Scotland, 2018
May 30th, 2018
Wakanda, Africa
Something was wrong.
Something was very, very wrong.
Aleks had woken to alarms blaring before, she’d woken to buildings dropped on top of her, she’d woken to a bullet in her belly, she’d woken to snowstorms and fire – but she’d not woken with such fear to such a quiet noise before.
Aleks had set up a program that would monitor world news for her. Thanks to Shuri, she had a global range – every breaking headline got filtered through an algorithm to detect anomaly. When she woke up to three separate chimes, she nearly broke the laptop trying to open it in her haste.
ALIEN ATTACK IN GREENWICH VILLAGE
An American headline, beeping rapidly at the sheer volume of footage and news stories.
UFO SIGHTED OVER LONDON
A British YouTube link, the alarm picking up intensity as more and more sightings poured in.
AVENGERS ENGAGE ALIEN THREAT IN NEW YORK
Right.
Aleks shut the laptop and picked up her mobile, pressing speed dial as she raced for the door. It was nearing midnight, and the corridors of the residential wing were silent. Aleks found no obstacles as she raced for the labs.
Steve picked up on the second ring. “Aleks, is everything okay?”
For a moment, ice froze the words on her tongue. Old training made her ruthless, made her sharp, but it occasionally struck her dumb. She jabbed the elevator button, and forced herself to speak. “Suit up, Steve. Meet me in the hangar.” She hung up as the elevator opened for her, and stepped inside.
London was too close.
Too close to Wanda, who had been bad enough about checking in that Steve was about a day away from going to get her anyway. And now this-
Aleks forced herself to calm, typing out a text to Natalia with fingers that did not shake. Hopefully Shuri had finished her new suit, because her old instincts were telling her it was about to get ugly.
The lab was abandoned at the late hour, and as she Phased through the doors, she sent a silent apology to Shuri for trespassing. She knew the young Princess got twitchy about people in her lab without permission, and she was about to walk all over those boundaries. She searched the lab twice before she found it; her newest suit, lying under soft LED lighting – but only half-finished.
Damn.
Aleks took a second look at the construction, noting the sheer amount of panelling on the new suit. She tilted her head, intrigued to see how the panels seemed to vanish at different angles. It seemed to be reflective in a way that turned it invisible, like a desert mirage. Incredible – but currently useless.
Her eyes fell on the display one workspace over. Her partner’s old vest and tactical gear were sitting on a custom mannequin, and on the table behind it, she was surprised to see a similar looking suit in the same state of construction as her suit. Next to that, there was an arm, in shades of black and gold, and Aleks felt something stir low in her gut. Surely he wouldn’t mind if she just…borrowed it.
A few moments later, Aleks stood straight and took in her reflection in the mirrored wall opposite the workstations. Her partner’s vest fit her differently, and she had tightened the straps and her belt as tight as they would go to keep it from slipping down her torso. It made her look larger; broader shouldered, wider hipped, and the pants made her lower half just as solid. She looked a little less constrained, a little less tempered.
She looked like a soldier.
May 31st, 2018
Edinburgh, Scotland
“How the hell are we going to find them in time?” Sam sounded, understandably, frantic.
It hadn’t been more than an hour after they had taken off that Steve had received his own phone call, from a Doctor Bruce Banner, who Aleks understood had only just returned to earth. She was honestly still trying to wrap her head around the whole ‘adventures in outer space’ thing.
She had been bound in place, in time, for so long – that it seemed impossible there were whole worlds, whole lives, whole stories, just out of her reach. And now this; Thanos. This creature that threatened to erase all she had ever known. Aleks had been inactive during the 2012 attack on New York, but Natalia and Steve had been on the front lines. It showed.
They were both a little unfocused, eyes far away. They were stuck in their own dark memories, facing their own demons. She knew what trauma looked like, what PTSD presented as.
It left her and Sam in conscious charge.
Aleks cast a cursory look at her phone, eyeing the small geolocation tag she was tracking. It had been still for a while, but about half an hour ago, it had started moving very slowly through the Old Town of Edinburgh. “We’re close. I put a tracker on Wanda.”
“You did what?” Steve spoke for the first time since he’d received the phone call, and Aleks twisted around to meet his incredulous eyes.
She shrugged. “I’ve put trackers on all of you.” Steve blinked, looking down at himself as if the tracker would pop out and reveal itself. As if it would be that easy to find. She did, in fact, have trackers on all of them – plus a couple on her partner, and a few on Shuri. She felt safer having a way to find them. Just in case.
“That is a wild invasion of privacy.” Sam’s tone was jovial, as it usually was, but Aleks could hear his underlying tension. He was always playing that role; that of the merry optimist.
She would play along too, if only to stop Steve from retreating back into himself. She sniffed with false righteousness. “Hardly. They are for emergencies only.”
