Chapter 20

Buffy stared out at the compound and sighed. It was practically empty. Only a few Slayers and the Secret Avengers stayed there regularly. Most of the Slayers that hadn't signed the Accords were in Wakanda. Okoye had allowed them to train there with the Dora Milaje while Buffy was away.

It had been two years since Buffy and Steve had left Wakanda. Two years since they'd lost a piece of their souls. Wanda, Bucky, Sam, Natasha, Willow, and Angel had set up their base camp at the old Slayer HQ, like they had originally planned to do. Steve and Buffy had disappeared for a few months to try and cope with the loss of their child. Eventually, they had come back to the Secret Avengers, but they weren't the same people they once had been.

A knock on the doorframe made her turn around. It was Angel. "Hey." She said.

"Hey." Angel walked up to her and looked out over the compound. Her office had a great view of the compound with its floor to ceiling windows. She wasn't paying attention to it anymore, though, since she was marveling at the fact that Angel was bathed in sunlight and not burning to a crisp. Willow and Wanda had created a version of the Gem of Amara for Angel. He had been reluctant at first to wear it, but had eventually seen the necessity of it. It was a sight she didn't think she would ever get used to. "You ok?"

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know."

"Steve said you haven't been sleeping much lately."

"So, he sent you up here to talk to me."

"He's worried and you don't talk to him like you used to."

"I don't talk to anyone like I used to."

"You went through a very traumatic experience. It's only natural to pull away some. Can't stay pulled away forever, though."
"I know that." She was quiet for a long moment and then she let out a heavy sigh. "I don't mean to. I'm honestly trying to get back to normal, but…."

"Buffy, don't try to get back to normal. What you lost…. That's never gonna happen. You've got to find a new normal for yourself. And for Steve." Buffy nodded, turning back to the window. "So, you wanna tell me why you're not sleeping?"

"Something's coming."

"Are you dreaming again?"

"Well, you know how those Slayer dreams get when the end of the world is around the corner."

"Another apocalypse?"

"You can't feel it, Angel?" He shook his head. "Look who's the cryptic one now."

"You've reversed our roles."

She didn't smile or laugh at that. "Whatever it is, it's coming now and I don't know what to do to stop it."
"Your dreams aren't telling you anything?"

"Nothing solid. Just…. Flashes of bad. And scary. Mostly death."

"Are any of the other girls feeling it?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. None of them has said anything and Okoye hasn't reported anything to me."

"I can talk to the girls that are here." Buffy nodded. He reached out and took her hand. "Buffy, it'll be ok. We've stopped every apocalypse before. We'll stop this one."

"I hope you're right." He squeezed her hand before walking out of the room. She could almost count down the seconds from the time Angel left to when Steve appeared. He hovered at the edge of the door, clearly uncertain whether to come in or not. "I'm not going to bite."

He chuckled. "I know."

"Did Angel relay his message?" Buffy turned around and waited for Steve to walk over to her.

"I'm sorry. I should've come and asked you myself, but you've been so distant lately and…." As soon as he stopped in front of her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight embrace. He winced slightly from her strength, but hugged her back. "Hey…."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being so distant. I haven't meant to be. I just…. There's so much going on in my head and I don't know how to deal with any of it." He waited patiently for her to continue. In the last two years, his wife had almost lost the quick wit that had been such an endearment to him. He'd watched her drown in her grief and hadn't been able to save her because he'd been drowning in his own grief. "I hate who I've become, but…. I don't know how to deal with what happened to us. Some days I think I'm doing fine, but then the next day or week or month…. I just don't want to even get out of bed. Those days…." She took a deep breath. "Those days, it's like being yanked out of heaven back to this crappy world and waking up in my coffin all over again. I want to blame someone for what happened, but there's no one."

"I know."

"Funny how you could love someone so completely and never have met them at all."

Steve leaned down and kissed her gently, holding her against him tightly. "I've been so worried about you, Buffy. The last few weeks, I wake up in the middle of the night and you're not there. You've been walking around as almost a shell of yourself."

