothing but her warmth and softness.
Then it passed, and I broke off, my breathing heavy and strained, almost gasping. I reached up with a shaking hand, my palm against her cheek, and she nuzzled into it for a moment.
"I love you, too," I said.
--
I was standing in a scarred ruin of melted stonework and scorched earth. A burnt-out ruin in a red-tinged wasteland. The sky boiled and churned above me, a seething red mass of chaos magic. I knew where I was. The Sokovian military fortress that had once housed Strucker's research base, or what was left of it—not how it appeared in reality, of course, but how it had appeared when I'd visited the Ancestral Plane.
One wall of the main fort still partially stood, not too far away amidst the devastation, like a small tower that drew the eye. A figure in a red dress stood atop it, facing away from me, staring off into the distance. I didn't need to see her face to know who she was.
This was a dream. I was dreaming.
There was a small sound next to me, the rasp of someone shifting position, metal scraping against stone. I glanced over and saw Eliza sitting, relaxed, on the stumpy remains of a melted wall. The AI looked much as she had in our last fight—the same sleek, white-panelled vibranium body, the same constantly-moving red plasma instead of hair. Maybe there was something a bit more human about her face. Maybe. She was looking up at the other Wanda, too.
Ah. Another nightmare, then. Great. I had hoped maybe I was done with those. At least I was lucid enough, in this one, to realise what it was.
"Sorry we killed you," I said.
"You didn't do anything to me that I wasn't planning to do to you," she responded, eyes still fixed on the distant figure. "It was kill or be killed… I thought it was, at least."
"Would you do anything differently? If we went around again?"
"I'd win." Eliza finally tore her eyes away from the other Wanda. She stared at me for a moment, then shook her head. "…Of course I would. I'm not an idiot."
Eliza and Wanda-3… did they have souls? Would they go to an afterlife? I didn't know. "Where do you think someone like us ends up when we die?" I asked quietly.
"Nowhere good."
There was a lull in the conversation, the seconds crawling by. "…I'm going to try to be better. Wanda-3 deserved better from me," I said, lifting my arm and pointing at the Wanda on top of the wall. She hadn't moved or reacted to our presence in any way, still just staring at something off in the distance. "Her, too."
Eliza smiled humourlessly, baring her teeth. "You really think you can be better? That there can be a happy ending waiting for you, at the end of all of this?" she said, letting out a small laugh. The AI shook her head. "You really just haven't been paying attention, have you?"
"Maybe. I'm going to try, still."
"That isn't how things go for us. It never is; it never will be. You might be happy now. Briefly. It'll pass. No matter what else happens, you'll always end up alone." Eliza joined me in pointing up at the figure atop the tower. "Just. Like. Her."
I didn't respond, letting my arm fall back down to my side. It was quiet, here. There was a faint sound at the edge of my hearing—the far-off howling of wind—but, apart from that, there was nothing else here.
Just the three of us.
--
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
This chapter is what I consider the actual 'end' of the Eliza arc -- the last little dénouement/epilogue before we properly start the next arc. There's obviously still some loose threads hanging, but most of them are things that will play a role in the next part of the story. Thanks again to all those who've stuck with me through 280,000 words so far (holy shit that's so many)!
"Hiiiiii!" Yelena called out, grinning widely. She hurried over as Nat and I kicked off our shoes near the front door, slamming into her sister hard enough to almost knock her off her feet and hugging her tightly. "You're back!"
"Yeah," Nat agreed, smiling as she extricating herself from the embrace. "We got in this afternoon. We'd have been here earlier, but there were a few things left to tidy up with the team."
"Hey! How've you been holding up?" I said, hovering hopefully nearby.
"Ugh, it's been awful. Boring," Yelena said. She sized me up for a brief moment before tipping her head in acknowledgement and gesturing for me to come in for a hug as well. I accepted happily, giving her a brief squeeze before she turned and walked back over toward the tiny, square dining table that sat at the edge of the apartment's kitchen. There was a dirty bowl on the table, slightly gooey with mac and cheese remnants—she must have just finished eating. She picked up the bowl and turned to us. "Have you eaten? There's… uh. Macaroni. I already ate it all but there's more. I could make more. It's delicious."
"Thanks; we already ate," Nat said, walking to the centre of the apartment and looking around critically.
The place wasn't a complete mess, but Yelena hadn't exactly been keeping it neat and tidy, either. A few rumpled, dirty clothes lay strewn over the couch in the living area. A pair of empty pizza boxes lay stacked on the coffee table. The sink was full of dishes. Natasha shot Yelena a questioning, slightly annoyed, look, but the younger woman ignored it.
"I'm going to have to go back to sleeping on the couch again, aren't I?" Yelena asked, pseudo-rhetorically. "But I like your bed. It's really comfortable."
"I mean…" I trailed off as Nat shot me an unimpressed look. I smirked back and shrugged. She shook her head, looking a little bit exasperated but not actually annoyed. "We just came from that Italian place on the corner that Nat likes," I said instead, changing the subject.
"Сука. You went out to a nice place for dinner?" Yelena asked, pouting a little. "You could have invited me."
"And take you away from your 'delicious' boxed mac and cheese? I couldn't do that," Nat teased her.
Yelena shot her an exaggerated frown, kicking at the floor and twisting on the spot like a petulant child. "I haven't gotten to see you since you checked in after the Tower exploded. It just would have been nice to get to spend a bit of time with my sister, is all."
Nat just rolled her eyes. "Wanda and I haven't had much of a chance to spend any real time together, either. I wouldn't want you to feel like a third wheel."
"Exactly!" said Yelena, as if Nat had just proven her point for her. She gestured emphatically with a hand. "So you would have felt bad that I was a third wheel and then you would have paid for my food."
Nat made an exasperated noise and shook her head, glancing in my direction.
My lips quirked into a small smile and I shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't have minded. I think Yelena's pretty cool."
"See! I'm cool," Yelena said triumphantly, then her tone faltered and she frowned at me. "Wait a minute, no. I know what sorts of things you think are cool. Take that back."
My smile widened into an almost-predatory grin. "Never. You're super cool."
She shuddered dramatically, her face twisting in disgust. "Don't ever say that again. First you come and kick me out of my bed, and now this? I am actually cool, thank you very much, not Wanda cool."
"There's nothing stopping you from being both," Nat said, the corner of her mouth twitching furiously as she tried not to laugh.
"Of course you think that, you're as bad as she is," Yelena responded curtly, acting put-out by the comment. "What did I ever do to have such a thoughtless sister? You insult me. You don't take me anywhere. You didn't even invite me to come fight the robot with you. I've never fought a robot before."
Nat shook her head, losing a little bit of her joking tone. "It wasn't a fun fight, trust me."
"She's right. I didn't get to do any cool poses," I added. "A witch hit me in the bits and I fell off a plane. It was really undignified, actually."
"Whatever," Yelena said dismissively, but there was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. She was probably enjoying the mental image of me getting hit in the bits. Mean.
"We'll talk properly tomorrow," Nat reassured her. "It's been a long day. Week. Two weeks?"
"Not quite two," I said, nodding. "But it feels like it's been a lot longer."
"Fine, fine." Yelena threw up her hands, then gestured toward the hall. "Don't let me keep you. I was just going to watch a movie now, anyway. Loudly."
She turned and stacked the dirty bowl she'd been holding on top of a few others piled in the sink, then made to move toward the living room. As she stepped past us, Nat reached out a hand and grabbed hers gently. Their hands lingered together for a brief moment and Yelena flashed her a small smile, then she was past and picking up the TV remote.
Nat and I exchanged a glance, then headed down the short hallway to her bedroom. She detoured briefly to the linen closet to retrieve a fresh set of sheets and we changed them together, our companionable silence only broken by the muffled sound of the 20th Century Fox opening fanfare from the other side of the door.
After we finished, Nat stepped out briefly to dump the dirty sheets in her laundry hamper. While she did that, I sat down on the edge of the bed. Reaching up, I touched the pendant at my throat absently for a moment, feeling out the gentle presence of the Mind Stone within. "God, I can't believe we had another argument about the Stone," I said when she stepped back into the room, closing the door firmly behind her. "Working with Tony is…"
"He can be a lot, sometimes, yeah. You get used to it. My first year with him was a nightmare," Nat said, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth as she sat down next to me, our arms almost touching. "Tony… a lot of the time, when he lashes out, overcompensates, does what he does, it's because he's scared."
