ANNA
Anna breathed out, rubbing her head where she sat in the lab, just breathing. After awakening from her slumber Tony had admitted to the 'conversation' that he had had with the Captain and Bruce. She wasn't very surprised that Tony had managed to anger the Captain. Even she could sense the strange tension between the two of them. With Tony's believe that Rogers had a crush on her, she could put money down on him being extra prickly towards the Captain.
But what made the 'conversation' pop out in her mind was the agreement that nobody really trusted Fury, or the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. She could understand, glancing at the screen to the left which was trying to find the hidden files of Fury. Anna could very easily unlock the security system but whatever files that were being hidden were completely invisible to her. She didn't know where they could have been hidden, but she gave Tony about another few hours before he cracked the code.
Besides, the argument that took place made a lot of sense. She figured it happened right before she met Steve in the hallways yesterday. Rogers, when she met Rogers.
For now she turned back to the two screens in front of her, letting out another breath at the weird feeling in her heart, it made her absently rub at it.
AVA
Avalon kept her back to the corridor wall, sighing exasperatedly. The entirety of the helicarrier didn't seem to like her idea. She just knew that this would work though.
Her idea was to simply speak with Loki, and both Thor and Fury thought the idea was idiotic for her to accomplish. Well, more Thor thought it was too risky for her, and Fury thought it was something that needed to plan out with Natasha being the one to go in. But something told her, maybe it was even her gut that he wouldn't answer, or slip up with Natasha.
So instead of waiting for the team to get their heads out of their asses, she simply decided to hack into the S.H.I.E.L.D. computers and to loop the cameras. It had been surprisingly harder then she expected. The mutant didn't know if it was because of how long it had been since she had last looked at a computer, or if it was because the firewalls were much harder. It was obvious to her that they were not something that S.H.I.E.L.D. had done as it was much too high caliber for something government funded and monitored.
And now she was left with one option, to enlist the help of someone with more computer knowledge then herself. And there were very few people who had that much knowledge. But she was lucky. Two of those few people were currently on board with her. It left either Tony Stark or Annabella Vinci up for infiltration.
She sighed, rubbing a hand down her face before she turned to look almost apprehensively at the woman she was thinking about. Vinci was alone in the little science lab before her. The little lab that had been assigned to the more…science inclined of the group wasn't what was stopping her. Avalon was hesitating because she didn't know how to even approach the topic.
Vinci wouldn't be intimidated, not without alienating her in the future. What would her excuse for being in the lab even be? And there was no certainty that she would be left alone with Vinci, seeing as she and Stark seemed to be joined at the hip.
"Come on," Ava muttered, stupidly to herself, shuffling her shoulders tensely. "You've faced worse than a tiny woman with a metal suit." She walked forward, looking cautiously around her to make sure that no one saw her suspicious entry to the lab. Vinci looked up from where she seemed to be frowning over two screens. One was playing some kind of clip, while the other had some kind of scrawl on it. Ava assumed it was from Vinci who had a stylus in one hand.
The woman in question met Ava's eyes, and both of their green eyes clashed together. Both sets of optics flashed violently, the color nearly exploding out of their eyes and Ava grinned when it cleared. "Anna."
"Ava." Anna responded, dropping the stylus to clasp hands with her copy. "How did you even get in this dimension?" Anna asked her other self.
"Came for Thor?" Ava questioned. "Hell if I know."
"Hey, no cursing with my mouth." Anna grinned, a flush coming on her cheeks as she laughed, not dropping Ava's hand but Ava just tugged her into a hug. "It's odd; I've never really met my own self before."
"Yeah, a dimensional disturbance is probable." Ava nodded, before she shuffled again, restless as her mind came down. It was true; she had never met a copy of herself before. Ever since she was in the non-void, a place of non-existence from long before the universe began; she had never met her before. Of all the things she could do, or had done. (Like when she created the universe) This had never happened.
"We'll probably forget, as soon as it wears off." Anna lightly mentioned.
"Yeah, too much of a shock for our systems." Ava nodded along with Anna, before leaning slightly forward to the almost copy of her to place her forehead against hers. She couldn't remember being Anna, and being her other selves was already fading. Ava couldn't even remember being Lady Destiny. (But that was to be expected because she wasn't supposed to remember.) "Most likely gone the moment we split paths."
"In that case, come here." Anna tugged on Ava's cape pulling her farther in to the room towards the two screens she had been working on before. "I think that I know what's wrong with Loki." She clicked the video and Ava watched as it went from beginning to in, completely enraptured by the view of Loki appearing on Midgard. He arrived in much better style then Ava and Thor had managed.
"His eyes." Ava muttered, and Anna nodded enthusiastically.