“Where’s mine?” Sam began to look down at himself too, and from behind her, Aleks could hear rustling as Steve began to check himself.
“I’m not telling you that.” She said coolly. Natalia’s slim arm appeared over her shoulder, hand outstretched. With a small tinkle, her niece dropped one of the microtrackers onto the dashboard of the jet. Aleks sighed as Natalia retreated silently back to her seat. “Well done, Natalia.”
“What? Where was yours?” Sam twisted indignantly to stare at Natasha. The red head grinned – artificial but still bright – and fiddled with her zipper. Aleks smiled to herself. That was where it had been, but her niece still hadn’t found the other two. “Oh, shit-”
“Sam.” Aleks had taken a look at the transmitter, and registered the sudden movement of the blip she was tracking. “Something’s wrong. They’re moving too quickly.”
“Shit. We’re five minutes out.” Sam hit the thrusters, and set the engine to autopilot. Without a word, Natasha stood, and came to stand behind the pilot’s chair. As Sam slipped out to put on his exo-pack, Natasha smoothly switched into the controls.
“Ты в порядке?” Are you alright? Aleks didn’t take her eyes off the blip, spoke softly enough that Sam couldn’t hear her, and quiet enough to tell Steve not to eavesdrop.
Natalia kept her gaze on the horizon. “Я буду, когда мы получим Vision.” I will be when we get Vision. Her phone began to buzz as they arrived atop the tracker’s signal. They were above a large glass building, Aleks recognizing as a train station. For a moment, they were still and silent, and then Aleks felt it.
A flare of bright red – Wanda – from beneath them spurred them into action.
As smoothly as replacing a mask, Steve stood and squared his shoulders. “We don’t know what we’re facing, but the objective is the same. Get Vision and Wanda on board. Keep the Stone safe.”
The Stone. The yellow gem on Vision’s forehead that had caused her so much grief back in Germany. Aleks didn’t think she wanted to understand exactly what it was. But it didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered but the mission.
When Steve leapt from the jet, she followed without thought, without question. Nothing but the mission.
It was dark in the station.
What they faced was darker still. Aleks hadn’t ever seen anything – anyone? – like the two beings across the tracks from them. The woman, if she could call it that, was tall and lean and blue, with horns like a ram, spiralling from the crown of her misshapen head. The male was similarly hideous, more grey than blue, and more cat-like than the woman. A late night train rattled by, and Wanda rose to her feet. Aleks could see the determination in the set of her thin shoulders, and the weakness in her legs. Wanda was tired, Vision was down.
Aleks released the Grey and she and Steve flickered into visibility.
She saw the instant the pair of aliens spotted her and Steve, saw the instant they registered them as a threat. The woman hurled her glowing spear at them impossibly quickly, speaking to the obviously superhuman strength she possessed. Aleks phased out, and Steve caught the spear in the negative space where she had been. The woman grunted in surprise, taking a minute step away at their actions. Good. The coldest parts of her began to whisper. Off guard and frightened. Good. Wanda was bleeding, Aleks could smell the edge of it in the air, and it made her angry. She began to walk towards them.
The woman tensed again, ready to charge, but Aleks had already caught sight of Sam. Her friend rocketed towards the aliens with no hesitation, and Aleks almost smiled at how easily the woman was bowled over by Sam’s donkey kick. She went flying into the glass display of the station café, and Aleks broke into a run. Not a moment too soon.
The male wasn’t as surprised, and even as Sam banked sharply, he already had his sceptre up and aiming. Aleks unholstered her gun, and fired three quick shots, disrupting his aim and letting Sam get out of the danger zone. The male snarled, and whirled on her, and Natalia appeared from the shadows behind him. The air whistled with the force of movement behind her, and she dropped instinctively – to avoid the backhanded blow of the alien, and just in time for the other alien spear to go flying over her. Natasha caught it without missing a beat, and as Aleks flipped back up onto her feet, her niece had already engaged the male, leaving Aleks’ path to Wanda and Vision free.
The aliens were inhuman, strong, fast – but so were they. Not only did they outnumber the freakish creatures, they had a reason to care. Behind her, Aleks heard the male howl in pain, and turned to see Natalia bury the spear into his chest. Good.
“Aleks!” Wanda’s voice was a cry of fear, and she skidded the last few feet on her knees, dropping beside Wanda and Vision, whose usually bright eyes were dim. “Thank god- I’m so sorry-”
“How badly are you injured?” Aleks interrupted her tersely, catching one of Wanda’s flailing arms, and running her hands over the woman’s arms and torso, feeling for blood or breakage.
