Chapter one

I leaned on my left arm as I looked at the image currently on my computer screen, as though I was trying to imagine what the man in the photo would have been like back then, or as though by looking at the picture I could work out exactly what he was doing right now. Steve had asked me to look for his friend ages ago… I'd managed to find him, too, but I hadn't told Steve that. I got the distinct impression that Barnes needed time on his own for a while, so instead of helping Steve I'd been running a bit of interference. I quickly closed the window I had opened on the computer and looked around as someone opened my door.

"We've been calling for a while," Sam said from the doorway, "Dinner's here," I nodded and he frowned when he looked at the screen, "What's up?" He asked.

"Nothing much. Just… another dead end," I sighed, frowning slightly, then stood up and slipped out past him into the hall, "We know who else is joining us?"

"The usual."

"No Thor or Dale then." I knew I sounded slightly disappointed, but I hadn't seen either of my brothers since Dale and I were liberated from Hydra. Thor had to return to Asgard, while Dale went his own, needing to put this sort of thing behind him. At first he'd thought that it would be better for me if I left too, but I couldn't bring myself my leave. Thor had asked me to accompany him to Asgard, but I couldn't bring myself to leave my home behind, and I wasn't quite ready to meet Odin.

"They'll be back at some point."

"Oh, I know that. But that really doesn't mean that I can't be disappointed." I smiled at Sam, then pushed my disappointment to the back of my head as I entered the main room, heading over to the couch and flopping down before reaching out for a small box of noodles. Chinese. I liked it. Wasn't my first choice, which was pancakes… recently I was finding that I liked them more and more, but Chinese was good too. This was Clint's choice, though I didn't know exactly why. Clearly he was just in that kind of mood.

"I don't understand why we can't." Tony was saying to Steve and I frowned in confusion.

"You know perfectly well why not, Tony."

"What can't we do?"

"Steve's saying we can't use that tech that Hydra had in Program Insight against them." Tony sounded vaguely peeved and I scoffed as I shoved some noodles in my mouth (I was very proudly using the chopsticks, which Tony was avoiding and it was clear that Steve had discarded them too).

"You really think that would be a good idea? Think about it. If we used it we would be no better than Hydra. Been there, done that. Don't want to see it repeat." I said once I swallowed.

"See?" Steve asked, motioning to me, "Thank you, Tyra."

"Oh, no. Don't thank me. The thought had crossed my mind, and I will admit to having a go at making another version of that program, though it was less murderous and much more simple." That earned me a glare from Steve, but a look of approval from Tony.

"You know, it's almost like she has two dads." Nat muttered to Clint.

"That's because she does. Though technically she's got three."

"You referring to Kurt, Odin, and Raymond? Because I'm pretty sure Nat was talking about the old married couple over there." I nodded to Steve and Tony, who had found something else to bicker about, not even noticing what I'd just said. Sam snorted, Nat smirked, and Clint grinned, holding his beer bottle up to me in a toast. Hill was on her night off, else she'd possibly be here with us too.

"You realise that gives you a grand total of five dads?" Nat asked.

"Oh please… don't say that, now I have no chance to be a rebellious teenager." I pouted, getting up and going to the fridge, pulling out a can of soda before returning to my seat, glaring at Clint. He'd put his feet up where I'd been sitting and didn't look like he was about to move. He was like the pesky cousin of this family, or the annoying uncle. In my case, anyway. He knew me from back before my parents had been killed, so we knew each other pretty well. Heck, I even knew about his family, though the only other person in this room who did was Nat.

"Move it, archery dude." I muttered.

"What's the magic word?"

"Ah… Imperio?" I asked, "That way you have no choice but to move your lazy butt." Clint gasped.

"Tyra! That's an unforgivable curse! You know what would happen if you used that on me?"

"Ah… nothing? Because anyone who tried to arrest me would suddenly find it very hard to breathe. Now move it, Legolas." I actually leaned down and grabbed his legs, swinging him around so I could sit down. Nat just grinned as I then went and put my bare feet on him, casually reclining as I sipped at my drink.

"Practice what you preach, Baldy." I raised my eyebrows at Clint at this insult. Sure, I was bald… but I'd had brain surgery. And the woman who did the surgery decided it was best to remove my hair from the equation, so now I just had a thin layer of hair on my head.

"I have just as much hair as you do. Except I can actually grow it back." Sam laughed and I grinned while Nat just took a sip of her drink to hide her amusement.

"I'm gonna get you back for that one, Tyra." Clint grudgingly admitted.

"Looking forward to it."

"What did I miss?" Banner asked as he came out of his study and I just grinned at him.

"Oh, nothing much. Just Steve and Tony arguing again, me beating Clint again."

"Just the usual then." Banner sat down on the floor next to Nat and grabbed his own little carton of noodles or whatever you want to call it. I nodded and Clint grumbled something about he didn't always lose… but yeah, a lot of the time he did lose against me. Now Steve and Tony stopped arguing, deciding to come to a truce as a thought clearly crossed their minds.

"Hey, Tyrant…" Tony started and I craned my head back to look at him.

"Yo?"

"Now you're one of us… I'm sorry, but you need to ditch the hoodie," He shook his head, "It's a fashion disaster."