"Their almost the same color as Clint's is." Anna ran the video back to when Clint had been taken over, causing Ava to wince. Clint was very important to her. She had taught him everything he knew when he first came to S.H.I.E.L.D. straight from the circus. But she did look closer as Anna kept talking, pointing as the screen showed Clint being taken over slowly. "Look at the way it moves. I figure the spear speeds up the particles of the heart and makes it pump energy charged blood into the brain. It must mess with some part of the occipital lobe, hence the eyes."
Ava looked from the screen, where the blue had slowly crawled up Clint's body to his eyes which turned black the moment the spear came in contact with his body, to Anna. Their green eyes connected again, causing another much more violent flash to occur. It made Ava flinch while Anna's smaller figure stumbled slightly.
It took a moment of silence, and Ava shaking her foggy head before she could look at Anna again and it was obvious that something was different as Anna looked around her almost in a daze before seeming to come back to herself.
"R-Right, sorry." Anna said, seeming puzzled. "So yeah, I think that's what happens."
"Of course," Ava nodded, trying to grasp the hazy memory of what had just happened. She remembered being out in the hallway, hesitating but then when she walked in the memory got slightly hazy. She did remember what Anna was talking about, though it took her a moment.
"Okay, yeah, about Loki." Ava shuffled her shoulders again, the plates on her shoulders armor digging into the back of her shoulder blades. "I think I know a way to test your theory. He's obviously taken over and no one else seems open to this…realization." Anna nodded.
Had someone been there the whole time to see Anna and Ava talking they would have noticed that the two black haired females stood a much larger distance away from each other. "You want to get in to Loki." Anna guessed.
Ava blinked twice, surprised and the surprise must have been on her face because Anna hastened to explain. "I've thought about doing it too. The effect the spear has on the people it touches is very fascinating…" Ava watched as Anna seemed to stare at the two screens and then the cameras that were stationed very unnoticeably throughout the lab room.
"Listen." Ava tried, taking a small step towards the other woman. "If you can get me in to see Loki, I promise I can get him to mess up. We can find out where he's hiding the tesseract or possibly even his game plan." She flexed her hands as her knuckles gave a twinge.
"Yeah…" Anna still seemed hesitant. "But can you protect yourself? Loki is bad news, and his words will serve no purpose other than to try and trick you into giving something away." Anna moved to a desk, picking through one of the Stark & Vinci containers. Ava's eyebrows furrowed before clearing with an almost enthusiastic grin on her face.
"Trust me; I can protect myself just fine." Ava held up her fist, waiting until the billionaire in front of her turned back to her from the box before she allowed her claws on her hand to pop out with a solid slicking sound. Anna dropped whatever she had been looking at down on the table beside Ava as she moved closer, staring in awe at the claws.
"Whoa…" Anna muttered, reaching out a hand before stopping, looking up for permission. "Can I..?"
"Yeah, but their sharp." Ava said, cautiously holding out her fist. Anna took the base of her wrist and preceded to run a finger lightly over the blunter end of Ava's beautiful claws. Ava watched her, being careful not to move her hand unexpectedly. "As for his tricks, I think I can handle myself just fine." Ava grinned when Anna started muttering, but did let go of her wrist. The smaller woman moved back to whatever she grabbed and held up what seemed to be just a plain flash drive as if it was delicate. Ava retracted her claws, flexing her hands to get the ache out of them.
"Alright," Anna agreed. "I'll trust you, and help you." Anna smiled. Her smile much softer than Ava's and Ava looked curiously at it. It took her a moment to blink because being on Asgard, she had been much less used to seeing anyone soft. Ava tried to reevaluate her picture of Anna, seeing her, what seemed for the first time. But that couldn't be right. Ava had seen Anna multiple times before this on TV and magazines.
It was only now that Ava even realized how skinny the woman before her was, Ava could see only muscle on the woman. Avalon had plenty of muscle on her but she ate quite a bit with her metabolism, always pretty weighty. Anna seemed to be skinnier and her shoulders were just a few centimeters smaller then Ava's. What was really distracting was the black hair and green eyes. She could have sworn something was off about Anna.
The woman in question had stopped looking at Ava so that she could plug in the flash drive to a port in the side of one of her screens. When she started talking Ava shook her head, moving to stand beside her. "-try and override the system. I placed it there a year or so ago back when I got back from Afghanistan. It should be a bit outdated but I've never told Fury. He's very…annoying." She scrunched up her nose cutely.
"Yeah, he has that effect on people." Ava said, nastily. "I knew him when he was just a kid though; he tends to forget that bit."
