The Nomads
While she was trapped in a slumber, Bruce had found Tony’s flip phone in the rubble. After making a few calls, the two went upstate to the Avengers facility after Evie gave Bruce the rundown that the tower no longer belonged to Tony and everything had been moved. At their arrival Dr. Cho and Rhodey were waiting for them with a full medical team on standby. Evie had gotten up long enough before their entry to swear Bruce to secrecy. If anyone knew the truth, she’d be a bigger liability stashed away than actually staying on the playing field. Or at least that's what she told herself.
After another extensive patch job, Evie was finally feeling a small portion of health being restored. But got the crushing news that her dad was officially declared missing, and apparently so was Peter since he never made it home to his aunt May.
Eventually after only god knows how long, she wandered out of the med bay in time to see Bruce and Natasha finally have their long awaited reunion. The other half of the fractured Avengers team had arrived at Bruce’s plea for back-up. Yet they too had already encountered the Black Order. The signs of an attack were evident in how both Sam and Wanda were holding up a wounded Vision. “You're hurt,” she slipped, seeing the distress the red man was in.
With the spotlight on her, Steve and the others took in how baleful she looked. “Evie… what happened to you!?” Rogers blurted out the words as he darted to her side as did Natasha. Vision was giving her a quizzical look before he spoke in her place, “it appears that what happened to me, happened to Ms. Stark.” He looked down to his still mending chest wound before glancing back to Evie, lingering a second too long for her linking on her lower abdomen.
Natasha, Steve, Rhodes, Wanda, Sam, and Vision were all in a meeting room getting briefed. After Bruce gave them the full download on Thanos, his cult members, and his ultimate goal of collecting all six Infinity Stones, plans were attempted to get formulated.
“So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?”
“And they can clearly find us.”
“We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?”
After the back and forth amongst themselves, Natasha informed everyone that both Clint and Scott took a deal and were under house arrest. But that led to Bruce straying from the topic at hand for just a split second. “There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man? Okay, look... Thanos has the biggest army in the Universe. And he is not gonna stop until he…” He took a second to look around, trying to quell his discomfort in what needed to be relayed, but Evie interrupted from her dark corner of the room. “Until he gets Vision's stone.” Her senses picked up Nat’s confidence when she stated, “well then, we have to protect it.” Evie chose to stay quiet and she read what was on Vision’s mind unintentionally.
“No, 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.” As he spoke he neared Wanda, who was already picking up on what he meant, as did Stark.
“And you, with it. We're not having this conversation.”
Evie tuned out the discussion by humming quietly to herself. It was an Asgardian lullaby Loki was always singing to the baby at the end of every night. Closing her eyes, she pictured his face. His curly raven locks, the curve of his nose, and the sound of his voice. She all but got lost in the memory until Rhodey’s voice was right by her ear. “Pumpkin?” she jumped, with Void glitching out to take the reins. “Hey! Hey, it's okay…” His hands shot up as a sign of surrender, being startled himself by the entity with black eyes taking a defensive stance.
“What’s wrong with your powers?” Wanda said rushing over, she’s been acutely aware that something within Stark was off, perhaps even broken. It was all confirmed as they all watched in worry how her skin paled even more, almost a sickly green. Her hair stuck in jet black. Yet what unsettled them more was as the inky gloss left her orbs, the thin black veins around her sockets remained even after her warm brown eyes returned. But since the two friends had lost touch in the last two years, Wanda was unsure of how to go about checking in with her. So she chose to tread lightly and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
However, Wanda’s eyebrows nearly met her hairline as they the two locked eyes. Evie knew at that moment that Maximoff had uncovered her secrets. She opened her mouth to say something, but with a pleading look and silent implore hushed only to her mind, Wanda closed it just as fast. Agreeing to Evie’s request.
Evie was feeling so overwhelmed in the moment with grief, anger and everything else, she took a step back from them, shrugging off the other girl. “Nothing, I'm fine.” The words came with a bit more bite then intended as she hugged herself tightly. Urging her brain and body to get their shit together. “We need to follow Steve’s lead, and soon. I’m sure Secretary Ross has half the U.S. military dispatched to come fetch us. Especially knowing how much of a fan he is of all us right about now.” As she walked out they all turned to Banner, who knew it was his turn to start answering questions. He needed to say something in order to calm his friends yet still keep the truth at bay.
With the Quinjet on its way towards their set destination, Steve finally mustered up enough courage to speak with Evie.
“Hey kitten…” Dejected, she didn’t give a response. He sighed deeply, looking down at his hands. “Look, I’m real sorry-”
“Stop. Stop apologizing for things not in your control.” He chewed his lip as he thought of what to say after so long. So much had happened and even though physically she appeared the same, the fine details told him she had lived an eternity in the time they were distanced. Her hair was longer, sporting intricate braids on one side. Reminiscent of the ones Thor would have. Her eyes (when not struggling to stay black) had signs of deep sorrow, and held much more wisdom than before. She was now twenty four, but something about her felt different. Like he was speaking with an ageless celestial being. Evie was the same girl on the surface, and yet somehow Steve knew the person she was with now was completely foreign to him. She exhaled slowly and placed her hands over his to stop the fiddling. “Thank you for checking in, but we have bigger things to worry about than me.” This saddened Rogers, although it was uncommon for Evie to brush off her own needs, he knew she was in anguish. Her father was missing, as was a close friend. And from what Rhodes had told him, she had been wounded quite severely after the battle in New York. However he chose to respect her decision and simply sat quietly at her side, still holding hands.