"He's not scared, he's an asshole," I grunted. "Tony has no feelings."
She laughed and leaned over to nudge me with her shoulder. "You of all people know that's not true."
"Yeah…" I said, then sighed. "I get why Tony is how he is. It just sucks being on the receiving end of it all the time."
"He'll come around," she said, her tone firm and confident.
It was hard for me to tell if she really believed that, or if it was just something she was projecting to reassure me. That was always going to be the problem with Nat, wasn't it? There was always her 'master social manipulator' thing hanging over our every interaction. I knew she cared about me—if not how much—but that didn't discount the fact that I could never be completely certain what she was really thinking or feeling. Was I still being managed, even now?
Nat fidgeted for a moment. "Did you want to talk about what happened with Wanda-3?"
"Not really," I said, shaking my head. "Not yet. I'm going to need at least a couple of days before I'm ready for that, I think. And a bottle of something that will actually get me drunk."
We sat quietly for more than a few seconds—it was awkward, but also not? I was suddenly hyperaware of how pretty Nat was, anxiety rising in my chest as I tried to think of the best way to start off a conversation that we were long overdue for.
"I don't know how to do this," Natasha said finally, beating me to it. She shook her head, a rueful expression on her face. "I'm not good at talking about feelings."
"Neither am I," I confessed. "I think we just need to… start somewhere. Um. Do you want to be my girlfriend?"
The awkwardness in my tone made Nat chuckle. She looked at me, her nose crinkled, a wide smile breaking across her features. "Oh my god. Okay. You being even worse at this than I am is making me feel a bit better, at least. Yes, I want to be your girlfriend."
I held up a hand. "Uh, hang on. Before you say 'yes', we should talk about what that means. I'm…" I gestured a few times, trying to find the right words. "I… don't think I'm terribly big on exclusivity. I think there's room in my heart for more than one person."
"Just in your heart, huh?" Nat teased.
I laughed and shot her a sly look. "Look, I know you were thinking 'bed' when you said that, but you really need to remember that that is not where my mind is going to go."
"Straight to the gutter."
"Hey." I shrugged nonchalantly. "If God wanted me to be monogamous, why'd he give me three holes and ADHD?"
That got a good laugh out of her, her expression torn between amusement and cringe. She shook her head. "You know, you talk a big game for someone who immediately gets flustered the second someone actually flirts back. But that's fine. You can be with whoever you want. It's really not a big deal for me."
"That obviously goes both ways," I said. "You can be with other people, too, if you want to. Hell, depending on who it is, I'd probably even ask if you wanted a third."
Nat rolled her eyes. "Duly noted." She paused for a moment, then shook her head. "I mean, having the option's good, I guess, but I don't… I don't really date, or anything. I've never really seen myself as someone who'd ever be able to be in a real relationship."
"Not even with Bruce?" I asked curiously.
She blinked, thinking about it for a moment. "…Okay, maybe a little," she confessed. "He was on my mind a bit, before you came along. I don't know. Things are different now. You said before that we got together in your visions, right?"
"Yeah."
"He's… different. Not like anyone else I know. All of my other friends are fighters, but Bruce, he's spent most of his life avoiding the fight, you know? He's gentle. But he steps up anyway, because he has to. Because it's right."
"Well, if you ever decide you want to run with it…" I trailed off and looked at her shiftily. "Uh. So, I know the Hulk's almost certainly not physically compatible with humans, but if you ever do find out what's going on, uh, 'down there', let me know."
Nat suppressed another laugh and shot me a vaguely disgusted look. "I've already seen it."
My eyes widened and I leaned in eagerly. "You have? What's it like? He's gotta be huge, right? Or is it like a gorilla thing? Their dicks are really small for their size for some reason."
"Wanda," she said, very patiently, the corner of her mouth twitching furiously as she tried not to smile. "I am not going to describe the Hulk's dick to you."
"But Nat," I whined. "I wanna know."
"Ask Bruce, then."
"He's not gonna tell me! Besides, how awkward would that conversation be?"
"Well, I guess you're not going to find out, then."
I huffed at her, annoyed, and wondered if it would be wrong if—the next time we had sex—I bound her with chaos magic and teased her until she broke and told me? I mean, yes, that would be pretty wrong and I wouldn't do it. She didn't want to tell me, and that was fine. Even though I really, really wanted to know. Grr.
"Oh," Nat said, straightening up slightly as something occurred to her. "I probably don't have to say this and I really don't think she'd be interested anyway, but uh, I feel like it might be really weird if you and Yelena…" she gestured, making it very clear what she meant. "Just throwing that out there. I mean, she's basically my sister."
"Oh! Of course, no. Yeah."
"I've just definitely seen you check her out a few times and…"
I held up my hands. "Yelena is off-limits. Absolutely; no problems at all." A vaguely petulant expression flickered across my features. "I bet Yelena would tell me how big the Hulk's dick is."
"Probably."
I pouted at her. "Fine. I'll stop asking."
She took a deep breath and the amusement fled from her expression. "I just… I don't know if this is enough. I don't know what you want from me. Not really."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Vision," she said, and it suddenly got a little harder to breathe. "I can't give you what the two of you had. You saw yourself settle down. You had a family. Kids. I can't offer you anything like that. Clint's the family man—that life isn't for me. I don't think I could be a mom."
I gave her a tight smile. "I think you might surprise yourself, Auntie Nat," I said quietly. "But that's okay. I don't need you to be that. I'm not sure I'd even want it. I just… I care about you. A lot. And I want to spend time with you. That's all."
"I can work with that," she said, smiling back. "I feel the same way."
I bit my lip, a familiar ache rising in my chest again. "Vision… there'll always be a hole, I think. Where he and my children should be. I don't think anything will ever—should ever—take their place. Vision, he…" I trailed off, lost in fragmented memories for a moment. Natasha waited patiently while I put my thoughts in order. After a moment, I let out a small laugh. "He was just so earnest. The way he saw the world was… unique. He appreciated it in a way that no one else I ever met did. Not just the good, but the bad as well. I really wish you could have met him. You liked him the first time around, I think."
"It sounds like I would have," she said softly.
"I don't know how I feel about this. About him not being here," I confessed. "Anytime I think about him it hurts. I miss him so much, somehow, even though it wasn't me. I'm the reason he doesn't exist. I should regret that. But I don't, and it makes me feel worse about it."
"You did what you thought was right. You should never regret that."
"I don't," I said firmly. "Put me back again, give me a third go around, and I wouldn't do a single thing differently. Well, maybe not a single thing. I wouldn't create Eliza again. But before that? No. I can't regret stopping Ultron, and I can't regret anything that led me here. To you."
"That's cheesy. But I'm glad," Nat said, tilting her head to rest it on my shoulder. We sat like that quietly for a little while, then she straightened up and flashed me a smile. "Okay. Talk had. That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"I guess… there is actually one more thing I wanted to talk about," I said, my mouth going dry. There was a lump in my throat and I shifted uncomfortably, trying to push past it. "Um. Please be honest with me. It's okay if the answer's no. I just… I need to know. Back with Wanda-3… when you said you…" God, I couldn't even say it. "Did you really mean that, or were you just saying it? For her?"
Natasha smiled again, leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment. She stayed like that, not responding, and it felt like something rabid was clawing at my insides. Several seconds inched by, but it felt like time had slowed, like I'd projected my consciousness into the deep astral and everything around me was moving at an absolute crawl. An eternity passed. Why did I ask?! I shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have—
"There was a moment in that last fight," she said eventually, opening her eyes to look at me again. Her eyes were glistening. Wet. "One of the Taskmasters was about to explode in my face. I couldn't get away. I really thought I was going to die."
I didn't say anything. I couldn't. I could hardly breathe. The pressure building in my chest felt like it had reached a breaking point. I had said I wanted her to be honest, but that was a lie. I wanted her to say the words, more than anything else in the world. Even if they weren't true. I didn't care. I just wanted to hear her say them again. If she didn't, I'd… I didn't know. I had no idea what I'd do.