"I ain't ditching the hoodie. You try taking it off me, you burn." I pointed at him with my chopsticks and Steve shook his head.

"What he means is that now you're an Avenger, you need a uniform."

"Well, I ain't an active duty Avenger yet, so that can wait, yeah?"

"You're going to need one for when you are cleared for duty," Steve explained, "So… we were thinking that we could start coming up with ideas for it now, or soon at least. Considering how much you've improved recently you should be cleared for active duty soon."

"Longer it takes the better, in my opinion." I muttered.

"Getting cold feet on us, Ty?" Nat asked, only slightly teasingly. I shook my head.

"Now why would I be getting cold feet? All I want to do is fight Hydra and whoever else is going to threaten this very vulnerable, blue planet." But that wasn't actually it. I was getting cold feet… not because I was afraid of putting myself on the line, I didn't care about that at all. What worried me was my motives. What if I didn't agree to being an Avenger because of what I wanted, but because of what Hydra wanted? What if I was still being influenced by them, even if the tech had been removed from my head? I looked up as Tony held out a small box. I didn't have to ask what was in it. My prescription drugs which were made specifically for me. They were stronger than what most people could handle at all, or that was what I'd been told. I didn't really care about that. If they worked to get rid of my headaches, then it was all good. And the headaches were pretty much permanent if I didn't have these drugs. Courtesy of Hydra's tech shorting out right into my brain. I muttered my thanks, pulling out a sheet of the pills and taking one before slipping the pack into my hoodie pocket.

"You doing anything tomorrow?" Tony asked. I shrugged.

"Doubt it. It's not like I go out anymore, most I'll be doing is sitting round on my computer, maybe spar with someone, if anyone is willing to give it a shot."

"Good. You're going to sit with me for a while and we're going to try and figure out what your uniform's going to look like." He said it so matter of fact that I couldn't argue with him. Instead I just went with it, finishing my meal in near silence while everyone else talked, joked, and laughed about different things.

I walked through the house, blood dripping from the index finger on my right hand. My left hand was resting on the wall next to me as I found my way down the halls. I entered the living room and looked down at the man and woman on the ground. The woman's eyes still held life in them, and she looked confused, scared, betrayed… and one other thing that I couldn't put my finger on. She looked over at her dead husband, tears streaming down her face while she whimpered his name, wishing him to look at her. But he didn't. He's been my first victim. Something stirred inside me, but it was quickly stomped out and I just held out my left hand and twisted it around slightly, watching emotionlessly as the woman started gasping for air, clutching at her throat as if that could put oxygen back in her lungs. Someone came up behind me and clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"Well done, Schönheit." He said, a smile plastered on his face. I didn't even blink, hardly noticing the dampness on my cheeks. The woman's mouth moved in one silent word of disbelief. Even without being able to read lips, I knew what that one word was. My name. As though she was trying to make sure it was really me, that she wasn't making some kind of mistake. Then what life had been in her eyes flickered out and I lowered my hand. The man who had talked to me stepping around to check that both man and wife were dead, then looked back at me, frowning slightly.

"There is no reason to cry. This is cause to rejoice." He said, stepping back over to me and wiping the blood and tears from my cheeks, though I could vaguely feel it more smudging the blood rather than removing it. He smiled.

"You're now one of us, kid. You should be happy. Welcome to the ranks."

I sat bolt upright, only just stopping myself from crying out loud as I launched myself from my bed and hurried over to my ensuite, crouching over my toilet bowl and trying very hard not to throw up as I finally let a sob escape me. Once I knew I wasn't going to throw up I leaned back against the wall, not really taking anything in as the tears rolled down my cheeks and my body shook with now uncontrollable sobs. I remembered something new almost every night, now, but that didn't stop that one memory from playing every now and then. Of course I would remember that one most vividly. They were the first people I'd killed. And they were my family. My parents. Well, no… I had no right to call them my parents anymore. They were Dale's parents, and I'd killed them. But there was no one I could tell. They wouldn't understand. They'd tell me that it wasn't my fault. But it was. I should have been stronger, I should have resisted, even if it had meant that I'd died instead of them. Then at least they'd still be alive and Dale would still have them, they'd have a more normal life. I looked up as someone came and sat down next to me. For once I didn't notice them coming in. Steve put one arm around me and I leaned against him, trying to rub the tears from my face.

"You're OK." He muttered soothingly, and I didn't say anything. All of the Avengers plus Sam knew about my nightmares and each night someone else was put on 'Tyra duty', each night someone else was in charge of trying to calm me down after a nightmare, and each of them had a different way of doing it. Steve was just… there. He didn't leave me until I was back in bed and soundly asleep. Nat would take me to the gym and put me through some drills to try and take my mind off things. Clint would tell me stories about things that his kids had been doing recently, sometimes even take me for a late night flight to his little farm so that I could get away from the tower, which hardly ever happened anymore because of not being able to turn off my powers just yet. Tony would take me to the kitchen and we'd help ourselves to the liquor, though we both knew that I couldn't get drunk on the human stuff. Didn't stop us trying. Tony never drank as much as me, but even just having some of it helped for some reason. Watching Tony getting a little tipsy certainly perked me up a little. Sam, if he was in the tower for a night, would tell me stories about his childhood and time in the army. I couldn't say which one of them helped me the most, they all seemed to help in their own ways. Oh, then there was Thor, who was hardly ever there, but he generally just told me about Asgard and all the places that he'd one day show me, all the people he'd introduce me to. While we both knew it would be a while before that happened, it helped distract me from what was going on in my head. After a while I pulled away from Steve and got up off the floor, heading back into the main room, sitting down on my bed. Steve sat down on the chair beside my desk, turning it around and sitting looking at me.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked. I shook my head.

