Chapter 2
Shaun watched the procession of HYDRA guards lead Stark from the quinjet and into the bowels of the prison, where he would probably spend the rest of his life. Wanda and Pietro, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, were standing next to him, watching with satisfied smirks on their faces. They hated Tony Stark as much as Shaun did, he had taken something dear from all of them and now they had their revenge, even if it wasn't in the form that they had expected.
Shaun slammed his fist into the button next to the exit and the ramp started to close. He watched Stark's retreating back for as long as he could until the ramp cut off the view.
"We should have a party." He declared as he turned around to face the rest of the quinjet's occupants. The whole team was there, Pietro, Wanda, Brock Rumlow and the Winter Soldier. ARES had flown ahead to repair some of the damage that he had taken during the fight.
"Why?" Rumlow asked seriously.
"Because we," he gestured to himself and the twins "have finally got justice for the people we lost." He told them.
"And you want to get drunk." Pietro guessed.
"And I want to get absolutely shit-faced." Shaun agreed. His hand came up to his neck and closed around the ring that was held there.
Shaun walked out of his bedroom and into the communal area of the tower that Loki had assigned as living quarters to his troops. The penthouse floor was entirely off limits except to Shaun and the team unless they invited people themselves, and today they had invited a lot of people.
The room was absolutely packed and their guests were spilling out into the rooftop garden. Shaun spotted one of Rumlow's old STRIKE friends in the corner acting as DJ for the night. There was a bar across one wall that was usually unmanned but today they had recruited some of the staff from downstairs to serve their guests.
Pietro and Wanda were sitting on one of the sofas, talking and laughing. As Shaun watched Pietro made his way down a line of what must have been about 20 shots. When he finished he still looked stone cold sober, one of the advantages of having a metabolism that burned as fast as his did, Shaun supposed.
Rumlow was leaning against the bar, talking to a woman that Shaun thought worked in the administration department downstairs. He smirked and waved over one of the bartenders. They brought him a glass of whiskey and he took it off of them before making his way outside, where he could see someone who he had never expected to see at a party.
ARES was standing at the edge of the garden, looking out over the city. Shaun moved to stand next to him.
He used to love the New York skyline before Loki came, when there were towers and lights, and amazing sights. But now there were only three towers left standing. Theirs, Stark Tower, which Loki had claimed as his own as a monument to his victory, and the Prison Tower, tall and foreboding in the New York Bay.
Staten Island had been completely cleared for Loki's construction project, although no one knew what it was that he was constructing. The rest of the city was filled with destroyed buildings, some hiding rebellion cells that had yet to be tracked down and eliminated, others hiding civilians who didn't want to be drafted into working at the construction site. Then there were the buildings that had been repurposed as HYDRA outposts, which you could tell apart from the others because they were the only ones that had been repaired after the war.
"Why do you celebrate?" ARES asked after a moment's silence.
"What?" Shaun asked, caught off guard by the question.
"You celebrate the death of other humans. Why?"
"Because we won. A victory should always be celebrated. It keeps the moral high."
"I don't understand. Loki claims to want to bring peace, but he kills and destroys to get it. And you all celebrate when he does."
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." Shaun quoted.
"If you want peace, prepare for war." ARES translated.
"Exactly. Sometimes the only way to bring peace is to crush your opponents into submission."
"I think I understand." ARES told him. Shaun watched as the AI robot powered up the thrusters in his feet and lifted himself into the air. He glided over the railing and dropped down the side of the building and out of sight.
Shaun took one more look over the city and felt a pang of loss and maybe a little guilt at the now rather desolate landscape. Whereas before New York had been a monument to the glory of the west but now it was just a monument to the glory of Loki.
He turned away from the view and walked back into the room. He leaned on the bar and downed his drink, ordering another from the bartender as he did. With his new drink in hand he turned around and walked over to the sofas where Pietro and Wanda were sitting.
He dropped down next to Wanda and smiled at the duo.
"How does it feel?" he asked.
"How does what feel?" Pietro replied.
"To know that Tony Stark will finally face justice for his crimes."
"Everyone's plan is to not kill him." Pietro sounded quite annoyed "I want him dead."