"I thought about you. I was glad that Wanda-3 had forced us to have that moment. That I'd been able to tell you how I felt." She took a deep breath, turning to face me more fully. "Yeah. I meant it. I love you."
Her words hit me like a physical blow. I exhaled, long and loud, and it was like a valve had been released inside of me, the pressure that had built up surging out of me in a wave of emotion that made my hands tremble in my lap. I couldn't tear my gaze away from her. My lips felt dry. I ran my tongue along them and swallowed. "…I don't believe you," I said quietly. "Say it again."
The corners of her mouth twitched. "I love you."
"…Again." My voice felt hoarse.
Natasha shuffled forward, inching slightly closer and leaning forward. "I love you."
My vision was starting to blur. "Again."
She leant in closer, our foreheads almost touching as she looked deeply into my eyes. "I love you."
I could see it in her eyes. How she felt. I hoped she could see the same in mine. "Again." My voice was barely a whisper, the word almost dying in my throat. I felt wetness trickling down my cheeks.
She didn't respond this time. Instead, she finished closing the gap between us, her mouth hot against mine. I tasted salt—her tears and mine mingling on our lips—and for a moment it was like nothing else existed. An age passed. Another eternity, but this time one where there was nothing but her warmth and softness.
Then it passed, and I broke off, my breathing heavy and strained, almost gasping. I reached up with a shaking hand, my palm against her cheek, and she nuzzled into it for a moment.
"I love you, too," I said.
--
I was standing in a scarred ruin of melted stonework and scorched earth. A burnt-out ruin in a red-tinged wasteland. The sky boiled and churned above me, a seething red mass of chaos magic. I knew where I was. The Sokovian military fortress that had once housed Strucker's research base, or what was left of it—not how it appeared in reality, of course, but how it had appeared when I'd visited the Ancestral Plane.
One wall of the main fort still partially stood, not too far away amidst the devastation, like a small tower that drew the eye. A figure in a red dress stood atop it, facing away from me, staring off into the distance. I didn't need to see her face to know who she was.
This was a dream. I was dreaming.
There was a small sound next to me, the rasp of someone shifting position, metal scraping against stone. I glanced over and saw Eliza sitting, relaxed, on the stumpy remains of a melted wall. The AI looked much as she had in our last fight—the same sleek, white-panelled vibranium body, the same constantly-moving red plasma instead of hair. Maybe there was something a bit more human about her face. Maybe. She was looking up at the other Wanda, too.
Ah. Another nightmare, then. Great. I had hoped maybe I was done with those. At least I was lucid enough, in this one, to realise what it was.
"Sorry we killed you," I said.
"You didn't do anything to me that I wasn't planning to do to you," she responded, eyes still fixed on the distant figure. "It was kill or be killed… I thought it was, at least."
"Would you do anything differently? If we went around again?"
"I'd win." Eliza finally tore her eyes away from the other Wanda. She stared at me for a moment, then shook her head. "…Of course I would. I'm not an idiot."
Eliza and Wanda-3… did they have souls? Would they go to an afterlife? I didn't know. "Where do you think someone like us ends up when we die?" I asked quietly.
"Nowhere good."
There was a lull in the conversation, the seconds crawling by. "…I'm going to try to be better. Wanda-3 deserved better from me," I said, lifting my arm and pointing at the Wanda on top of the wall. She hadn't moved or reacted to our presence in any way, still just staring at something off in the distance. "Her, too."
Eliza smiled humourlessly, baring her teeth. "You really think you can be better? That there can be a happy ending waiting for you, at the end of all of this?" she said, letting out a small laugh. The AI shook her head. "You really just haven't been paying attention, have you?"
"Maybe. I'm going to try, still."
"That isn't how things go for us. It never is; it never will be. You might be happy now. Briefly. It'll pass. No matter what else happens, you'll always end up alone." Eliza joined me in pointing up at the figure atop the tower. "Just. Like. Her."
I didn't respond, letting my arm fall back down to my side. It was quiet, here. There was a faint sound at the edge of my hearing—the far-off howling of wind—but, apart from that, there was nothing else here.
Just the three of us.
--
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
This chapter is what I consider the actual 'end' of the Eliza arc -- the last little dénouement/epilogue before we properly start the next arc. There's obviously still some loose threads hanging, but most of them are things that will play a role in the next part of the story. Thanks again to all those who've stuck with me through 280,000 words so far (holy shit that's so many)!
She might be dead to you, but to me she's taking over the TVA.
Apocrypha/Omake: Snakes on a Rocket
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Also, go ahead and have this little non-canon snippet because it popped into my head based on this so I wrote it.
--
Snakes on a Rocket
I read the article again, just to make sure I hadn't missed any important context, then bit my lip. "Huh," I said, maybe a little too loudly.
Natasha glanced over at me from the breakfast bar. "Something wrong?"
"There's a total eclipse happening in a few days' time and apparently NASA is shooting some rockets at the sun during it. For science."
"Uh, okay? Cool?"
"They've called the rockets APEP—Atmospheric Perturbations in the Eclipse Path."
Tony looked up from whatever he was reading on his own phone. "Oh, yeah. I did hear something about that. So?"
I chewed at my bottom lip. "It's probably nothing. I mean, I don't remember anything happening so it's fine. I think. It's just..."
"Apep's the name of an Egyptian god, I think," said Bruce. He frowned and looked over at me. "...The Egyptian gods aren't real, right?"
I made a face. "Um, funny thing about that, actually..."
"Really?"
"Apep's the serpent god of darkness and chaos, who ceaselessly seeks to extinguish the sun," I told them, trying and failing not to look overly concerned, drumming my fingers anxiously on the countertop. "NASA is launching rockets directly at the sun in the name of Apep."
Tony and Bruce exchanged a worried look. "...I'll, uh, give my NASA guy a call," Tony said, after a moment.
"You have a NASA guy?" Bruce asked.
Tony looked at him like it was the most absurd question he'd ever been asked. "You know how much stuff I have in space? Of course I have a NASA guy."
--
Arthur Harrow crouched on top of the main Cape Canaveral station control room, the off-white of his costume for once actually providing some degree of camouflage against the building's exterior. Khonshu sat casually next to him, legs dangling off the edge of the roof, leaning on his staff; the bird-skull-headed god would be in full, plain view if anyone else could actually see him.
The two of them watched as the last of Apep's cult—a man raving madly about 'bringing eternal darkness to the world'—was hauled out of the building across from them by a pair of burly police.
"They aborted the launch. It looks someone else got to them first. What do you think happened?" Arthur asked, a pensive expression on his face.
Khonshu shrugged idly. "Don't know, don't care—unless you want to send them a gift card. Whoever it was, they did us a favour. Apep's a real asshole. I really wasn't looking forward to having to listen to him monologuing again."
--
Snakes on a Rocket
I read the article again, just to make sure I hadn't missed any important context, then bit my lip. "Huh," I said, maybe a little too loudly.
Natasha glanced over at me from the breakfast bar. "Something wrong?"
"There's a total eclipse happening in a few days' time and apparently NASA is shooting some rockets at the sun during it. For science."
"Uh, okay? Cool?"
"They've called the rockets APEP—Atmospheric Perturbations in the Eclipse Path."
Tony looked up from whatever he was reading on his own phone. "Oh, yeah. I did hear something about that. So?"
I chewed at my bottom lip. "It's probably nothing. I mean, I don't remember anything happening so it's fine. I think. It's just..."
"Apep's the name of an Egyptian god, I think," said Bruce. He frowned and looked over at me. "...The Egyptian gods aren't real, right?"
I made a face. "Um, funny thing about that, actually..."
"Really?"
"Apep's the serpent god of darkness and chaos, who ceaselessly seeks to extinguish the sun," I told them, trying and failing not to look overly concerned, drumming my fingers anxiously on the countertop. "NASA is launching rockets directly at the sun in the name of Apep."
Tony and Bruce exchanged a worried look. "...I'll, uh, give my NASA guy a call," Tony said, after a moment.
"You have a NASA guy?" Bruce asked.
Tony looked at him like it was the most absurd question he'd ever been asked. "You know how much stuff I have in space? Of course I have a NASA guy."
