2
"Mom, where are we?" Ethan asked quietly, looking up at Wanda. She looked out of the window and then back at Ethan, "We're in New York. This was our second home."
He looked out of the window, fascinated with the place. Steve spoke from where he was in the jet, looking over Sam's shoulder out the windshield, "We're almost there."
You looked around the jet before your eyes landed on Wanda and Ethan again. She kissed his hairline, holding him close to her in her lap. You smiled softly, running a hand through his hair playfully.
Your mind wandered again back to the visions you had, and the name Proxima Midnight had given. So far, the things that had come true in your visions was Steve and the woman herself. Next would be a large field. Where was that?
Her thoughts were interrupted when the jet landed. She hadn't realized just how long she'd been lost in thought. Sam went to Vision, getting him to his feet and helping him out of the jet. Wanda stood, taking Ethan's hand in hers.
Pietro walked inside with Irina, walking after the three of you. You picked up Ethan, carrying him on your hips as you carried him inside with Wanda.
As you walked into the Avengers compound, you couldn't help the familiar feeling that flooded you. Wanda grabbed your free hand, walking closer to you. You smiled at him and sighed, turning back to Steve as you followed him.
You could hear talking from another room, you knew whose voice that was and it took a lot of self-control not to lash out at it.
You all entered the room, seeing Rhodes dealing with the red tape in the holographic person of Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross. You set Ethan down on his feet, moving in front of him protectively.
He looked up at you, "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, honey. Just give us a second," you assured him.
Steve spoke first, "Mr. Secretary."
Ross looked at Steve, and then to the rest of you, with a disapproving gaze. "You got some nerve, I'll give you that."
"You could use some of that right now," Natasha said.
"The world's on fire, and you think all is forgiven?"
Steve gave him a hard look, "I'm not looking for forgiveness. And I'm way past asking for permission. Earth just lost her best defender. So we're here to fight. And if you wanna stand in our way... we'll fight you, too."
He turned to Rhodes, "Arrest them."
Ethan went to move from behind you, but you stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. "All over it," Rhodes answered, swiping off the hologram; the computer beeped twice.
"That's a court-martial," he muttered before slowly smiling, "It's great to see you, Cap."
They hugged, "You too, Rhodey."
Natasha got her own embrace. He turned to you and Wanda, deciding you could use hugs as well. "Good to see you, hothead."
"You, too, cripple," you responded. He pulled away, giving you a look. You smiled, "Too soon?"
He laughed and turned to Ethan, who he just realized was in the room. "Who's the little guy?" He questioned, kneeling down to Ethan's level.
He hid behind you a little bit, grabbing Wanda's hand shyly. She gave him a smile, "It's okay. He's a friend. This is Rhodey."
Rhodey smiled, holding a hand up, "Give me up top."
Ethan smiled a little and gave him a high five, "I'm Ethan."
He smiled, "Rhodey."
Ethan held his hand out for Rhodes to shake. He shook his hand, "Oh, we got a little man, do we?"
Ethan chuckled and got more comfortable. Rhodes stood again and looked over the team, sighing, "Well, you guys really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple of years."
You shrugged. You'd take that. Steve shrugged, "Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five star."
"Uh, I think you look great," someone said from another part of the room. You looked up and saw Banner, your expression hardening slightly. You and Banner weren't the best of friends. Last time you saw him, he threatened Wanda and then left after the Battle of Sokovia.
So, no, you weren't on the best of terms.
"Uh... heh... Yeah. I'm back," he mumbled.
Natasha smiled a little, "Hi, Bruce."
"Nat," he answered.
The room fell silent as they stared at each other. Sam was the one to break the silence as he whispered, "This is awkward."
Pietro mumbled, rolling his eyes a little, "You can say that again."
You turned to Ethan and told him, "Alright, we have a great library that I think you'll absolutely love." You winked at Wanda and guided Ethan away to find that room.
He got a couple of books to look through and occupied himself with that and a snack as you went to go talk with the team. Irina offered to stay with him. Since she wasn't an Avenger, she thought she'd leave you all to your superhero stuff and stick with babysitting.
You joined Wanda's side, looking over her a little and mumbling, "You have a cut on your forehead." She went to touch it and chuckled lightly, "Yeah, I do."
You kissed your cheek and left to get the first aid kit. You made her sit down as everyone started talking, you tended to the cut. There was no way you were letting her keep it.
"So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodes asked.
Wanda nodded and you lightly scolded her because you were working on cleaning the cut, "And they can clearly find us."
Pietro motioned to you, "Seriously, I have more cuts than her."
You rolled your eyes, "I'll get to your boo-boos in a second."
The rest of the team ignored your comments and Banner asked, "We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?"
"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families, they're on house arrest," Natasha answered.
When you finally finished with Wanda, you moved on to Pietro.
"Who's Scott?" Banner asked.
"Ant Man," answered Steve.
"There's an Ant Man and a Spider Man?" Bruce asked. Pietro shrugged and he continued, "Okay, look... Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. And he is not gonna stop until he... he gets... Vision's Stone."
"Well then, we have to protect it," Natasha offered.
You stopped what you were doing and turned to the group, "Wait, so this Thanos guy is actually powerful? I didn't think he would be that much of a threat..."