"I've got a feeling that what's coming to him is worse than death."
"You never told us why you hate him." Wanda cut in before Pietro could get really worked up.
"That is a long story." Shaun waved the bartender over and sent them away to bring him a bottle of whiskey "I was engaged once, many years ago, but Tony Stark took that from me." His hand closed around the ring that still hung around his neck.
Flashback
Shaun smiled at the look on her face as he drove her deep through the jungle. He knew the road like the back of his hand, he had travelled it many times all those months ago when he had been stranded here.
They reached the end of the road and Shaun pulled up and shut down the engine.
"We have to go on foot from here." They climbed out of the jeep and Shaun led the way through the undergrowth, his hand clasped firmly around hers. He refused to let her go, it was easy to get lost in the jungle for those who didn't know it, and it was a dangerous place to even those who did.
They'd been walking for about 10 minutes when Shaun stopped at the bottom of a cliff face. He turned to face her, taking both of her hands in his.
"Do you trust me, Rose?" she nodded once and he smiled broadly "Then close your eyes." She did as he told her and his smile grew even wider. He released one of her hands and gently tugged her forwards, towards the cliff face.
His hand touched the cliff and sunk right through it, just as he had expected. He stepped forwards, straight through the illusion of the cliff face, and pulled Rose behind him.
When they were standing on the other side he let go of her hand and told her that she could open her eyes. They were standing in a huge cavern, hidden under the mountain by the magic of the Unduli tribe.
Shaun always loved to stand at the entrance and just watch the cavern. The ceiling was about 5 stories high and it was as large as 7 football fields, if not more. To the left there was a waterfall pouring through an underground stream into a large lake but that was not where Shaun's eyes drifted.
His eyes found the village, as they always did. There was thirty huts, all made from a mix of wood, stone and mud, built in a haphazard fashion. Some of them were raised on stilts, some of them dug into ditches. Each hut was different and they all reflected the personality of the family that lived there.
Hanging above the doorway of each hut was a strange green stone, which glowed and cast away the darkness of the cavern, replacing it with a strangely comforting green light. The village was built next to the lake near to the cavern wall. The largest hut was built against the wall and Shaun knew that this was the villagers' most sacred place. Only the shaman and the warriors were allowed in the hut, and the punishment for entering otherwise was death.
Shaun was snapped from his musings as something tackled his legs, almost making him lose his balance. He looked down and smiled as he saw the top of one of the village children's head. He braced himself as the other children charged at him, each of them colliding with his legs and staggering him backwards until eventually he couldn't move from all the children clinging to him and he fell over.
He laughed as the children piled on him and he pulled them off and threw them around, playing with them as they clearly wanted. He could hear Rose laughing above him and that brought a smile to his face.
Eventually the children got off of him and sprinted down the path back to the village, probably to tell the others that he was there, not that the sentries wouldn't have already alerted them to his arrival. He pushed himself to his feet and smiled at Rose, who was still smiling at him.
He dusted off his trousers before stepping forwards and wrapping his arms around her waist, picking her up and spinning her around. They stopped spinning and he leaned forwards and kissed her gently, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the sensation of having her soft lips against his.
He pulled away and studied her face, trying to memorise everything about her, just another memory that he never wanted to lose; another moment that he never wanted to end. But, inevitably, it did, as all such moments must.
"Shaun of the Hunt, bienvenue chez nous." Someone called. Shaun released Rose and turned to watch as his mentor, Afolabi, came up the pathway from the village.
"Shaun of the Hunt?" Rose asked.
"The Unduli don't have surnames, to them Hunter is a title, of the Hunt." He explained before turning back to Afolabi. He placed his hand on his forehead in the traditional Unduli greeting for a shaman, which is what Afolabi was. Afolabi repeated the action as tradition dictated and then the two stepped forwards and embraced each other.
They pulled apart and Shaun started to speak in rapid French, telling Afolabi about Rose before he finally turned to Rose.
"Rose, this is Afolabi. He is the village shaman and my mentor. Afolabi, elle s'appelle Rose, ma fiancée."