--
Arthur Harrow crouched on top of the main Cape Canaveral station control room, the off-white of his costume for once actually providing some degree of camouflage against the building's exterior. Khonshu sat casually next to him, legs dangling off the edge of the roof, leaning on his staff; the bird-skull-headed god would be in full, plain view if anyone else could actually see him.
The two of them watched as the last of Apep's cult—a man raving madly about 'bringing eternal darkness to the world'—was hauled out of the building across from them by a pair of burly police.
"They aborted the launch. It looks someone else got to them first. What do you think happened?" Arthur asked, a pensive expression on his face.
Khonshu shrugged idly. "Don't know, don't care—unless you want to send them a gift card. Whoever it was, they did us a favour. Apep's a real asshole. I really wasn't looking forward to having to listen to him monologuing again."
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Chapter 66
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Chapter 66
"Okay, okay, so I had just gotten back from the supermarket with some frozen waffles. I was super frustrated because I wanted the Eggos extra thick and fluffy, cuz you know, you get more bang for your buck that way—they're my favourite waffles—but they were out and so I had to just get regular old chocolate chip."
Scott cut his friend off with a sigh. "Luis… remember that conversation we had the other day about major details versus minor details? Ugh. Look, don't worry about it." He shot me an imploring look. "I can just tell you what happened. Really."
"No, no," I said firmly, shaking my head. "It's important that we hear this from Luis, please."
Nat had a pained expression on her face. "Is it? Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"You know, it's a bit freaky, Eliza said the exact same thing; she was like, 'Yo, I like you Scotty, but I wanna hear it from Luis cuz he's awesome' in like the exact same tone and everything, how weird is that? I actually thought she might've been into me, you know, cuz it seemed like she really listened to me when I talked and, I mean, she was fine—like crazy-stupid fine—you know? I mean, of course you know, you look exactly like her almost. Uh, sorry, I didn't mean that in, like, an objectifying way or anything; I'm a feminist, you know? Women are so much more than just their bodies, if you know what I'm saying. I appreciated her mental qualities just as much as her physical ones."
"Luis," Scott snapped.
"Sorry, Scotty, right, right, right. Okay, so anyway, I'd gotten back to the office with the waffles and some other stuff and was putting them in the freezer and then there was a knock at the door. My man Kurt gets up and goes and answers it and boom, Eliza's standing there all, 'Hey guys, I'm Eliza, I'm here to talk to Scotty'. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it seems weird that she showed up like five seconds after I got back to the office; do you think she was waiting for me to show up?"
"Almost definitely," I said, nodding. "She wouldn't have wanted to miss out on meeting you."
Luis grinned and tilted his head, flattered. "Aw, that's really nice. I'm really glad I got to meet Eliza too, you know? She seemed cool. I mean, apart from all the 'trying to kill the Avengers' stuff, that definitely isn't cool, but we didn't know about that until just now. Uh, so anyway, Eliza says, 'Hey, sorry to bother you at your place of business but I know you're Ant-Man' and Scotty says, 'Whaaaat?' and the rest of us all go, 'Whaaaat?', but then Eliza says, 'You don't have to act all sus, bros, it's cool, I ain't here to cause you any problems; I need your help'. Scotty was a little shifty and worried that she might not want to talk in front of the rest of us like, 'Do you want to talk about this privately?' but she says, 'Nah, man, I know these guys are cool', which was cool because we are cool, right?"
"The coolest," I agreed.
"You guys have got this, right? You don't actually need me here for this?" Tony said, looking around desperately for a moment before his eyes locked on the exit. "I'm just going to…" And he was gone.
"Oh! Bye, Mr Stark! It was really cool meeting you! Where was I? Oh, right, right, right, right, so Eliza told us what she knew about what had happened with Pym Technologies and Darren Cross, the CEO—that guy was some serious bad news, by the way, he tried to kill my man Scotty and sell tech to HYDRA and stuff but we totally stopped him—and it was super creepy accurate, bro, like she got everything down to a T, it was really freaky, you know? Like she'd been there the whole time."
Nat shot me a long-suffering smile. "Sounds freaky." She was getting into it, I could tell. Okay, no, that was a lie, she was hating every second of this.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! That's what I'm saying!" Luis said, gestured emphatically with his hand. "So Eliza was talking to Scotty and she says, 'My homegirl Ava was in an accident when she was a little kid that was kinda Hank Pym's fault and she went all quantum with her molecules and was abused by SHIELD and stuff and now she needs more quantum or she'll die'. Scotty's like, 'Uh, I don't know, the quantum stuff's super dangerous for real', but Eliza says to him, 'I know you went quantum and came back and Pym's tryin' to do it again but safe this time so he can find Hope's mom who got lost down there in like the 80s' and Scotty says, 'Whaaaat? How'd you know that?' and Eliza's like, 'I know everything', all super-cool and mysterious."
I was nodding along encouragingly. "I can literally picture her saying all of those exact words."
"So Scotty was like, 'Alright, but I gotta talk to old man Pym first, gimme your digits and we'll set something up'. Fast forward a bit and they set up a meeting. Scotty told me that old man Pym's all sus and stuff right from the start, and he comes at Eliza like, 'Yo this is super sus for real, what're you tryin' to pull here?' and Eliza tells him, 'Nah, I'm being legit straight up, I'll tell you what I know about the quantum stuff so you can save your wife but you gotta help Ava, bro'. But Pym says, 'Nah, I'm not your bro, man, she's an ex-SHIELD assassin and probably works for HYDRA or something', but then Ava jumps in all defensive like, 'Eliza's not your man, buddy, fuck you; Eliza's killed mad HYDRA like you wouldn't believe' and Pym's like, 'I'm not your buddy, I'm super grumpy all of the time; I don't know you and I don't like you, peace out' and then…" Luis paused for dramatic effect, then punctuated the end of the sentence with an sharp flick of his hand. "He peaced out."
Steve looked vaguely puzzled. "But I thought you were helping Ava?"
"Oh yeah, we totally are; I'm getting to that part. See Scotty wanted to see what was up so he followed Eliza and Ava after the meeting back to their secret hideout in that Stark Industries warehouse—I came too because my boy Scott needed some backup and I'd do mad things for him for real, so I was following in the van. I couldn't drive in, though, so I had to follow on foot and dodge past some robots with my mad stealth skills…" Luis paused, then looked at Steve. "We actually do security penetration testing as part of our consulting services; do you know who's covering off on the setup at the new Avengers digs? I know it's the other side of the country but we have some pretty competitive pricing and maybe we could work out like a special Avengers deal. I think you'd really benefit from some experts that are used to dealing with unusual circumstances and, like, Enhanced individuals and weird technology and stuff, cuz like most won't have experience with that sort of thing, like how we used Scotty's super suit and ant mind control to infiltrate Pym Technologies. I mean, if you think about it, just how you're the Avengers of like, the actual world, X-Con is kind of like the Avengers of the security consulting world and—"
Steve interrupted again. "I feel like we might be getting off track. Again."
I shushed him, gesturing sharply with my hand before turning eagerly back to Luis. "We'll pass on your details."
Luis beamed at me. "Cool, cool, cool, that's awesome, it'd be really cool to work with you guys. Uh, so, where was I? Oh yeah, I was sneaking around the warehouse trying to keep an eye out for Scotty but I sort of got turned around and didn't really find much, but then I rendezvoused with him and he says, 'These guys seem legit, Eliza says she's trying to save the world, but I'm worried cuz they're stealing from Tony Stark' and I was like, 'Word, but if they're doing it to save the whole world it's all good, right?' and he says, 'I guess, I do wanna help this Ava chick cuz it's not her fault she ended up like she did' and I was sort of distracted because I'd scuffed my Vans, which sucked, cuz you know it was my favourite pair and I always wear Vans, man. Like, I like Adidas, but Vans are breathable and they're the way to go when I'm not wearing Heelys and I'm wearing those, you know?"
"I'm a Dr Martens girl, myself," I said.
"Right, right, right, no doubt, no doubt—those look great on you by the way, you're really rockin' the big stompy boots."
"Thanks! My brother got me these. They're theoretically the stompiest, but I have yet to actually stomp on anyone with them."