"Men like to forget a lot of stuff." Anna laughed, pushing multiple buttons on the screen as they popped up. Ava watched it curiously, loving seeing someone do something she couldn't do. She knew that by the time she got back from Afghanistan it wouldn't matter what kind of things she could do with her computer skills. But, learning from Annabella Vinci about how to take down one of her own programs was well, fascinating.
"Damn." Ava swore lightly as the flash drive broke through the firewall within the minute that they stood there. "I have no idea how you did that." Anna glanced at Ava, and Ava saw the red on the other woman's cheeks and her own eyebrows pulled together.
"It wasn't just me; it was mostly Tony's code breaker. We designed it a few months ago." The woman waved it away, moving away from the computer to rummage through a different plastic tub to try and hide her blush. "Besides it's easier to try and break through your own coding, you know all of the loop holes." She strained with something, making the last word falter. Ava joined her at the case, seeing her to try to pick up a strange looking machine with hexagonal metal pieces on it.
"I've got it." Ava patted Anna's clothed shoulder. Anna frowned, but did move out of the way. Ava barely flexed as she pulled up the machine, or pieces of it. Anna motioned to a cleared table where more of the hexagonal machine laid. "What is this stuff?"
"Oh, it searches through the radiation particles. Bruce used it earlier to look for the levels of gamma radiation coming off of it but, I'm more worried about the other radiation. I wanna know everything I can that Selvig knew." Anna pushed lightly on the machine when Ava sat it down for her.
"Alright." Ava muttered, nodding.
"But, that doesn't matter right now." Anna conceded. "I've got the cameras looped with the last hour or so of Loki's movements and the guards are about to get a notice for shift change. They're outside of the room but if you go now you'll just be able to squeeze between them without getting noticed. I'll monitor the conversation and record it."
"How long can I expect the loop to last?" Ava questioned.
"I'll stop it when you walk out, try to phase it back in so it doesn't look suspicious." Anna allowed, almost hopping back to the screen with the program now pulled up on the screen. "Tony won't be back for a while longer. He just left to get something to eat at the cafeteria and he's with Bruce. That should keep them both occupied for a while, though Tony's going to be upset that he missed out on a chance to hack S.H.I.E.L.D." Avalon observed the way that Anna's eyes seemed to glaze over with happiness.
But she still saw a bit of worry on Anna's face before the woman could hide it.
"Yeah, Thor's going to be angry that I decided to go along without him." Avalon offered, shaking Anna from whatever she was worried about. "And Fury's going to be-"
"Furious?" Anna grinned, and Ava laughed. After a moment of grinning at each other Ava cleared her throat, moving towards the way out of the lab. "Good luck!" Anna called to Ava as she walked out of the door, shaking her head.
Ava sighed as soon as she was out the door. Not because she was nervous, thankfully that feeling had passed. No, she was now mildly concerned about the woman in the lab behind her. Skinny barely covered it. Avalon had always been good at reading people and she knew damn well what it meant when someone was starving themselves.
Her fists clenched at her sides as she started walking towards the cells entrance, lower down in the helicarrier. Her thoughts were elsewhere so she almost didn't notice her surroundings. It just boiled her blood that today's society pressured women into being what Avalon liked to call sticks. She had always had a healthy weight on her bones, not to fat but not exactly skinny enough to fit through bars either. And Anna Vinci was definitely skinny enough to fit through some bars.
Maybe she was overreacting, but something made her worried about this woman. The mutant glanced around her as she got closer to the bottom layer of the ship. There was no one following her, and she passed a few of the agents but none of them seemed to recognize her. It felt like ages ago that she was part of S.H.I.E.L.D. but it must have been longer because now the agents that used to stare at her in awe didn't even know her. She couldn't say that she missed it either.
Just as she came upon the clear door for Loki's holding cell room, she noticed a man walking past the end of the hallway, and he had a on much more armor than the ones she had passed before. He was obviously a guard. She pressed herself back against the wall, trying to go unnoticed by him, even in her very ostentatious outfit. She got lucky though when another guard seemed to walk up to the guard, the both of them starting to chat as their shift ended prematurely. Ava let out a breath as they passed by her hallway.
Quickly she turned the corner and into Loki's cell, just as the next set of guards turned the opposite corner. As she stepped into the room she let out a breath, moving easier down the steps hardly even glancing back at the door as she softly moved across the grating on the walkway. Usually her weight was massive, with the metal on her bones, but she managed to stay silent over the grating. It must have been welded in to not shift under her weight.
It didn't matter because as soon as she approached the glass cage the pacing man in it seemed to sense her as he smiled slyly, turning around to her. His odd eyes were the first thing that Avalon checked, frowning as she met them. But the rest of him didn't look any better. Ava wasn't the expert in mind control but Loki looked pitiful. His eyes were wild, his hair constantly tussled and he walked with purpose.