"Not particularly. Just… me killing someone else."

"Normally you don't react that badly. Only the first time you had one of these dreams and maybe a couple of other times."

"I said I don't want to talk about it." We fell into silence again and I looked around the room. It seemed so different in the dark… strangely empty. All the others who stayed here every now and again had something in their rooms to make them theirs. Photos, paintings… a boxing bag or two. Not in my room. My room was still exactly the same as when I first came here, nothing to make it mine. It was just me and the computers. Oh yeah… one thing that made this room mine. Multiple computers. That was it. Other than that this room wasn't really mine, just something that I seemed hell bent on borrowing. Really needed to get onto fixing that. For a while longer we just sat there, not saying anything, then Steve yawned. I smiled.

"You should get back to sleep. I'm good here."

"You sure?"

"If I wasn't I wouldn't say it. If things get worse I'll find something else to do. Don't worry about it. Go." Reluctantly Steve stood up, heading over to me and briefly placing a hand on my shoulder before heading out the door back to his room. I flopped backwards and looked up at my ceiling, feeling the air movement as Steve walked away. Further down the hall, in her room, I could feel the air move as Nat slept. It was slower than if she was awake, that was something I'd started noticing more. People slowed their breathing when they slept. I mean, yeah, I knew that already, but now was different. Now I could feel it. I could feel almost everyone in the building, and it was vaguely annoying. Once I was certain that Steve was back in his room I got up and turned my computer on. After it had finished warming up I pulled up my file on Barnes, just to check up on him. Sort of stalkerish of me, but someone had to make sure he was still himself, while still leaving him to his own devices. It was already light over where Barnes was, but I had no clue where he currently was. That was the only problem with only having digital eyes was that I couldn't exactly move them around. Maybe actual eyes were better than digital ones. But, there were cameras pretty much everywhere. Cell phones, phone boxes… normal security stuff in shops and the like. I could see roughly what was going on, could spot Barnes if I really looked. He couldn't hide from everything. I snorted when I actually saw him, out and about… for once. It only happened when he really couldn't avoid it.

"Yes, that cap makes you really inconspicuous, you genius. Oh, and a long sleeved shirt with a jacket… when it's…" I paused and checked what the weather forecast over there was and shook my head, "70°F. Really smart, mate. Really smart. Makes you damn near invisible." I stood up and headed to the kitchen. There was no chance I was going to get to sleep again tonight, so I figured I might as well go and have a cup of coffee so I wouldn't feel so tired. There was little to no chance that someone would go into my room, so I figured that I may as well just leave the screen on. I walked down the cold, dark halls quietly, feeling the air shift around me, and entered the main room where only a few hours ago we'd all been joking and laughing. I went over to the coffee machine and set everything up before walking over to the window and gazing out over the city. I sighed slightly, annoyed about my insomnia, but also being slightly thankful for it, considering that each time I closed my eyes for more than a second I could still see my mum's eyes in my mind, the look of betrayal and confusion in them haunting me. Before the coffee was even half done I felt the world around me vibrating slightly, making it feel like the whole world was shaking. My eyes widened and I looked around, knowing what that meant after thinking on it for a second. I raced from the room and found my way to Tony's landing pad, my feet pattering softly as I found my way down the empty halls. I burst through the doors, stopping and just staring for a moment before a smile found its way onto my face as Thor stepped forward.

"Welcome back." I greeted, getting a smile in response. Thor stepped forward and put an arm around me, making me stand on tip toes so I could return the action.

"It's good to see you are well." He said warmly when he let go, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I wasn't actually all too well, considering the time that I was up and about.

"Same to you," Then I frowned, "Not to be rude or anything, but ah... why are you here?" I asked, confused. Thor sobered, frowned ever so slightly.

"There is something that I must discuss with you." His voice was low and rumbling slightly. He didn't want to have to talk about what we were about to, that much was clear. Which meant there was nothing good going on.

"What?" I asked, rather suspiciously.

"Shall we talk somewhere more comfortable?" Thor suggested and I grudgingly nodded, following him back inside.

Hey guys! So, this is a sequel to an Avengers fanfic I wrote (Elemental Beauty). Has to count as a crossover though, and things will start getting more towards Guardians, don't you worry (There's gonna be some fun Rocket scenes). Please, do enjoy, and it might pay to go read Elemental Beauty, though I will some lowly cover the important parts of what happened, it'll just be less confusing if you go back and read it all for yourself.

Welcome to Elemental Beauty: Last Guardian! :D (Sorry for any typos)