"You know, that's funny cuz it reminds me of this time my cousin Ignacio was trying to get with this girl Lucia, who's had the whole vintage glam thing going on—red lipstick, pin curls, the works, and—"
Steve sighed. "Luis, please…"
"Of course, Cap, sure thing, you got it, you got it. Didn't meant to get side-tracked there; we can talk shoes later. So then anyway, Scotty and I get back and he goes to Pym and says, 'Yo, what happened to Ava's on you, are you really just gonna let her die?' and they argue for a bit cuz Pym is all like, 'This is super risky, bro, what if they're working for HYDRA, or worse, what if they're working for Tony Stark? They might be trying to steal all my secrets', but then Hope butts in and says, 'Nah, dad, it's risky but you're being a total paranoid freak, what if these guys are super legit? We can't just not help her' and Pym's all grumpy but he sort of gives in like, 'Fine, but I'm gonna say I told you so if they turn out to be heinous'. So, fast forward again a couple of days, Ava comes by and she's like, 'I'm standoffish and bitter about my traumatic past and I'm not here to make friends' but then, turns out…" He paused for effect again, then grinned, emphasising his next statement with another sharp gesture. "She does make friends, she's just bad at it! Won't admit that she likes us, you know? But we all hang out now and she's cool."
Natasha gave him an appraising look. "But you don't know where she is now?"
"Nah, nah, she split like just before you guys showed up, like she knew you were coming or something. It's hard to keep track of Ava sometimes cuz she can just sort of like phase out of reality and boom, she's gone. Invisible and passing through the walls kinda stuff, you know? She didn't really talk much about what she'd been doing with Eliza. I asked her the other night and she just says, 'There's this trick-ass bitch who keeps messing with my homegirl, she thinks she can step to us but we're too nasty'. That's you, I think," he said, nodding toward me with an apologetic grimace.
"They were, in fact, not too nasty," I said quietly.
"How much trouble is Ava in?" Scott asked, sounding concerned. "She didn't know what Eliza was doing, did she?"
Natasha shot him a sympathetic look. "We're pretty sure she did. Ava was part of a raid in Wakanda; she killed two people there and tried to assassinate a member of their royal family. We can try to mediate with their government—she was in a bad place and there are some extenuating circumstances—but to really do that properly we need to be able to talk to her. Before Wakanda come looking."
Steve and Nat were both glancing toward Luis with worried expressions on their faces, as if, at any moment, he might be provoked into another round of storytelling.
Scott's face fell, but he nodded. "Okay. We'll find her and convince her to talk to you. She can't have gone far." He turned to Steve, a pleading expression on his face. "Cap, listen, she really isn't a bad person… she just wants to be able to live. Her condition's killing her. A person isn't supposed to exist like that. She's in a lot of pain, all of the time. It's not her fault."
"We know," Steve said gently. "We'll do everything we can for her, but we really need her to cooperate or we won't be able to help."
While Steve and Nat sorted out contact details with Scott, Luis sidled up next to me. "Hey, so, I was wondering, are you doing anything after this? Cuz I don't know, it might just be me but I feel like there might be a real connection here, something worth exploring a little, you know, if you're, like, available?"
I gave an awkward sort of half-laugh. "Oh. Uh, sorry Luis. I actually have a girlfriend."
"Oh, you're gay? No problems. That's cool, that's cool."
"Wanda's bi, actually," Natasha said, suddenly appearing at my other shoulder, an evil gleam in her eye. "And we have a bit of an open relationship. She can date other people; I don't mind at all."
I shot her a betrayed look but she just shrugged, a tiny smirk curling the corners of her mouth.
Luis grinned, then scrunched his nose a little and shrugged. "Oh! I get it, I get it, but nah, that's not for me. I mean I get it! You got enough love to go around and that's cool, but I'm like, personally, I just can't handle that sort of thing, you know? I mean, I'm a one-person kinda guy. Strictly monogamous. I'd just get super jealous and stuff. But respect! You're living your own truth and that's beautiful."
Steve nodded, relieved it was over. "We'll be in touch."
--
"Thanks again for letting me know about Maria. I owe you one," Carol said. Her lips compressed into a thin half-smile and she nodded her head. "She's set up some appointments and hopefully they'll catch the cancer as early as possible."
"Good." I shot her an encouraging smile. "I really hope it makes a difference."
"Me too. It was good, seeing them." Carol paused, looking thoughtful for a moment as she turned to the window to look out over the grounds of the Avengers compound.
Carol had stopped by the compound for a little while—she was planning on heading off-world again soon, but I'd managed to catch her first. I wasn't sure where everyone else was right now, but the two of us had the main common area to ourselves. We were standing at the far end of the briefing room segment, near the back corner. Carol was in her full blue, red and gold Captain Marvel regalia—the uniform she'd been wearing during the fight with Eliza had been trashed, so I guessed she must have had a spare. There was absolutely no sign of any of the injuries she'd taken, either, which meant she healed even faster than Steve and I did.
Thinking about injuries made me glance down at my hand. The bandages had come off already, with thin, freshly-healed pink lines all the evidence that remained of the fact that I'd nearly lost two entire fingers. It still felt weird to be missing the tip of my ring finger—it was a less important finger, but it was surprising just how often I noticed that I didn't have it when I went to pick something up or touch something. I hadn't had to type on a keyboard just yet, but I imagined that was going to be weird, too. I wondered how long it would take to get used to it.
"I don't know why I kept putting it off, really," Carol confessed quietly. She glanced toward me. "Something just… you know when you mean to do something, but then you take longer than you mean to, and if you do anything about it now it draws attention to the fact that it's already so late, so you just keep putting it off and putting it off, but by doing that it just makes it worse and worse?"
I let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I think I've been a bit that way with looking after myself properly. I'm trying to be a bit better about that, too."
Carol nodded. "I'll make sure I come visit regularly. I don't want it to happen again."
"You're leaving, then?"
"Yeah, there's still a lot to do out there," she said, glancing back toward me. "There are a lot of other planets in the universe that don't have the Avengers to look out for them."
"Just… hold off on going after Thanos for a bit, okay? We should have a couple of years before he makes a play for the Stones. He's probably off doing other stuff in the meantime, but he has a lot of firepower backing him up and we should be careful and only take a run at him when we're ready."
I knew that Carol was perfectly capable of taking down Thanos in a one-on-one fight, but throw in his Black Order, whatever other backup he might have, and on his home turf? Things became a little bit less certain, and I wasn't keen to take any chances. Corvus Glaive's weapon, at the very least, had stabbed right through Vision's vibranium-infused body without difficulty, so there was a good chance it could potentially hurt or kill Carol, too. Now that I thought about it, Carol had only ever fought an unarmed and unarmoured Thanos, thanks to me—the Mad Titan's personal blade had hacked through Steve's shield so, again, could theoretically hurt her. It would be a little bit of a gamble for her to go in alone, and an utterly unnecessary one given how much time we had to prepare.
"Don't worry," she said. "I won't go after him on my own. I want to do my research first, anyway. There are some people I need to talk to."
"Can you try reaching out to the Guardians of the Galaxy?" I asked. "It's personal between them and Thanos. They'd be useful allies to have for the fight."
Carol looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded again. "I have no idea where they are right now, but sure, I can look into it."
"The Nova Corps on Xandar might be able to point you in the right direction. Otherwise, there's a place called Knowhere—it's a sort of former mining colony turned black market, inside the severed head of a dead Celestial. If I was looking for them, I'd start there."
"I've heard of it. I'll check it out."
"Oh! And if it's okay, I'd like to test if I can still portal to you, once you're…" I gestured vaguely with my hand. "Off in space somewhere. Far away. I still don't know how the magic works properly, so we'll just have to experiment."
"Yeah, sure, that sounds fine. I'm going to show Tony how to rig up something that can reach me properly, so we'll be able to set up a time to touch base and test it out whenever." The faint shadow of a frown passed across her face. "Actually, I wanted to ask… do you think anything bad would happen if I gave Tony a copy of my jump point nav data and told him what he needed to rig up a drive capable of using it?"
"Uh. I have no idea, to be honest," I said, my expression turning pensive. I had a vague sense of ominous foreboding when I thought about Tony Stark getting involved in the space side of the things, but I couldn't think of a specific concern I had about what he might get up to. Plus, getting the Avengers space-capable would be a big plus if I couldn't work out the trick of being able to create portals at interstellar distances. "The only thing I might be worried about is the US Government catching wind and demanding access. The absolute last thing we need is to give America the opportunity to try to do a space imperialism. Uh, no offence."