Buffy nodded and wrapped her arms around herself. "It's not just…. What we went through…. That's causing my lack of sleep. There's something's coming."

"How do you know?"

"Slayers…. We get these prophetic dreams sometimes. Especially when there's an apocalypse coming. Angel's going to see if any of the girls have had dreams, too, but for the last month I've been getting them almost every night."

"What are they telling you?"

"I don't know. I've been trying to figure it out. It's been a long time since I've had dreams like this. The last time was when the First was killing off Potentials and I had a front row seat to their murders."

Steve reached out and pulled her to him again. In their years together, he had never felt the need to actually protect Buffy because he trusted her to handle herself and always have his back like she trusted him to do the same. For only the second time since meeting her all those years ago, he felt the absolute and overwhelming need to protect her. She seemed so small and scared and completely unlike herself. And that terrified him. Whatever was coming must be worse than anything they'd ever faced.

Just then, the phone that they had gotten specifically for Tony to call them began to ring. They both looked at Buffy's desk like it had grown five heads. The last time Buffy had talked to Tony had been just before she had lost the baby. She walked over to it and grabbed it.

"Tony?"

"No, uh…. It's, uh…. It's Bruce. Bruce Banner."

"Bruce!? Oh my god!"

"Listen, I wish I had more time to catch up, but…. We've got a major problem."

Buffy looked up at Steve with wide eyes.


Buffy adjusted her scythe on her back and made sure the vibranium throwing knives were in their holsters. Shuri had given them to her as a gift along with her new vibranium-laced suit after Buffy had managed to destroy her old suit. The not-so-dormant Hellmouth in Cleveland had been opened a few months ago and Faith had called for help. When word had gotten out about Buffy's fugitive status, Faith had taken up residence in Cleveland. She'd decided to guard the place like Buffy had once done for Sunnydale.

Steve had met Spike during that battle and, while the Super Solider didn't like the vampire, he gave him his respect for having Buffy's back when she'd been severely injured. Spike had started hanging out with Faith and the two were apparently having some sort of on/off fling. As for Buffy's injuries, she'd tried to take on one of the large Hellmouth demons on her own. It had pretty much batted her around like a cat toy until backup had saved her.

Natasha walked back to Buffy standing at the back of the plane. "Hey."

Buffy gave her friend and slight smile. "Hey."

"Steve says you're dreaming about the end of the world."

"Honestly, I don't know what it is. Nothing is ever clear, just the feeling of impending doom and frustration because I can't figure the dreams out."

"Do you usually get clear pictures?"

"Not always. Most of the time its cryptic, but I still understand it. Like when I dreamed Angel died on my birthday, there were all these signs in the dream that came true in real life."

"Angel died on your birthday?"
"Well…. In a way, he did."

"It was that birthday." Buffy nodded. "Is there anything that stands out in these dreams?"

Buffy sighed and shook her head. "It's like watching something on super fast-forward while drunk. I've gotten flashes of the tesseract, maybe…. And Vision. A couple of what I'm guessing are the Infinity Stones. Mostly it's like I'm standing in a dust storm and there are faces there. Some of them are people I care about, I think."

"Anyone in particular?"

"Honestly, Nat, I can't tell. It gives me a headache to even try to focus on any one face. If Thanos is what my dreams are warning me about…."

Natasha reached over and hugged her friend tightly. "We'll stop him. It's what we do." She understood now what Steve was worried about. Buffy was terrified and this was an emotion the Slayer had never shown before.

"I've lost so much…." Buffy whispered. Natasha hugged her tighter.

"Can I get in on that action?" Sam joked, walking up to the two women.

"You couldn't handle us, Wilson." Natasha said, turning to him.

"You're probably right."

"Why aren't you flying the jet?" Buffy asked, looking past to see the controls unmanned and Steve standing not far behind them looking over something on his tablet.

"Wait, this thing doesn't fly itself?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I thought the autopilot went out on it last month?"

"It did. Bucky took it to Shuri and she fixed it."

