Notes: Well, hello there! Welcome to the next installment of this universe. If you missed the other ones, "The End of Childish Games" just ended, and "There Will Be No Kneeling" was before that. ;)

Just a recap: This story is a continuation of the universe that began in a collaboration that several writers participated in called "In the End You Always Kneel." Several of us didn't like the twist at the end and went Marvel-only with our own universe, and starting with "There Will Be No Kneeling," we've been running with it ever since.

Previously in the 867 universe, the first-ever Quarter Quell saw America Chavez as its victor, and the fallout from the Games prompted Nick Fury to set a date for the revolution against Thanos: the first night of America's victory tour.

But revolution is messy, and there is still a lot to do between then and now...

Chapter 1: Beyond the Games

July 25

Tahiti Wing

Coulson was looking particularly pleased with the world in general when he gathered the Tahiti kids for a quick, impromptu briefing on the state of things. He watched the former tributes file in with a smirk on his face — and only once they were all there and quiet did he start the briefing.

"I trust you've all been watching the various televised events after the Games?" he asked.

"Gotta keep up with my best friend somehow," Kate pointed out. She was dealing with the fact that America was the newest victor — and would therefore not be joining the resurrected group — a lot better now, but Coulson knew that it had been a hard adjustment to make.

"Ditto," Kurt said as he bumped her shoulder with his.

Coulson let the smirk stretch into a small smile. "Good. I'm glad to hear it. We have a few things to nail down and work out, and my team topside will be working pretty much nonstop until the tour … but, one thing has been finalized across the board, and I thought you should all know: the revolution will be starting the first day that all of the victors find themselves in the Capitol during the victory tour." He let it hang in the air for a moment, enjoying the expressions of both shock and relief on most of their faces.

Of course, every single one of them broke into grins, though it took a little longer for some than others to go from shock to excitement. And Wade was the most vocal about it as he wrapped Coulson up in a hug. "Oh, at last! All the good stuff happens after that!" he giggled delightedly.

"Alright, alright," Coulson said as he patted Wade's arm, since he'd caught him up from the side instead of head-on, and that was all Coulson could reach. "We'll have a signal — yet to be worked out, of course — but timing wise, it will be at the end of the first night of parties before any one of our victors leaves."

"And then we can work on moving on," Peter said with a little nod.

"That will likely be an immediate issue," Coulson said. "Which is something that we needed to discuss, even though there are several months between now and then."

He looked up at them all for a moment. "When this happens, we will not be returning here. Instead, we'll be moving to a secondary, larger base, where we'll stage for the remainder of the war... provided all goes to plan."

"So what d'you need us to do, boss?" Clint asked easily. "Pack up all the stuff we don't have?"

"Although you haven't had much in the way of possessions, anything you do have will need to be removed, as your identities will still be a secret until a later date."

"To everyone except a few … additional victors?" Kurt asked pointedly, obviously thinking of Logan and sharing a look with Kate.

"I'm afraid not," Coulson replied. "Not yet."

"Why?" Kate asked, the excited look dying in an instant.

He looked uncomfortable for a moment as he drew in a deep breath. "We'll need to get them settled in and be sure that they're all … stable before we can move forward. We're sure that some of them will need some serious time with Charles Xavier before we drop anything like this in their laps."

"Then we just need Charles to clear them?" Peter asked.

"I wish it were that simple," he replied.

"Of course it's not," Kate muttered. "Why would it be simple?"

"There are ties outside of those you know about that need to be addressed," Coulson admitted. "And some of them have to go through Fury."

"So we'll go through him," Kurt surmised.

Coulson smirked his way with a look of pure amusement. "I'm sure they'll be able to handle it."

"So besides depersonalizing and hanging on Charles' every word for when the victors get let in on the plan…." Clint cut in.

"Lots of training," Coulson said. "A few missions where and when we need them, and we'll even have a concrete number from Quill on the number and placement of Nova Corps when we get down to business."

"And making sure the next round of kids can hold their own before we do anything else," Luke said with a little nod. "This isn't much time, and none of them are awake yet."

"The next round of kids … will probably be more on the team to move our operations from here to the new place. There isn't enough time or personnel to get them all trained up for combat before the fun stuff begins," Coulson said. "Though they will do some mild work before we move."

"That's good," Peter said, nodding seriously.

"What's the new place going to be like, anyway?" Cassie asked. "Will we still be underground?"

"It'll be much bigger than this one," Coulson said with a nod and a frown. "And no, most of it will be above ground, though I don't believe that you'll have much of a view, all things considered." He looked at the frown on her face and smirked before he had to give them a little piece of good news. "The largest part of the resistance will all be there. In one building."

"That would certainly make it easier once we combine the forces," Kurt agreed.