“I’m- I’m okay. It’s Vis,” Wanda said breathlessly, shaking free of Alek’s grip and bending over the android again. Tears and red energy swirled in her eyes, and Aleks pulled her back as Vision winced at the touch of her hands. Wanda seemed unaware of the magic pooling in her fingertips.
“Get yourself under control.” She said firmly, and met Vision’s eyes instead. “Can you walk?” she eyed the sparking hole in his torso. Vision set his jaw, and shook his head. Fine. That was fine. She would rather he be honest. “Okay, get your arm around-” She paused, frowning. With her hand already on Vision’s chest, she’d attempted to pull him into the Grey with her, a feat usually much easier due to the android’s own phasing ability. All that happened was a gold spark up the metal plates of his torso.
“The spear-” Vision slurred, voice sounding like a run down VCR tape recording, “It’s stopped me from phasing.”
“What?” Aleks turned to look briefly at the scene behind them. Steve, Sam and Natalia were standing over the two aliens. They were wounded, downed, cowed.Good. As she watched, a blue beam of light poured suddenly from the ceiling, and though she jumped to her feet, it was too late. Without so much as a sound, the aliens were zapped up through the beam. With a ping like a magnet, the spear still in Steve’s grip went flying after them. She turned back to the two behind her.
Wanda met her eyes guiltily, Vision’s own whirring iris out of focus. Aleks tried to soften her features.
“You need to get on the jet. It’s time to go home.”
May 31st, 2018
New Avengers Facility, New York
Aleks didn’t belong here.
It felt intrinsically true. This facility was a bright mirror image of the ones she had known; recruits training, labs, long corridors, secrets behind doors – but done in white marble, sleek metal and daylight. It was where the good guys lived. And Aleks wasn’t a good guy.
The last time she had seen Colonel Rhodes, he’d been unconscious on the battlefield. Steve had told her he’d been paralysed, but the man she spotted through the glass doors was standing on his own volition. She eyed the glowing braces on his legs. Stark, no doubt. Seeing the man upright didn’t lessen the guilt she felt.
He was talking to Secretary Ross, and as Steve barged into the room she met the old man’s furious glare with a cool stare of her own. She may not have belonged there, but she needed to be there. Vision didn’t seem as immune to Ross’ ire. She felt the android shift uncomfortably against her from where she held him propped up.
“Mr. Secretary.” Steve’s voice was all Captain, but she could hear the undercurrent of derision in his tone.
The holographic figure of the man flickered momentarily, before he took a few steps towards them. “You’ve got some nerve. I’ll give you that.” Nobody missed Ross’ slow and obvious look between Natalia and Aleks, lingering on their new hair and faces. “Must run in the family.” It was meant as in insult, but Natalia’s face didn’t change.
“You could use some of that right now.” Her niece’s voice was ice and steel. Aleks couldn’t have been prouder.
“The world’s on fire, and you think all is forgiven?” Ross ignored her, turning back to Steve.
“I’m not looking for forgiveness. And I’m way past asking for permission.” Steve said. Ross’ eyes dropped to the hollow spot on Steve’s chest, where a star had once been. Aleks never saw Steve remove it, but one mission, he’d shown up without any remnants of the Captain on his uniform. They never spoke about it. “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.”
Ross tried to hold his eyes, he really tried – but he was still the first to look away. He turned to Rhodes. “Arrest them.”
Rhodes smirked. “All over it.” With a flick of his wrist, he ended the call. There was a beat of tense silence, before Rhodes grinned at Steve. “That’s a court-martial. It’s great to see you, Cap.” The two men shook hands, Natalia stepping forwards and hugging Rhodes tight.
“Hey, Rhodey.”
“Wow.” Rhodey turned to Aleks, Wanda, Sam and Vision. “You guys really look like crap. Must’ve been a rough couple of years.”
Sam was smiling, but it was laced with guilt. Aleks didn’t miss her friend’s quick look at Rhodes’ legs. “Yeah, well, the hotels haven’t been exactly five-star.”
“Uh, I think you look great.” A new, nervous voice drew Aleks attention. There was a scruffy looking man shuffling towards them. He was handsome, in a sweet, rugged sort of way, and his eyes spoke of intelligence, but the most interesting thing about him was how viscerally Natalia reacted to him. “Uh,” he chuckled sheepishly, “Yeah, I’m back.”
Bruce.
“Hi, Bruce.” Natalia spoke as she realised who the man was. Yes, Aleks knew about Bruce.
“Nat.”
Sam leant closer to her. “This is awkward.” He whispered loudly, and Aleks swatted at him. “Ow!” Sam yelped, drawing the room’s attention again. The tense moment was broken.
Aleks stood beside Rhodey at the holoscreen, replaying the footage they’d manage to piece together of the subway attack. Despite her misgivings, despite being ready to defend herself – physically or otherwise – Colonel Rhodes had been nothing but polite, and dare she say it, helpful.