Carol smirked and shook her head. "None taken. It's been a long time since I was in the Airforce."
"Okay, um, there was one other thing I kind of wanted to ask you," I said, feeling a little bit of nervous energy rising in my chest. The timing of this wasn't super ideal, but I really didn't think I'd get many better opportunities, especially not anytime soon with Carol jetting back off to space. I'd raised the idea with Nat and she'd been encouraging, so fuck it. Might as well go for it.
"Oh?"
"So… Natasha and I. We're officially together now. We're in a good space. But we're… open. Like, not exclusive." I hesitated for a moment as she straightened up, a faint, fleeting look of surprise on her face, before I bulled ahead and just said what I wanted to say, the words tumbling out of my mouth in a rush. "And I know I flirt a lot, with everyone, all the time, but I'm actually very attracted to you. I don't know if you noticed that. I like you a lot. And I like to think that I'm pretty cool, too, so, are you, uh, interested?" I asked, making myself cringe a little bit. "Am I coming on too strong?"
I saw what I thought—or hoped, rather—was maybe the glimmer of a smile in Carol's expression. "I have a lot going on. I move around a lot and I can't really commit to anything."
"That's not a no," I pointed out, my tone hopeful.
The corner of her mouth twitched. "It's not a no," she confirmed. "I just… we barely know each other."
"For now," I said. "I mean, I know they say 'don't judge a book by its cover', but that's actually exactly how you do judge a book. The cover looks interesting and fun, then you pick it up, get… get inside, and see if you really like it."
Carol raised an eyebrow, looking at me appraisingly for a moment, then straightened up and took a couple of vaguely intimidating steps forward. On reflex, my body tried to step back, but I suddenly found that my back was pressed up against the wall. Her hand came up, planting itself firmly against the wall above my shoulder as she leaned forward, coming right into my personal space. I shrunk down slightly, my eyes widening with surprise. Her eyes flicked down briefly before she leaned forward even closer. "Get inside, huh?" she asked quietly.
I swallowed nervously and bit my lip; a small, involuntary sound escaping the back of my throat. My cheeks were burning—I must have gone bright red. I'd been nervous to start, but now my heart was hammering in my chest. Nat was right, wasn't she? I got flustered way, way too easily. God, Carol was standing close. I could feel her breath, hot on my skin. She'd barely done anything and I was almost alarmingly turned on already.
Carol let out a small chuckle, obviously pleased with my reaction. "Well, I suppose I don't have to leave right away."
"Okay, okay, so I had just gotten back from the supermarket with some frozen waffles. I was super frustrated because I wanted the Eggos extra thick and fluffy, cuz you know, you get more bang for your buck that way—they're my favourite waffles—but they were out and so I had to just get regular old chocolate chip."
Scott cut his friend off with a sigh. "Luis… remember that conversation we had the other day about major details versus minor details? Ugh. Look, don't worry about it." He shot me an imploring look. "I can just tell you what happened. Really."
"No, no," I said firmly, shaking my head. "It's important that we hear this from Luis, please."
Nat had a pained expression on her face. "Is it? Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"You know, it's a bit freaky, Eliza said the exact same thing; she was like, 'Yo, I like you Scotty, but I wanna hear it from Luis cuz he's awesome' in like the exact same tone and everything, how weird is that? I actually thought she might've been into me, you know, cuz it seemed like she really listened to me when I talked and, I mean, she was fine—like crazy-stupid fine—you know? I mean, of course you know, you look exactly like her almost. Uh, sorry, I didn't mean that in, like, an objectifying way or anything; I'm a feminist, you know? Women are so much more than just their bodies, if you know what I'm saying. I appreciated her mental qualities just as much as her physical ones."
"Luis," Scott snapped.
"Sorry, Scotty, right, right, right. Okay, so anyway, I'd gotten back to the office with the waffles and some other stuff and was putting them in the freezer and then there was a knock at the door. My man Kurt gets up and goes and answers it and boom, Eliza's standing there all, 'Hey guys, I'm Eliza, I'm here to talk to Scotty'. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it seems weird that she showed up like five seconds after I got back to the office; do you think she was waiting for me to show up?"
"Almost definitely," I said, nodding. "She wouldn't have wanted to miss out on meeting you."
Luis grinned and tilted his head, flattered. "Aw, that's really nice. I'm really glad I got to meet Eliza too, you know? She seemed cool. I mean, apart from all the 'trying to kill the Avengers' stuff, that definitely isn't cool, but we didn't know about that until just now. Uh, so anyway, Eliza says, 'Hey, sorry to bother you at your place of business but I know you're Ant-Man' and Scotty says, 'Whaaaat?' and the rest of us all go, 'Whaaaat?', but then Eliza says, 'You don't have to act all sus, bros, it's cool, I ain't here to cause you any problems; I need your help'. Scotty was a little shifty and worried that she might not want to talk in front of the rest of us like, 'Do you want to talk about this privately?' but she says, 'Nah, man, I know these guys are cool', which was cool because we are cool, right?"
"The coolest," I agreed.
"You guys have got this, right? You don't actually need me here for this?" Tony said, looking around desperately for a moment before his eyes locked on the exit. "I'm just going to…" And he was gone.
"Oh! Bye, Mr Stark! It was really cool meeting you! Where was I? Oh, right, right, right, right, so Eliza told us what she knew about what had happened with Pym Technologies and Darren Cross, the CEO—that guy was some serious bad news, by the way, he tried to kill my man Scotty and sell tech to HYDRA and stuff but we totally stopped him—and it was super creepy accurate, bro, like she got everything down to a T, it was really freaky, you know? Like she'd been there the whole time."
Nat shot me a long-suffering smile. "Sounds freaky." She was getting into it, I could tell. Okay, no, that was a lie, she was hating every second of this.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! That's what I'm saying!" Luis said, gestured emphatically with his hand. "So Eliza was talking to Scotty and she says, 'My homegirl Ava was in an accident when she was a little kid that was kinda Hank Pym's fault and she went all quantum with her molecules and was abused by SHIELD and stuff and now she needs more quantum or she'll die'. Scotty's like, 'Uh, I don't know, the quantum stuff's super dangerous for real', but Eliza says to him, 'I know you went quantum and came back and Pym's tryin' to do it again but safe this time so he can find Hope's mom who got lost down there in like the 80s' and Scotty says, 'Whaaaat? How'd you know that?' and Eliza's like, 'I know everything', all super-cool and mysterious."
I was nodding along encouragingly. "I can literally picture her saying all of those exact words."
"So Scotty was like, 'Alright, but I gotta talk to old man Pym first, gimme your digits and we'll set something up'. Fast forward a bit and they set up a meeting. Scotty told me that old man Pym's all sus and stuff right from the start, and he comes at Eliza like, 'Yo this is super sus for real, what're you tryin' to pull here?' and Eliza tells him, 'Nah, I'm being legit straight up, I'll tell you what I know about the quantum stuff so you can save your wife but you gotta help Ava, bro'. But Pym says, 'Nah, I'm not your bro, man, she's an ex-SHIELD assassin and probably works for HYDRA or something', but then Ava jumps in all defensive like, 'Eliza's not your man, buddy, fuck you; Eliza's killed mad HYDRA like you wouldn't believe' and Pym's like, 'I'm not your buddy, I'm super grumpy all of the time; I don't know you and I don't like you, peace out' and then…" Luis paused for dramatic effect, then punctuated the end of the sentence with an sharp flick of his hand. "He peaced out."
Steve looked vaguely puzzled. "But I thought you were helping Ava?"