Coulson smirked his way. "Yes, I'd imagine if certain people take too long, the chances of an accidental crossing of lines happening are far greater. Hypothetically speaking, of course."

"Just an idea," Kate agreed, grinning right back at him.

"You've already crossed paths with Fury's personal little strike force — you can bet that once the move happens, we'll be sharing operatives far more often."

"But in disguise," Peter said with a frown.

"Yes," he agreed. "They need to stay secret as badly as you do."

"All these secrets are giving me a headache," Kate complained. "Can't we just all work together like normal people? Once we've declared rebellion, why not just… declare things?"

"That comes later, Katie-bug," Wade mock whispered to her. "Then it gets interesting."

"My intention is to seamlessly combine both sides, but I'm not going to lie to you — Fury is reluctant to agree with me," Coulson said. "However, that may change."

"It will change," Kurt corrected him.

"Well, we did get a firm date," Coulson agreed with a little smirk. "Let's hope that forward trend continues." He was smiling to himself; he knew that they didn't know how the final decision on timing had come to pass, but it was still amusing to him.

"Thanks, Van Helsing," Wade beamed his way.

"Not my doing, sad to say," he replied. "But … I'll have new training regimens for everyone by Monday."

"Gotta get ready for a war, after all," Clint said with a shrug. "Makes sense."

Coulson nodded and then picked up his arm to catch their attention right as the kids started to file out. "I'm going to need all our snipers," he said. "New course. I need to know where you all rate and if anyone has any trouble picking off a royal if need be."

"Not a lick of trouble," Clint said, already grinning as Wade bounced in place next to him, his arm in the air. "Pick me."

"Oooh, ooh," Wade said as he pushed Clint out of the way. "I'm your guy. Me. Right here."

"Um, I believe you want the Better Hawkeye," Kate said, shoving her way in between both of them.

"I want all of you," Coulson assured them. "It's just a matter of who needs to be at what point and what distances you're all most effective. I know, for example, the last time I looked at your assessments, Wade did best with the longest distance, while Clint was best with multiple targets in one shot, and Kate … appropriately enough, was keeping her crown as the Trickshot master."

"It's what makes the Hawkeyes teamup the best in the universe — all of them," Wade said, nodding sagely.

"We've already picked out some good vantage points from the staging run," Kate said, ignoring the fact that Wade had put himself in the 'Hawkeyes' for the six hundredth time.

"And this will just be to make sure that your picks mesh best with your specialties," Coulson replied.

"I'm going to start painting the practice targets blue and green," Wade stage whispered.

"Just blue and green?" Cassie asked. "Because there is a giant ugly purple one too."

"Well, if I paint them purple, my fellow Hawkeyes might get antsy," Wade pointed out.

"They don't own the color," she giggled.

"Oh, sure they do! Haven't you seen them own those purple bows and the purple sui- ooooh. Right. Later. That's later," Wade said, nodding.

"I love your brand of crazy," she said with a little amused laugh.

He grinned broadly at her and swept over to pick her up in a little spin. "Oh, just you wait, Cassielang. When we're all bedecked in brightest colors…." He gave her a little wink. "You and I will look marvelous in a matched red and black."

"I'm pretty sure we're stuck with straight black for a while," she said as she hugged him back.

"And I do look good in basic black, too," he nodded along. "In fact … I will probably keep it even after we get the bright ones. Same design … but black and gray. It will be impressive."

"We'll have a program set up for you in the simulation room that will simulate the conditions for the victory tour," Coulson said, drawing the attention of the snipers back to the plan. "And we'll have Stark keep it updated with the most recent intel — so you three will know exactly where you're going when this thing does go down."

"I'm just counting the days, Agent Dad," Wade said.

"I thought he was Agent Van Helsing," Kate laughed.

"No, not any more," Wade said. "He's got some real character development going on. He's transitioning."

"You can't change it now; I haven't exhausted all my Dracula jokes yet," Clint chuckled.

"Oh, there are more?" Natasha cut in, one eyebrow raised his way; she hadn't left the room yet and was watching the interaction with a muted smile. "Why."

"Why not?" Clint asked with a shrug, and she shook her head at him — though she couldn't hide the little smirk all the same.

District Seven

For reasons unknown to Logan, Creed had been MIA on the trip back to Seven, making for an incredibly quiet and peaceful trip. Which only had him waiting for the other shoe to drop. It had to.

But there was no trouble. Not on the train, or even once they got there, and he made his way back to his cabin more or less alone and in silence.

He managed to get all of about an hour of time alone just to stand there and look around at the place with a growing frown before Heather made her appearance.

She ran right to him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug. "How are you holding up?" she asked him in a voice that was quavering with her own hidden emotion.