"Where was I?"

"With Steve in Wales fighting that group of Polgara demons." Natasha said. "I thought Angel told you." Buffy shook her head. "Maybe it's his old age. He's finally going senile."

"He probably told me, I just…. Forgot."

"It's all good. It's fixed." Sam said. "And we'll be there soon. Don't sweat it. You've had a rough couple of years."

"Vision just turned on his transponder." Steve announced to the little group at the back of the plane. "He and Wanda are near the train station and he's sending us an SOS."

"Warp speed, Mr. Sulu." Buffy said to Sam.

"Sam, drop us off and then land."

"You got it." Sam went back to the controls.

Steve turned to Buffy. "You up for this?"

Buffy clenched and unclenched her fists. "Have I ever let you down?" Steve's face told her she had once. "Ok, minus that one time when I went in all half-cocked and nearly got myself killed." She looked down at her feet. "I wasn't exactly in the right head space."

Steve sighed and reached out to grip her hands. "I know you weren't. You were reckless and it scared the hell out of me. When Spike found you…."
She squeezed his hands. "I know. I'll never do that to you again."

He leaned down to kiss her, lingering there for longer than just a chaste kiss. While Buffy had been in Shuri's care in Wakanda after that incident, Steve had laid into her about how out of control she'd been during that battle and a lot of the missions they'd gone on before that. It had finally broken them both and they'd talked for the first time in over a year about what had happened with their daughter.

When they broke apart from their kiss, Natasha was opening the back for them to jump out of. The two of them ran out of the back of the jet and leapt out, falling the 100 or so feet to the building below. Each of them landed on their feet and rolled to ease the impact.

Quickly and quietly, they made their way into the train station where Wanda and Vision could be heard fighting off two very large assailants. A train came into the station and blocked their view of the platform where Wanda was gearing up her magicks. Through the cars, Buffy could see one of the attackers looked like a tall, thinnish orc holding a halberd of some sort and the other looked like an Amazon woman had a baby with a blue ram and was holding a cool glowing trident.

The Ram-woman spotted them as the train left the station and threw her trident at them. Steve caught it easily and both of the aliens looked startled. Buffy and Steve moved out of the shadows and towards the tracks. Vision and Wanda both looked incredibly relieved to see them. The married superheroes ran and easily jumped from one platform to the other across the tracks as Sam flew in on his wings, sending the Ram-woman crashing through a deli window. He shot some mini-rockets at the orc and as it was off balance, Natasha slid in on her knees, caught the trident Steve tossed her, and took its knees out from under it as she stabbed it with the trident.

The Ram-woman came back into the fight and took the trident from Natasha. Buffy pulled her scythe off her back and twirled it, appearing between the Ram-woman and Natasha. She blocked the trident with her scythe before it could hit her friend.

The Ram-woman's eyes widened as she looked at Buffy's weapon. "Slayer!" She hissed.

Buffy kicked out and knocked her back. Steve appeared and they took turns fighting the Ram-woman. Natasha joined in and they formed a triangle around the alien. Sam flew in and kicked the Ram-woman back. She landed in a roll and crawled over to join her companion as Sam pulled out his guns. Natasha had out her sting batons and Buffy hefted her scythe.

"Get up." She said to the orc guy.

"I can't." Orc guy replied.

"We don't want to kill you." Natasha said. "But we will."

"You'll never get the chance again." Ram-woman said. A beam of light came in through the shattered glass ceiling and she and the orc guy were beamed up. The trident Steve was holding got yanked out of his hand and he looked up, annoyed that they'd taken it from him.

Buffy looked over at Steve as she put her weapon back in its holster. "Ram-woman was scared of my scythe."

"I'm scared of your scythe." Steve joked as they headed over to the downed Vision and Wanda.

"Can you stand?" Sam asked Vision. He and Wanda got Vision to his feet as Buffy and Steve joined them.

"Thank you, Captain. Mrs. Rogers." Vision said to them.

Steve nodded. "Let's get you on the jet."