"It's a pleasure, mademoiselle." Afolabi greeted her. His English wasn't perfect, but he always liked to talk it to Shaun so that he could practice.
"Likewise." She replied. Shaun could tell that she was still a little nervous, although he wasn't sure why.
The three of them walked down the path to the village and Afolabi told Shaun what had been happening since he left and the two of them told Rose about the village and their traditions. They stepped into the village proper and Shaun smiled. The smell was so familiar, sweat, fire and mud, and the air tasted of burning wood, which he hadn't realised that he missed. The kids were running through the streets, attacking each other with sticks and stones and pretending to be animals.
Outside the large hut three boys, almost adults, knelt in front of one of the warriors, who was preparing them to take their spirits. The warrior saw him and placed his right hand across his throat, the greeting of two warriors to each other. Shaun copied the motion and they continued walking through the streets.
They kept talking, sometimes telling Rose random things, sometimes answering questions that she asked. Shaun kept glancing to her, smiling at the look of pure wonder that covered her face. She was completely entranced by the little village. She'd stopped to study the carvings on a stone outside someone's hut and they explained how the village's warriors would place these stones with their animal spirits carved on outside the huts of those families without warriors in them to offer protection.
And as much as Shaun wanted this moment to last forever, who knew that it, much like their kiss earlier, couldn't. They had just stopped to talk to a young boy who was practicing fighting using a wooden stick as a spear, with Shaun giving him some pointers, when a sound that all of the villagers feared was heard.
The warriors who were posted to watch the entrance to the cavern for any threats all had the spirit of the eagle. And they all spent a lot of time learning to channel their spirit into their voice to alert the village to threats.
As the eagle's screech echoed off of the walls of the cavern the entire village froze. The stillness didn't last for long, however, as everybody burst into action. The villagers, those who weren't warriors, dived into the nearest huts, dragging the children with them. Meanwhile the warriors were all grabbing their weapons and rushing up the path towards the hidden entrance to the cave.
Shaun, however, didn't move. He was poorly armed and unwilling to leave Rose alone if there was a threat outside. He carried with him only a small knife, he hadn't expected that he would need to fight more than a couple of curious predators.
"What's going on?" Rose asked, her eyes betraying her fear as she watched the anxious nature with which everyone moved.
"We're under attack." Shaun stated bluntly.
"Go, Shaun of the Hunt, the warriors need Imamu." Shaun looked at Rose and she nodded once "Take my sword. Je protégerai sa fiancée." Afolabi unhooked his sword belt and handed it to Shaun, who nodded his thanks and set off sprinting up the hill to join the other warriors, fastening his sword around his waist as he did.
He pushed his way through to the front of the line. The warriors behind him were bearing spears and swords, axes and clubs. There were archers and slingers positioned in the village and a line of men with shields stood halfway down the path.
As he stood at the front the warriors all started chanting his name: "Imamu, Imamu, Imamu." The name meant spiritual leader, and that was what Shaun was to them, a messenger of their God. The chanting died down and was replaced by the roars of animals as the warriors all channelled their single animal spirit. Shaun joined in, his cheetah's roar louder than the others.
The first of their enemies came through the illusion and was immediately dropped by an arrow. Before he fell Shaun had the time to notice that the man was wielding a rifle, much more high-tech than anything that the Unduli possessed.
The illusion shimmered as this time a group of men came through. They were felled by a volley of arrows but for each one that fell two more stepped into the cavern. Shaun raised his sword in the air and charged forwards, the other warriors joining him with a terrible roar.
Flashback ends
"I found out later that Stark Industries had supplied the local rebels with the weapons that they used to slaughter the Unduli tribe and my wife." Shaun finished "I was dishonourably discharged from the army for hunting down the rebels and slaughtering them all."
Neither of the twins said anything, there wasn't particularly anything to be said after hearing a story like that.
"Tony Stark hurt us all in the same way. He tore us away from everything that we loved. And now, he will spend the rest of his life regretting everything that he did to us." Shaun told them. He raised his glass in a toast and the other two joined him, silently saluting their victory over Stark.