"Better than you, by the sounds of it," Logan told her before he tightened up the hug.

"It's been… quiet," she said softly.

"I'll bet," he said. He let a few moments pass, and though he really didn't want to be the one to breach the subject — sure that they would be upset with him — he couldn't stop himself. "How are the kids doing?"

"It's not the first time someone from the orphanage…" She trailed off. "They'll be okay. Most of them are sleeping in my house right now," she admitted.

He nodded but still didn't let her go, instead adjusting his arms so it was more of a bear hug.

"They want to see you again, but I wasn't sure… it was your first year being a mentor. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm always alright," he replied quietly.

"That's why I always ask," she retorted. "You were the one in the Capitol. I saw what you did for Scott." She hugged him even tighter as she said it.

His eyes widened for a moment — he'd of course forgotten about that entirely. "He was done after he killed that girl."

"I know," Heather agreed. "I saw. But thank you all the same."

"For what?" he asked, finally letting up on the hug to look her in the face.

"For not giving up on him," Heather said.

"That wasn't ever an option, Heather."

She smiled softly at him and nodded.

Lgoan let out a little huff and took a step back to reach into his front shirt pocket. There wasn't anything that he could do to soften this, and he figured it was best to get it out of the way while they had a bit of privacy. "Jubes gave me these to bring back," he said. "Looked like it had your name written all over 'em." He didn't really look her in the eyes as he put the sparkling red cufflinks into her hand. "I don't know what to do with 'em."

Heather stared down at the cufflinks for a moment before she closed her hand around them and positively fell apart into Logan's shoulder.

Logan pulled her back into a bear hug and let her get it all out, resting one hand on the back of her head as she curled in. He should have known that was going to happen, and he was glad in that moment that the kids weren't pouring through the doors on top of everything else, but if he thought about it …. Heather was probably playing scout before the kids came. Just a matter of time.

"They ... they were a birthday present," Heather choked out as she tried to explain away her total meltdown when she had half her breath back — though of course, saying it out loud only set her off all over again.

With that, Logan realized that it wasn't going to pass anytime soon. He scooped her up and carried her to the couch to sit down. She was going to fall down if he didn't anyhow.

"I wanted him to have something nice for his sixteenth birthday," Heather whispered. "And we… couldn't get the paperwork through ... they wouldn't accept Mac's request when we sent it in…."

"Paperwork for what?" he asked, totally confused on what she was talking about.

"We wanted to make it official," Heather explained miserably. "We wanted to just … adopt him."

"Heather," he barely breathed out before he pulled her that much tighter. "I had no idea."

"We didn't want to tell anyone. You know how hard it is for Sentinels to get any clearance like that," she said, still half holding onto his neck as she tried to regain some of her composure. "Didn't want to get his hopes up…." Her voice choked off, and she suddenly took Logan in a tighter grip, and he simply let her cry it out until she was done.

Tahiti Wing

Kurt had wanted to check up on Logan as soon as the victors were all sent home, but the distraction of Coulson's announcement had taken up most of the day. Kate had taken to grabbing him and kissing him passionately every time she saw him because she had the excuse of 'celebrating' the date being set for the revolution — and he wasn't complaining, but it meant it had taken him a good long time to get back to his room where the tablet Tony had set up for him was waiting.

His timing was accidentally perfect, though, because about the same time he pulled up the footage from Logan's house on his tablet, Heather arrived at Logan's house, and Kurt was able to hear most of the conversation as it happened.

He was glad to see that there was someone in Logan's life checking up on him, as Heather's first concern seemed to be Logan's welfare, but then as the conversation went on, as Kurt watched the young Sentinel's wife fall apart on his best friend's shoulder, he had to lean back and away from what he was watching. It was hard to see that raw grief up close — though now at least he knew how Logan knew his tribute before the Games started.

It was hard to watch because it was so familiar. He'd seen the same look on Peter's face, Kate's, Steve's, Cassie's — and they knew about the Tahiti process.

"Knock knock," said a voice at the door, and he looked up to see Kate leaned in the doorway with a small smile. "What're you all hidden away here for, my gorgeous little Elf?"

He gestured to the tablet wordlessly and shook his head, his good humor from earlier momentarily gone. She settled into the spot next to him and watched over his shoulder for a moment, in time to hear some of what Heather and Logan were talking about — though they had moved on to talking about the kids; she hadn't been in time for the most important stuff.

"The boy from Seven was … he knew him."

"Yeah, we figured that out," Kate said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"No," Kurt said. "I don't completely understand, but … there was some connection with this Heather woman. She wanted to adopt him."

"Oh." Kate looked down at the tablet to see how carefully Logan was hugging Heather. "Oh. That… oh."