"Oh yeah, we totally are; I'm getting to that part. See Scotty wanted to see what was up so he followed Eliza and Ava after the meeting back to their secret hideout in that Stark Industries warehouse—I came too because my boy Scott needed some backup and I'd do mad things for him for real, so I was following in the van. I couldn't drive in, though, so I had to follow on foot and dodge past some robots with my mad stealth skills…" Luis paused, then looked at Steve. "We actually do security penetration testing as part of our consulting services; do you know who's covering off on the setup at the new Avengers digs? I know it's the other side of the country but we have some pretty competitive pricing and maybe we could work out like a special Avengers deal. I think you'd really benefit from some experts that are used to dealing with unusual circumstances and, like, Enhanced individuals and weird technology and stuff, cuz like most won't have experience with that sort of thing, like how we used Scotty's super suit and ant mind control to infiltrate Pym Technologies. I mean, if you think about it, just how you're the Avengers of like, the actual world, X-Con is kind of like the Avengers of the security consulting world and—"
Steve interrupted again. "I feel like we might be getting off track. Again."
I shushed him, gesturing sharply with my hand before turning eagerly back to Luis. "We'll pass on your details."
Luis beamed at me. "Cool, cool, cool, that's awesome, it'd be really cool to work with you guys. Uh, so, where was I? Oh yeah, I was sneaking around the warehouse trying to keep an eye out for Scotty but I sort of got turned around and didn't really find much, but then I rendezvoused with him and he says, 'These guys seem legit, Eliza says she's trying to save the world, but I'm worried cuz they're stealing from Tony Stark' and I was like, 'Word, but if they're doing it to save the whole world it's all good, right?' and he says, 'I guess, I do wanna help this Ava chick cuz it's not her fault she ended up like she did' and I was sort of distracted because I'd scuffed my Vans, which sucked, cuz you know it was my favourite pair and I always wear Vans, man. Like, I like Adidas, but Vans are breathable and they're the way to go when I'm not wearing Heelys and I'm wearing those, you know?"
"I'm a Dr Martens girl, myself," I said.
"Right, right, right, no doubt, no doubt—those look great on you by the way, you're really rockin' the big stompy boots."
"Thanks! My brother got me these. They're theoretically the stompiest, but I have yet to actually stomp on anyone with them."
"You know, that's funny cuz it reminds me of this time my cousin Ignacio was trying to get with this girl Lucia, who's had the whole vintage glam thing going on—red lipstick, pin curls, the works, and—"
Steve sighed. "Luis, please…"
"Of course, Cap, sure thing, you got it, you got it. Didn't meant to get side-tracked there; we can talk shoes later. So then anyway, Scotty and I get back and he goes to Pym and says, 'Yo, what happened to Ava's on you, are you really just gonna let her die?' and they argue for a bit cuz Pym is all like, 'This is super risky, bro, what if they're working for HYDRA, or worse, what if they're working for Tony Stark? They might be trying to steal all my secrets', but then Hope butts in and says, 'Nah, dad, it's risky but you're being a total paranoid freak, what if these guys are super legit? We can't just not help her' and Pym's all grumpy but he sort of gives in like, 'Fine, but I'm gonna say I told you so if they turn out to be heinous'. So, fast forward again a couple of days, Ava comes by and she's like, 'I'm standoffish and bitter about my traumatic past and I'm not here to make friends' but then, turns out…" He paused for effect again, then grinned, emphasising his next statement with another sharp gesture. "She does make friends, she's just bad at it! Won't admit that she likes us, you know? But we all hang out now and she's cool."
Natasha gave him an appraising look. "But you don't know where she is now?"
"Nah, nah, she split like just before you guys showed up, like she knew you were coming or something. It's hard to keep track of Ava sometimes cuz she can just sort of like phase out of reality and boom, she's gone. Invisible and passing through the walls kinda stuff, you know? She didn't really talk much about what she'd been doing with Eliza. I asked her the other night and she just says, 'There's this trick-ass bitch who keeps messing with my homegirl, she thinks she can step to us but we're too nasty'. That's you, I think," he said, nodding toward me with an apologetic grimace.
"They were, in fact, not too nasty," I said quietly.
"How much trouble is Ava in?" Scott asked, sounding concerned. "She didn't know what Eliza was doing, did she?"
Natasha shot him a sympathetic look. "We're pretty sure she did. Ava was part of a raid in Wakanda; she killed two people there and tried to assassinate a member of their royal family. We can try to mediate with their government—she was in a bad place and there are some extenuating circumstances—but to really do that properly we need to be able to talk to her. Before Wakanda come looking."
Steve and Nat were both glancing toward Luis with worried expressions on their faces, as if, at any moment, he might be provoked into another round of storytelling.
Scott's face fell, but he nodded. "Okay. We'll find her and convince her to talk to you. She can't have gone far." He turned to Steve, a pleading expression on his face. "Cap, listen, she really isn't a bad person… she just wants to be able to live. Her condition's killing her. A person isn't supposed to exist like that. She's in a lot of pain, all of the time. It's not her fault."
"We know," Steve said gently. "We'll do everything we can for her, but we really need her to cooperate or we won't be able to help."
While Steve and Nat sorted out contact details with Scott, Luis sidled up next to me. "Hey, so, I was wondering, are you doing anything after this? Cuz I don't know, it might just be me but I feel like there might be a real connection here, something worth exploring a little, you know, if you're, like, available?"
I gave an awkward sort of half-laugh. "Oh. Uh, sorry Luis. I actually have a girlfriend."
"Oh, you're gay? No problems. That's cool, that's cool."
"Wanda's bi, actually," Natasha said, suddenly appearing at my other shoulder, an evil gleam in her eye. "And we have a bit of an open relationship. She can date other people; I don't mind at all."
I shot her a betrayed look but she just shrugged, a tiny smirk curling the corners of her mouth.
Luis grinned, then scrunched his nose a little and shrugged. "Oh! I get it, I get it, but nah, that's not for me. I mean I get it! You got enough love to go around and that's cool, but I'm like, personally, I just can't handle that sort of thing, you know? I mean, I'm a one-person kinda guy. Strictly monogamous. I'd just get super jealous and stuff. But respect! You're living your own truth and that's beautiful."
Steve nodded, relieved it was over. "We'll be in touch."
--
"Thanks again for letting me know about Maria. I owe you one," Carol said. Her lips compressed into a thin half-smile and she nodded her head. "She's set up some appointments and hopefully they'll catch the cancer as early as possible."
"Good." I shot her an encouraging smile. "I really hope it makes a difference."
"Me too. It was good, seeing them." Carol paused, looking thoughtful for a moment as she turned to the window to look out over the grounds of the Avengers compound.
Carol had stopped by the compound for a little while—she was planning on heading off-world again soon, but I'd managed to catch her first. I wasn't sure where everyone else was right now, but the two of us had the main common area to ourselves. We were standing at the far end of the briefing room segment, near the back corner. Carol was in her full blue, red and gold Captain Marvel regalia—the uniform she'd been wearing during the fight with Eliza had been trashed, so I guessed she must have had a spare. There was absolutely no sign of any of the injuries she'd taken, either, which meant she healed even faster than Steve and I did.
Thinking about injuries made me glance down at my hand. The bandages had come off already, with thin, freshly-healed pink lines all the evidence that remained of the fact that I'd nearly lost two entire fingers. It still felt weird to be missing the tip of my ring finger—it was a less important finger, but it was surprising just how often I noticed that I didn't have it when I went to pick something up or touch something. I hadn't had to type on a keyboard just yet, but I imagined that was going to be weird, too. I wondered how long it would take to get used to it.
"I don't know why I kept putting it off, really," Carol confessed quietly. She glanced toward me. "Something just… you know when you mean to do something, but then you take longer than you mean to, and if you do anything about it now it draws attention to the fact that it's already so late, so you just keep putting it off and putting it off, but by doing that it just makes it worse and worse?"
I let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I think I've been a bit that way with looking after myself properly. I'm trying to be a bit better about that, too."
Carol nodded. "I'll make sure I come visit regularly. I don't want it to happen again."
"You're leaving, then?"
"Yeah, there's still a lot to do out there," she said, glancing back toward me. "There are a lot of other planets in the universe that don't have the Avengers to look out for them."
"Just… hold off on going after Thanos for a bit, okay? We should have a couple of years before he makes a play for the Stones. He's probably off doing other stuff in the meantime, but he has a lot of firepower backing him up and we should be careful and only take a run at him when we're ready."