Their small moment was interrupted when, from the cockpit, Sam shouted over his shoulder, “I hope you're right about this, Cap. Or we're gonna land a lot faster than you want to.” After crossing the camouflaged perimeter of Wakanda’s sovereign borders, the occupants of the Quinjet all descend the ramp with Steve and Natasha at the lead. And for the first time in what felt like forever Evie genuinely cracked a tiny, miniscule smile when her uncle played a trick on Banner. Telling him to bow when meeting king T’Challa. Which of course was completely unnecessary and one hundred percent not the norm. After the prank she only shook her head and her smile faded as quickly as it came.
“So how big of an assault can we expect?” The group all followed the king as his royal guard flanked them on both sides. Evie cleared her throat addressing his question. “Big. Whatever you're picturing, times a hundred.” She said dryly. “How we looking?” Widow asked, assessing their strength of numbers. “You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and…” he gestured ahead of himself as Wanda and Vision were directed for the palace, and out came a familiar face. “A semi-stable, 100-year-old man.”
As the two super soldiers embraced, Sam took note of the apprehension in her face. “Why is Void trying to come out? Are you sensing danger?” She shook her head, “no,” opting to keep the chatter short. Moving the welcoming party indoors, Evie felt eyes on her, assessing her every move. Lifting her gaze she saw it was none other than James Buchanan Barnes. Confusion or discomfort etched into his features, head cocking slightly to the side. Physically she looked ok, aside from her powers sputtering to gain stability. Her face going from paper white to a somewhat healthy hue.
Evie ducked her head and she fell behind the others, rattled by the intensity of his stare. It seemed that the man was still in her blindspot, unable to read his mind or emotions. Natasha, always being a good friend, stayed back to keep her company. With Vision getting looked over by princess Shuri; T’Challa’s younger sister, Evie knew she wasn’t needed. So she decided to excuse herself and stand guard with War Machine, Falcon, and reluctantly with Barnes too.
Spotting his niece approaching, Rhodes met with her halfway, “how’s it going in there?”
“The princess is a genius.” she mused, “dad would love meeting her. After all we have her to thank for the nanotech advancements when we had our diplomatic exchanges.” As the two took a moment to breathe in the fresh air, Barnes kept giving her a look she couldn’t quite place. Somewhere between wary and stomach cramps. But all too soon the moment of peace ended as the storm arrived. Evie shuttered violently. “Pumpkin you okay?” She knew that feeling a little too well now, and everyone followed her line of sight to the sky. Sam instantly spoke into the comms, “hey, Cap. We got a situation here.”
Just then the defense shield around Wakanda destroyed one of the incoming vessels entering the atmosphere. Absolutely fascinated by their advancement in technology she huffed, “God, I love this place…” But the same words slipped out of Barnes and the two exchanged uneasy glances. “Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome.” Sam said bleakly.
“They have a shit load of reinforcements, we need to gear up now!” Her voice was full of vexation. She turned to Rhodes, “Koala Bear?”
“Yeah, hop on.” As they waited for the others to board the carriers towards the battlefield, Evie engaged the Iron Armor once more. The red and silver metal gleaming under the sunlight. Her new nanotech gloves provided better grip to latch on to War Machine’s backside as he took to the sky with Sam alongside them. And since he was having some “performance” issues earlier, Evie had Bruce manning the Hulkbuster after assuring him it was his best choice.
As they got closer, Rhodes got on the comms. “We got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line.”
“Alright, here's my stop!” Evie let go of her uncle and fell back into her clouds of darkness, emerging from a drop down and falling into formation where the king had been previously standing in the battlefront. T’Challa had gone to accompany Steve and Natasha in confronting the invaders. A reverberating rumble started to be felt as whatever exchange happened between the two parties ended sourly. Not to anyone’s surprise. When the trio rejoined the frontline James asked Steve, “did they surrender?”
“Not exactly.”
With the Wakanan’s warcry now goading the enemy, Evie finally stopped fighting her alter. The air surrounding her dropped a few degrees colder as dark smoke rippled down to her feet, and her blade came to life. A hoard of mindless creatures were suddenly bombarding the dome, persistent to get in even if the barrier was severing life and limb. She heard James quietly mutter, “what the hell?” Okoye, the General of the Dora Milaje was appalled by what they were witnessing. “They're killing themselves!” She exclaimed. Evie took it upon herself to share some knowledge. “They're Outriders, genetically engineered monsters created to serve their maker until they die. They're relentless in pursuing their duty and extremely vicious. If you get a chance to kill one, do it, because they will do much worse."
Then some started to squeeze by, still able-bodied. From across the field Stark locked eyes with the one she’d clashed with while back on the Ark. It was Proxima Midnight and she had a bone to pick with Evie. She wanted payback for her embarrassment, and Evie wanted payback for the murder of her family and Asgardian people. Her people. The Wakandens activated their shields while Rhodes and Wilson whisked by deploying bombs and drones to start picking off the runaways.
At their king’s command, the Wakandan army started firing their spears. James and Bruce followed the order and fired their weapons too.
"Is that fancy lightsaber any good?" Evie smirked, speaking callously as she looked up at Steve. "Absolutely, and I'm going to drive it right into that horned bitch's heart. She's mine!" Just then, Bruce was in their ear. “Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us...There's nothing between them and Vision.”
“Then we better keep 'em in front of us.” T’Challa’s general questioned her king. “How do we do that?”
Putting a hand to his ear, he dished out the next order while simultaneously answering Okoye. “We open the barrier… On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen.” Stepping out from behind the line of soldiers, T’Challa stared down at the enemy. Evie could taste the anticipation and blood lust in the air. It was down the wire and everyone there knew it.
“Wakanda forever!”