They sat in silence for a while longer, simply enjoying each other's company until a blonde woman that Shaun was certain worked in the kitchen downstairs came and sat next to them.
"Can we help you?" Pietro asked. Shaun was quite surprised at Pietro's hostility, although perhaps he shouldn't have been considering what they'd just been talking about.
"I just wanted…" she was slurring her words and Shaun was certain that she was drunk "to see your…" she pawed at her right arm and struggled to find the word "tattoos." She said eventually, looking very pleased with herself. Shaun looked at Pietro and Wanda, both of them shook their heads but Shaun knew that the only way he was going to get the woman to leave was to show her the tattoos.
He shrugged the leather jacket off and rolled up the right sleeve on his shirt. The tattoos looked almost lifelike, and every time he saw them he felt the animal spirits inside him stir. The woman smiled and leaned over, placing her hand on his arm and running a finger along the lines that connected all of the animal heads.
Now that he had shown her the tattoos he hoped that she would leave but she seemed intent to sit and stare at his tattoos. An evil grin formed on Shaun's face as he thought of a way to scare her off.
The octopus tattoo on his arm meant that he could change his shape to that of other humans but it also meant that he could, theoretically, take the shape of any of his spirit animals as well. At the moment he'd not managed to complete a full transformation but he had become quite competent at partial transformations.
He allowed his power to rise through his body, calling the octopus spirit and allowing it to change his form. He smiled as his arm changed shape, becoming a wriggling octopus tentacle. The woman jumped backwards and yelped as she did, her hands covered in octopus slime. Shaun laughed as his arm returned to normal, and Wanda and Pietro joined in as the woman ran away to the public bathroom.
"Those tattoos are amazing." Wanda said as she leaned forwards to get a better look at them.
"They aren't really tattoos." He explained. He ran his arm along one of the lines "These are signs of a warrior of the Unduli tribe. All of the boys get them when they become a warrior." Next he placed his hand on the circle on the back of his right hand "This is a symbol of the never ending journey of the spirit." Next he tapped one of the animal heads "These are manifestations of the spirits of the animals that are contained within me."
"So the animals actually looked like that?" Wanda asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. Their likeness was created by the ink that lives in me."
"So you can make yourself other tattoos?" she asked. Shaun didn't say anything in response, instead he rolled up his left sleeve and held out his hand to show her as an image that looked remarkably like Tony Stark with crosses in his eyes, clearly dead. They all laughed and Shaun allowed the ink to fade back into his arm until his skin was completely bare.
"I always wanted a tattoo." Wanda said wistfully "But we never had the chance before Loki came, and now tattoo artists aren't on his list of acceptable pass times."
"I could give you one." Shaun said innocently as he leaned backwards.
"You can do tattoos?" Wanda asked.
"Well not exactly. I could never draw them with a pen." He held his hand out to her "May I?" she placed her hand in his and he placed his other hand on the top of it. After a couple of seconds he lifted his top hand away and there was a black dot on the back of her hand. Shaun covered her hand again and when he lifted it away the dot was gone.
"You tell me what you want and I can give it to you." He paused and cocked his head to the side "That could come across totally wrong." She laughed and Pietro seemed to get annoyed with them so he got up and walked to the bar.
"When I first got my powers and they started calling me the Scarlet Witch I hated it. I hated everything about it, everything that the name stood for, the fear that it inspired in everyone who heard it. But now I've started to understand that their fear isn't something I can control. But I can control my fear of them, I can control how I feel about my powers."
"And you want something to show that?" Shaun guessed. She nodded once "How about a pentagram? On the wrist?" he tapped the underside of his wrist to indicate where he would put it. As he pulled his finger away he smiled at the pentagram that now adorned is wrist. The pentagram faded away and he looked at her.
"I like it." Her hand was still resting in his from when he took it earlier and he gently twisted it over so that her palm was face up. He placed his hand over her wrist for a couple of seconds and as he pulled it away there was a pentagram there in the exact spot where there had been one on his wrist.
He leaned backwards, a smug smile on his face showing that he was pleased with his work, not that it was a complicated piece. But he felt something else too, something that he couldn't quite place, something that felt good.