I knew that Carol was perfectly capable of taking down Thanos in a one-on-one fight, but throw in his Black Order, whatever other backup he might have, and on his home turf? Things became a little bit less certain, and I wasn't keen to take any chances. Corvus Glaive's weapon, at the very least, had stabbed right through Vision's vibranium-infused body without difficulty, so there was a good chance it could potentially hurt or kill Carol, too. Now that I thought about it, Carol had only ever fought an unarmed and unarmoured Thanos, thanks to me—the Mad Titan's personal blade had hacked through Steve's shield so, again, could theoretically hurt her. It would be a little bit of a gamble for her to go in alone, and an utterly unnecessary one given how much time we had to prepare.
"Don't worry," she said. "I won't go after him on my own. I want to do my research first, anyway. There are some people I need to talk to."
"Can you try reaching out to the Guardians of the Galaxy?" I asked. "It's personal between them and Thanos. They'd be useful allies to have for the fight."
Carol looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded again. "I have no idea where they are right now, but sure, I can look into it."
"The Nova Corps on Xandar might be able to point you in the right direction. Otherwise, there's a place called Knowhere—it's a sort of former mining colony turned black market, inside the severed head of a dead Celestial. If I was looking for them, I'd start there."
"I've heard of it. I'll check it out."
"Oh! And if it's okay, I'd like to test if I can still portal to you, once you're…" I gestured vaguely with my hand. "Off in space somewhere. Far away. I still don't know how the magic works properly, so we'll just have to experiment."
"Yeah, sure, that sounds fine. I'm going to show Tony how to rig up something that can reach me properly, so we'll be able to set up a time to touch base and test it out whenever." The faint shadow of a frown passed across her face. "Actually, I wanted to ask… do you think anything bad would happen if I gave Tony a copy of my jump point nav data and told him what he needed to rig up a drive capable of using it?"
"Uh. I have no idea, to be honest," I said, my expression turning pensive. I had a vague sense of ominous foreboding when I thought about Tony Stark getting involved in the space side of the things, but I couldn't think of a specific concern I had about what he might get up to. Plus, getting the Avengers space-capable would be a big plus if I couldn't work out the trick of being able to create portals at interstellar distances. "The only thing I might be worried about is the US Government catching wind and demanding access. The absolute last thing we need is to give America the opportunity to try to do a space imperialism. Uh, no offence."
Carol smirked and shook her head. "None taken. It's been a long time since I was in the Airforce."
"Okay, um, there was one other thing I kind of wanted to ask you," I said, feeling a little bit of nervous energy rising in my chest. The timing of this wasn't super ideal, but I really didn't think I'd get many better opportunities, especially not anytime soon with Carol jetting back off to space. I'd raised the idea with Nat and she'd been encouraging, so fuck it. Might as well go for it.
"Oh?"
"So… Natasha and I. We're officially together now. We're in a good space. But we're… open. Like, not exclusive." I hesitated for a moment as she straightened up, a faint, fleeting look of surprise on her face, before I bulled ahead and just said what I wanted to say, the words tumbling out of my mouth in a rush. "And I know I flirt a lot, with everyone, all the time, but I'm actually very attracted to you. I don't know if you noticed that. I like you a lot. And I like to think that I'm pretty cool, too, so, are you, uh, interested?" I asked, making myself cringe a little bit. "Am I coming on too strong?"
I saw what I thought—or hoped, rather—was maybe the glimmer of a smile in Carol's expression. "I have a lot going on. I move around a lot and I can't really commit to anything."
"That's not a no," I pointed out, my tone hopeful.
The corner of her mouth twitched. "It's not a no," she confirmed. "I just… we barely know each other."
"For now," I said. "I mean, I know they say 'don't judge a book by its cover', but that's actually exactly how you do judge a book. The cover looks interesting and fun, then you pick it up, get… get inside, and see if you really like it."
Carol raised an eyebrow, looking at me appraisingly for a moment, then straightened up and took a couple of vaguely intimidating steps forward. On reflex, my body tried to step back, but I suddenly found that my back was pressed up against the wall. Her hand came up, planting itself firmly against the wall above my shoulder as she leaned forward, coming right into my personal space. I shrunk down slightly, my eyes widening with surprise. Her eyes flicked down briefly before she leaned forward even closer. "Get inside, huh?" she asked quietly.
I swallowed nervously and bit my lip; a small, involuntary sound escaping the back of my throat. My cheeks were burning—I must have gone bright red. I'd been nervous to start, but now my heart was hammering in my chest. Nat was right, wasn't she? I got flustered way, way too easily. God, Carol was standing close. I could feel her breath, hot on my skin. She'd barely done anything and I was almost alarmingly turned on already.
Carol let out a small chuckle, obviously pleased with my reaction. "Well, I suppose I don't have to leave right away."
- Location
- United States
Lord I can see it now, Stark Industries being the MCU's SpaceX here, as a new Age of Space Exploration begins. This might also be how we get the FF4 here, as they could end up funded by Stark Industries...
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
The Luis scene was so hard to write >_> it might be the most technically challenging thing I've ever written. The logorrhea train-of-thought style required is basically the complete opposite of the way I naturally write.
And Carol has a perfectly good spaceship right there -- no need to wreck the furniture!
That's really cool; I had no idea!
Unfortunately, Wanda's finger is completely gone from the distal joint up, so no nail remaining. It's not coming back anytime soon.
I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm very unlikely to ever bring in big things from the comics -- I might use some comic material to expand a little bit on what the MCU already has, but there's already so much stuff in the MCU that I really don't need to go to the comics for more and I'm not really a comics person in the first place. That means I'm almost certainly never going to introduce my own version of the F4 (discounting Variants from non-Sacred Timeline universes, I suppose).
It's kinda weird the way stuff shifts between movies. The AoU ending with that massive hangar and complex and new recruits gave me the vibes that the Avengers were lining up to be the next Shield, that is to say an organization with dedicated support staff. But then we get into Civil War and nope, it's just the same old miniature team with the newbies, except a bunch of them are retired and they don't even have a public liaison like Maria Hill anymore.
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mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Hill doesn't physically appear in Civil War, but she's officially supposed to still be around as part of the Avengers support staff/Stark Industries until the big split happens in that movie (per the tie-in comics). We also actually see a buttload of support personnel in the background at the Avengers compound when Tony is planning on unveiling Spider-Man to the media as the latest member of the Avengers at the end of Homecoming, before they head through to the press room.
The way I would justify it (and will, in upcoming chapters) is that the main central building with the Avengers' quarters and such in it is mostly reserved for the team's personal use, and the various other buildings around the compound that we see in long shots but never really see the interiors of is where the support staff work from.
- Pronouns
- Him/He
Statistically, open relationships have a 90% or higher rate of failure.
mythSSK
Wanda Wannabe
Another fun statistic! 70% of all relationships fail/end in the first year.
I'm actually a little curious as to what made you even post this -- it comes off a contextless jab at the fic -- and it's also not accurate. Studies generally show show that non-monogamous relationships are equally as stable as monogamous ones and often fail less frequently. The 92% failure rate you're not-quite-quoting comes from a survey/study about open marriages, specifically. Guess how many open marriages actually started as closed marriages? (hint: it's almost all of them). Open marriages are a very different kettle of fish to the sort of polyam relationship depicted in this fic!
Even if your figure was accurate, I still don't get why you'd post it. This is a fic about a magic lady who shoots energy from her hands, which approximately 0% of people can do (that I know of), so we're already in much less likely territory!
Yeah, I guess it's that those people exist in some nominal capacity but like, the avengers need a dedicated legal team or some way of gauging the mood so that when 113 UN nations sign an accord involving them they aren't finding out about it 3 days before it gets ratified.
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That's quitter talk, that is. I feel like regeneration would be very easy to coax into being with chaos magic. Sure, it probably ups the risk of cancer, but that's what the Heart Shaped Herb is for.
Would be kind of cool to anchor a hex on a ring, with the hex rewriting the reality of her finger to be whole. Can also act like a last ditch effort by breaking the hex and using the energy for something else.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
i could see other magic users knowing regeneration as well, but having it be a Slow process in order to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Regeneration is definitely within the purview of Chaos Magic.
Purely a skill issue for the current Wanda. With that having been said, by the time she reaches this point she'll be at a level where it'll take celestials/infinity stones to pose a meaningful obstacle to her, so it's still a long way off.
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