They made their way to the parked jet and Sam headed for the controls. Natasha made sure the back closed as they began to ascend. "I thought we had a deal." She said to Wanda. "Stay close, check in frequently, don't take any chances."

"Sorry." Wanda said. "We just wanted time."

Buffy smiled slightly at Wanda. "It's ok. Can't blame you for needing a break."

"I can." Natasha muttered.

"Nat, chill. Or I'm cancelling your weekend getaway with Angel next month." Natasha stuck her tongue out at Buffy and the two shared a smile.

"Where to Cap?" Sam asked.

Steve looked at Buffy as she made her way to the back of the plane to take up her usual seat on the floor. "Home." He finally answered.

Buffy looked up at her husband as he joined her. "It's going to be weird going back after everything. Especially with Tony missing."

"Rhodes knows that we're coming and he seems eager for it."

"Hopefully that means we won't be arrested on sight."

Steve chuckled. "Hopefully."

She pulled the scythe off her back and held it out. "Ram-woman from outer space recognized my weapon and she knew me. How is that possible?"

"Not sure."
"There's not a lot of information on my scythe out there. I just know that this very old woman that called herself a Guardian said she and a bunch of other Guardians forged this in secrecy half way around the world and then put it in the rock I pulled it out of. I didn't get much more information out of her before Caleb snapped her neck. Halfway around the world from Sunnydale is Wakanda."

Steve ran his fingers along the side of the vicious looking blade. "You think this is vibranium?"

"Maybe. I've never given it to Shuri or T'Challa and asked them, but it makes sense why it's never broken and it reacts to impacts like your old shield did." Buffy sighed and put the scythe back in its harness. "Doesn't explain how Ram-woman knew me and my weapon, though."

"You don't ever give yourself enough credit, Buff. You're a pretty big deal. I'm sure stories about you have gone out past our galaxy."

She took his hand. "I love you, too."


Buffy and Steve looked out the window as Sam landed the Quinjet outside of Avengers HQ. The place had definitely expanded in the two and a half years since they'd last been there. As they made their way inside, Slayers at the compound stopped and stared at their tiny, blonde, fugitive leader. Steve gripped her hand and she looked up at him gratefully. Behind them, Natasha strode with purpose, never looking around at anyone. Sam and Wanda held Vision up between them behind her.

They found Rhodes in a room with a holographic conference table filled with holographic bureaucrats. One of them being Secretary Ross. "You know they're only criminals because you chose to call them that." Rhodes said.

"My god, Rhodes, your talent for horseshit rivals mine." Ross snapped.

"You know if it wasn't for those Accords, Vision would've been right here."

"I remember your signature on those papers, Colonel."

"That's right. And I'm pretty sure I paid for that."
"You're having second thoughts?"

"Not anymore." Rhodes looked over at the group making their way up the hallway towards them.

Buffy and Steve came to a stop in front of Rhodes and hologram Ross. "Mr. Secretary." Steve said politely. Buffy just sneered at him.

Ross moved towards them. "You've got some nerve, I'll give you that."

"You could use some of that right now." Natasha countered.

"The world's on fire and you think all's forgiven?"

"We're not looking for forgiveness." Buffy growled. "And we're way past asking permission. If you had any common sense, you'd be asking Obi Wan for help right now."

Steve moved in front of Buffy, irrationally protecting hologram Ross from her. "Earth just lost your best defender, so we're here to fight. If you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you, too."

Ross turned to Rhodes. "Arrest them."

"All over it." Rhodes said. He raised his hand and disconnected the hologram call. The conference table and its occupants disappeared from the room. "That's a court martial. It's great to see you, Cap."

"You too, Rhodey." Steve shook Rhodes hand.

Rhodes turned to Buffy. "Bring it in here, Mrs. Rogers." He hugged Buffy tightly.

"You would think after two years of hearing that, I would be used to it." Buffy said.

"Listen, I heard about…."

"Please don't bring that up."

"I'm sorry."
"It's ok. I just…. Need a clear head right now and that's a world of murk."