She had once again underestimated the depths of the bond between the split members of the Avengers, as well as how much loyalty Steve commanded. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours since their arrival, but Steve had settled, holding the mantle of the Captain once more, directing the room with ease.
“Could you zoom- is that a female?” Rhodes bent closer to the hologram with wide eyes. “What the hell…”
Aleks enlarged the grainy image as best she could. “Yes. A male and a female. Equally disturbing, equally dangerous.”
“Not dangerous enough!” Sam crowed, puffing out his chest. Aleks looked up briefly to shoot him an exasperated look to which he responded with a wink. Typical. She smiled anyway.
“We must assume they will return.” Aleks said, frowning at the puddle of holographic blood on the image. They should have collected some; even if it was likely they wouldn’t find anything useful in the alien DNA.
“And they can clearly find us.” Wanda wrapped her arms a little tighter around her torso, eyes unfocussed.
Banner was pacing; he had stayed anxious, physically fretting. It was beginning to rankle on Aleks’ nerves. “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.” Natalia looked troubled. Aleks knew her protégée held an immense amount of guilt because of Barton’s imprisonment. She and Barton had been partners like Aleks and James had been partners, and Aleks knew that kind of working relationship also came with a very real emotional one too. “They’re on house arrest.”
“Who’s Scott?” Banner blinked, looking around the room for answers.
Steve took pity on the confused man. “Ant-Man.”
“There’s an Ant-Man, and a Spiderman?” Banner’s eyes widened further. “Okay, look – Thanos has the biggest army in the universe, and he is not going to stop until he…until he gets,” Aleks followed Banner’s eyes as he stuttered. “Vision’s stone.”
Wanda swallowed thickly, throat working as she tried hard to look unaffected. Aleks fixed Banner with a hard look. “And we will protect it.”
“No.” Vision stood against the window, upright on his own accord and looking a little less beaten up. The yellow gem in his forehead pulsed slightly. “We have to destroy it.” The synthezoid turned to look at them all. “I’ve been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also its composition.” Vision looked slowly at Wanda. There was pain in his eyes that had nothing to do with his injury. “I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something similar to its own signature, perhaps…” Vision moved to stand before the young woman, hands coming up to hold her shoulders, almost bracing her for the blow he had to deliver. “It’s molecular integrity could fail.”
Wanda stared at him. “Yeah, and you with it. We’re not having this conversation.” Though her voice was steady, Aleks caught the edge of a red flicker in Wanda’s irises.
Vision didn’t seem to notice – or care – what the thought was doing to Wanda. “Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can’t get it.” Vision’s voice was lowered, soothing, his words for Wanda alone.
“That’s too high a price.” Wanda told him.
Vision shook his head, running his hands over her cheeks and holding her. “Only you have the power to pay it.” Wanda wrenched herself free, turning her back on them all. Aleks followed her as she took a few steps away from Vision. “Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him.” Aleks gently touched the back of Wanda’s fist balled at her side. She ignored the sudden pain that went zipping up her arm; some of the red dancing at the young woman’s fingertips retreating as if in apology. Wanda didn’t look at her, but swayed slightly, leaning against Aleks for a moment.
“But it should.” Steve spoke, and Aleks turned to look at him. He looked, for once, his age. His eyes were old and knowing and seeing. “We don’t trade lives, Vision.”
“Captain, seventy-years-ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people?” Vision held himself straighter, meeting Steve’s eyes as the Captain moved to face him. “Tell me, why is this any different?”
“Because you might have a choice.” Banner interrupted the pair. “Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays; JARVIS, Ultron, Tony, me, the stone. All of them, mixed together, all of them, learning from each other.”
Wanda perked up, turning to look at Banner with hope shining in her clear eyes. “You’re saying Vision isn’t just the stone?”
Banner looked at her, offering a timid smile. “I’m saying, if we take out the stone, there’s still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts.”
“Can we do it?” Natalia asked immediately. Aleks looked to Banner for the answer. If it was possible, Wanda would not suffer and Thanos would lack a vital piece. Perhaps it would cripple him enough to defeat him.
“Not me. Not here.” Banner admitted. Wanda’s face fell, but Aleks was still thinking. If not Banner – then someone with a more gifted mind. Someone with more gifts in general.
“Well, you’d better find someone, and somewhere fast.” Rhodes snapped. “Ross isn’t just going to let you guys have your old rooms back.”
Aleks met Steve’s eyes across the room. She knew someone, and she knew somewhere. From the resignation on Steve’s face, she knew they were thinking along the same lines. It would betray the trust that the royal family had given them, it would destroy centuries of tradition, and yet… and yet…
They had no choice.
“I know somewhere.”
The eyes of the room fell upon her, and she smiled slightly.
“And I know someone.”