"It makes me wonder about the small girl army now," Kurt said. "They were all orphans too."

"You think they were also part of the group…?"

"He certainly seemed the type to want to help the smaller ones, don't you think?" Kurt asked with one eyebrow raised.

Kate glanced his way and then let out all her breath. "Yeah. Yeah. I see what you're saying." She took a deep breath. "But you know, all that makes me want to do is go find him and hug him right now."

"We should offer to be the ones to show him around," Kurt decided. "I'm sure Charles will be alright with that."

"Absolutely," she agreed. "And we'll see who's awake by then, too. I mean, he was up on the roof with Kitty and everyone, right? The more the merrier."

Kurt nodded his agreement before he simply kissed Kate a little more deeply than before.

July 27

Tahiti Wing

Bobbi smiled to herself as the last of the security measures to Tahiti came unlocked for her, and she pushed through the last door with a sigh of relief. It was good to be back.

She knew where to go first, too. Not necessarily where she was supposed to go — which was to check in with Coulson and Charles and find out who was up from the revivals and who she wanted to help train. She could do that in a while.

Right now, she didn't want to do one more thing until she'd done something she wanted to do, and that was find a certain blonde archer that she was sure would be in the simulator practicing for the big day. She'd seen Fury and Hill's plans and knew he was one of the snipers they would have on the royal family.

She was right, too. There he was shooting through the simulator with Kate, though when Kate saw Bobbi come in, she called immediately for a pause.

"What, you getting tired, Katie Kate?" Clint teased as he came from his hiding place.

"Really?" Bobbi called out. "You didn't spot the blonde, Hawkeye?"

Clint broke into a huge grin when he saw her, and Kate slipped out of the room wordlessly — though her expression said volumes.

"Long time no see, stranger," Clint said as Kate cut the simulation from the outside and the two of them found themselves no longer in the Capitol but instead standing in the large room grinning at each other.

"I was starting to think that you'd forget about me while I was gone," she said with a little smile.

"Not a chance," he said before he ran over and spun her around in a hug that lifted her off her feet and ended in a kiss. "Oh man, I missed you, Bob."

"What did you guys do this whole time?" she asked. "Had to be boring."

"Oh, nothing much," Clint said. "Ran a few missions here and there. Saw the parade outfits, by the way. Nothing next to you. Oh, and I stopped by Two for a bit." He grinned at her. "And how 'bout you? How was dealing with the snake?"

"I wasn't sure it was possible, but she's a lot scarier than she seems," Bobbi admitted. "And I wish I could say it was just talk, but it's … it's really not."

Clint frowned at that and pulled her in for a gentle kiss. "Never heard you get scared before."

"Not exactly scared," she said. "More like … a very healthy respect level."

"Mmhmm." He kissed her again. "Whatever you say, Bob. You get too respectful, though, you let me know, huh? Don't mind breaking you out of Two if I have to."

"Thankfully, she thinks I have other reasons to be here, so I'm not too worried about it for now," she said with a tight smile. "But because of the interest, I'm going to have to go back before she gets suspicious."

"That — that is just wrong," Clint said, frowning at her. "Two months, Bob, and she still gets to set your schedule?"

She let out a sigh and blinked up at him for a moment. "It's part of my job."

"Checking up on the snake woman. C'mon, Bobbi, she's creepy as all get out, and I know it freaks you out, the stuff she does in Madripoor."

"Am I arguing with you?" she said. "No, I am not. But since when do we get to pick our jobs?"

He shook his head at her. "You can say no. I know you won't, but you could. Just tell Fury you're sick of her face, and come stay here full-time. Got a whole new batch of kids to train up pretty soon here, you know."

"Honestly, if there was someone else that could do this job, I would say no."

Clint almost laughed as he took her in a little tighter hold. "Guess that's my fault — dating someone so good at her job she can't say no," he teased.

She smiled lightly and shrugged. "It's a curse."

"Must be, because I know it's not bad taste," he countered, pulling her into another kiss. "Sure I can't convince you somehow? Or is this just a 'make the most of the visit' kind of drive-by?"

"Convince me of what? Quitting?"

"Yeah, I guess that was ambitious of me wasn't it," he teased.

"Your concern is charming," she said before she pulled him into another kiss. "Very chivalrous."

"Just trying to take care of the girl I care about," he said.

She grinned at him for a moment. "I think you need to find us some more blind spots."

"Found a few while you were gone," he promised with a twinkle in his eye. "I think I'd better show you now, before we move to a different location."

"Oh, you think it's going to happen that quick?" she asked. "By my count, we have a few months."

"So much can happen in a few months. You could disappear on me again," he pointed out. "No, no, I think I'm right on this, Bob."

"I think you are too," she agreed.