Rhodes nodded and hugged Natasha. He took a moment to take everyone in. "You guys really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple of years."

"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five star." Sam retorted.

"I think you look great!" Bruce said, walking into the room. They all turned to look at him. "Yeah, I'm back."

Buffy's eyes widened when she saw her sister standing beside Bruce. "Dawn?"

"Hey, sis." Dawn said, smiling. The two sisters rushed to each other and hugged tightly for a long moment.

"What are you doing here?"

"Tony hired me to be the head cheese of the medical staff."

"She's pretty amazing at it." Rhodes said.

"Thanks." Dawn walked over to Steve. "So, you're my brother-in-law now, huh?"

"Guess so." Steve said. He smiled at Dawn and hugged her tightly.

"You guys got married?" Bruce asked, pointing between Buffy and Steve.

Steve nodded with a smile at his wife. "Two years ago."

"Congratulations. Sorry I missed the wedding."

"A lot of people missed it." Dawn said pointedly to her sister.

"So, let's talk end of the world." Buffy said, quickly changing the subject. She looked up at Bruce. "Tell me about Thanos."


"So, we've gotta assume they're coming back." Rhodes said, pacing the large office just off Tony's lab. They had explained the battles in New York and in Scotland against the aliens that did Thanos' bidding. Buffy, who had stopped listening during the recount of Scotland's battle, was standing by Tony's desk and staring at the sonogram picture that was in a small frame there.

"And they can clearly find us." Wanda added.

"We need all hands on deck." Bruce said. "Where's Clint?"

"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal." Natasha said. "It was too tough on their families. They're on house arrest."

"Who's Scott?"

"Antman." Steve said, walking over to see what Buffy was staring so hard at. He felt the wind get knocked out of him for a moment when his eyes landed on the picture. His hand reached out and gripped his wife's tightly. She moved a little closer to him and looked away from the last picture that had been taken of their daughter.

"There's an Antman and a Spiderman?" Rhodes nodded at Bruce. "All right, look, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe and he is not gonna stop till he gets…. Vision's stone."

"Then we have to protect it." Natasha said.

"No, we have to destroy it." Vision said, bringing Buffy and Steve's attention back to the conversation. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head. About its nature. But also its composition." He turned and walked slowly towards Wanda. "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."

"Yeah, and you with it." Wanda said. "I'm not having this conversation."

"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain in this argument."

"It's too high a price."

"Only you have the power to pay it." Wanda yanked away from Vision, turning away from him. "Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

"But it should." Steve said. "We don't trade lives, Vision."

"Captain, 70 years ago you laid down your life to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?"

"It's not." Buffy said quietly.

Vision looked at her. "Yes, you understand. You traded Angel's life to save the world once. And you traded your own, as well. Twice, yes?"

"Well, that's the legend, isn't it? One girl stands against the forces of darkness until it kills her? Then the next one's called. I was just…. Fulfilling my destiny."

"It was a little more complicated than that." Dawn said.

"Not really. The prophecy said I would die fighting the Master and I did. When Angelus opened Acathla, only Angel's blood could close the portal to hell. So, I killed him. I did my job to save the world despite how much it killed me to do it. Then on that tower with you…."

"You could've let me jump."

"That wasn't an option."

"It was an option. I'm the ball of energy that opened that world-ending portal and it was what I wanted to do, but you were too damn stubborn with your martyr complex to even contemplate any other options." Dawn looked at Bruce, the lightbulb clearly going off in her head. "Tony and I have had conversations about how Vision was made. Doesn't he have options?"
"Yes! He does!" Bruce said. He turned to Vision. "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 one another."

"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda asked.

"I'm saying that, if we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts."

"Can we do that?" Natasha asked.

"Not me. Not here."

"Well, you better find someone and somewhere fast. Ross isn't going to just let you guys have your old rooms back." Rhodes said.

Buffy looked over at Steve and knew he was thinking the same thing. "We know someone and somewhere." She announced to the room.