Steve turned to you in question, "You knew about Thanos before?"
You shrugged, "I mean, I had visions were his name would pop up, but I never saw him or actually knew what was up about him. So I didn't think anything of it."
"You didn't tell us?" He asked.
You fought the urge to roll your eyes, "I mean, I've also had visions of ice cream dropping on the floor, you can't exactly blame me."
"What about the Stones? Anything about that?" Wanda asked. You shrugged and looked at Vision, standing and walking over to you.
You brought your hand to his head, hovering over the Stone as you reached for your precognitions to kick in. When the headache rolled in and the visions hit, you gasped and searched your mind through it.
All you saw was an explosion.
Your eyes flickered back to normal and you recollected yourself. "What did you see?" Pietro asked.
"Nothing in particular. Only a flash, an explosion. I can't tell. My visions have been strange lately, just flashes. Like the future isn't certain, like things keep changing."
Vision spoke, "We have to destroy it... I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something, very similar to its own signature, perhaps... its molecular integrity could fail."
Vision addressed Wanda as he neared her. "And you, with it. We're not having this conversation."
You moved back to her side again, sitting down next to Pietro to continue tending to him. As Vision's neared, you grabbed her hand gently in yours and placed it on your shoulder. She glanced at you, rubbing your shoulder. You were being possessive again. It was cute.
She turned back to Vision when he continued, "Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it."
"That's too high a price," Wanda told him, stepping even closer to you for comfort. You did your final touch on Pietro and stood, taking Wanda's side. You would start fighting if Vision continued to put her on edge.
"Only you have the power to pay it," he said, reaching a hand out slowly to grab her. You grabbed it instead, as subtle as possible. Vision rethought his actions and pulled his hand back away.
Wanda turned away from him and Vision spoke, "Thanos threatens half the Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."
"But it should," Steve said, his eyes directed to the ground before looking up at him, "We don't trade lives, Vision."
He walked toward Steve, "Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?"
Steve took a breath, but before he had a chance to answer, Bruce spoke, "Because you might have a choice. Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. J.A.R.V.I.S., Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another."
"You're saying Vision isn't just the Stone?" Wanda questioned.
"I'm saying that if we take out the Stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts."
"You hear that, Vision?" Pietro questioned, "You'll be a toaster oven without the Stone." He turned to you, "Is that an upgrade or a downgrade?"
You rolled your eyes and chucked lightly. Wanda just rolled her eyes, amazed at her brother's ability to joke right now.
Again, the team disregarded his comment. Natasha spoke, "Can we do that?"
Bruce shook his head, "Not me, not here."
"You better find someone and somewhere fast. Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back," Rhodes spoke.
Steve spoke, "I know somewhere." He glanced back up at the team and you sighed, "What are we going to do with Ethan?"
Wanda nodded, "I don't want to put him in trouble."
Rhodes suggested, "I hear Pepper's still on Earth. We could give her a call and she could come here to watch Ethan with Irina. And she has access to some of Tony's suits, they'd be protected.
You thought over that, glancing at Pietro and Wanda. He nodded, "I think that could work."
You nodded, "Pepper has to deal with Tony. I think she's well rehearsed in dealing with kids. I trust her."
You both turned to Wanda, who agreed with the idea as well. Rhodes nodded and gave Pepper a call to watch Ethan. She was down at there in no time, meeting Ethan to watch him.
Pietro knelt in front of Ethan, "Stay safe, little man. Don't do anything we wouldn't do, and definitely don't do anything Y/N and I would do."
Ethan thought over that, "You do know you all have different reactions to things right?"
You shrugged, "There's a little grey area there, and that's where you operate."
Ethan furrowed his brow, his confused and conflicted. Wanda smacked both of you for confusing him and knelt down, "What they mean to say is stay safe. Don't do anything irrational and call us immediately if you need anything."
He nodded, "I will."
You knelt down with them and hugged Ethan. Pietro went to say his goodbyes to Irina before they left. You and Wanda hugged him a little while longer. "We love you, Ethan," Wanda told him, kissing his forehead.
"We love you very much," you agreed, "Stay safe, okay?"
He nodded, "I will. I love you, too, Moms."
You gave him a smile, hugging him once more before thanking Pepper and saying goodbye to Irina. You stepped onto the jet with the rest of the team, waving at Ethan through the window.
You turned to Wanda when he was out of sight, pulling out your backpack. You grabbed the project you'd been doing, it wasn't done but it was done enough. You didn't know if you'd have a chance to show her for a while after now if you didn't do it.
You showed her the project. You'd made her a small scrap book of photos you'd taken. It was just a small journal, but it held special moments of your life with her.
She smiled as she looked at the book, flipping through the first few pages with a large smile. She turned to you, "Thank you, Y/N."
You kissed her gently, your smile faltering only slightly, "You're welcome." You sighed and shook your head of your solemn thoughts, "Maybe you'll find the special surprise I put in there for you."
She chuckled lightly and closed the book, sighing again as her smile fell. "Do you think...do you think everything will turn out?"
You sighed as well, sitting back a little as you thought over her question, "I don't know. I wish I did, but it don't. I hope so."
"I do, too," she nodded. She sat back with you, taking in the calm before everything became too real again.