"Ah, they've sent the mutant beast to try and make friends." Loki almost purred. Avalon eyed him, and then glanced back to the way she came, for the first time thinking about what she was doing. "Is this what these mortals have come to?"
"Not exactly." Avalon gritted her teeth, and flexed her right fist. "I'm here because…well I'm here to make sure you aren't planning something stupid." She moved farther into the room, to where the platform stretched out to just before the prison itself. It allowed her to speak face to face with Loki, without entering the cell.
"Hmmmm, and here I thought that they had exhausted all of their tricks." Loki sneered, walking calmly and slowly to stand before Avalon. "Poor Avalon, doomed to eternity watching everyone she loves fade into ash. Even Thor eventually." Avalon flinched, grimacing. "Oh yes, so he's told you. Asgardians do not live forever." He chuckled darkly and it sent a shiver up Avalon's spine. If her and Anna's theory was correct then Loki was under the influence of someone else. It didn't make it any less scary because Loki seemed to be naturally darker then Thor.
"He's told me, I'll deal with that when it comes time to." Avalon dismissed. "I'm more worried about you right now. I made a promise to your mothe-"
"Not my mother." Loki stopped, pointing at her, but Avalon realized that something in him changed at the mention of his mother. He folded his arms behind his back, while Anna braced her shoulders more, almost moving with the man before her.
"None the less, she wants you safely returned to Asgard." Avalon admitted, nodding her head to his correction. Even if she didn't agree with him, she wasn't there to fix his family issues, at least not yet. "And I'm going to try my damndest."
"Ah," Loki leaned forward. "And you think these people will help you? Tell me, mutant, what do you think will happen to me when I return to Asgard? I will be most definitely killed for taking my rightful place as king of Asgard."
"Rightful is a strong word." Avalon retorted, harshly. "What have you done to Clint?" She changed the topic, trying to get away from the killing. He would not change her mind about this because she made a promise.
"I've…expanded his mind." Loki gestured, lightly stretching his arm.
"Expanded is a newer term. What happens to him, when you are done with him?" Avalon asked, glancing down at her knuckles.
"Aw yes, your little student." Loki grinned. "I'm going to make him suffer. The way I've suffered." Loki grinned. "You are no more than a mortal with a defect. You could rise high, with the right tutelage but you spend your time with Thor thinking you can fit in Asgard. Let me guess." Loki started pacing more aggressively in the cell. "Frigga accepted you, but not Odin. How long do you think it'll be before they start to wonder? Asgard will turn on you for anything slightly irregular. Claws? They may accept that." Loki turned to Avalon, to see her trembling shoulders as he cut in to her.
"But they love their dear Odin and the moment that they spot a weakness Odin will have them executing you on the spot." Loki stopped right in front of her. "You'll be stuck here with the squabbling of beings lesser then you."
"That's not true." Avalon spit. "Thor-"
"Thor will watch it happen. He will not rise over Odin again, not after his banishment to earth the first time." Loki hissed. "You pretend to be a part of their world, but you will never flourish by their side, nor at Thor's side."
"You would tear this world apart, for what?" Ava demanded. "For some kind of revenge on Odin? I've come across a lot of people in this world, Loki, but never someone as monstrous as you."
"Monster?" Loki laughed, even as his own hands twitched. The man took a step closer. "It is you that courts a monster." Avalon stopped and Loki noticed the difference in her, stunned as her face went blank.
"Bruce Banner?" Avalon laughed. "That's your plan isn't it?"
"What?" Loki asked, straightening and taking a step back.
"You want to unleash the hulk?" Avalon started walking away. "Please, Loki don't insult my intelligence. I've lived a long life, I've already come to terms with people dying before me." She paused before the clear door in front of her, the guards mysteriously gone. "Oh, by the way, Frigga still thinks of you as her child, after all she did raise you. Didn't she?"
She stepped out of the door, hurrying to return to Anna Vinci, who currently had other problems.
Hello. Not expecting me, were you?
Gotta say, it feels good to be back.
Well, as for questions, yes the bit where Ava and Anna meet is confusing to some. It's all about this constant theme in my stories where every OC is one person, who created everything. Her name was Lady Destiny but, she is later called Lady Legion for reasons that you, the audience, doesn't know about yet. This Lady Legion goes into these worlds to fix them because no two dimensions can be the same. Sometimes the universe is broken, or it matches another one, or perhaps two universes have even joined together.
Anyways, this meeting has shown the first time two of Lady Legion have ever met each other. Every time Lady Legion appears she's been through something. If you have read my other stories you would notice the scars that are present. In my Pirates of the Caribbean story I mention a scar she has over her heart. This scar is from the Arc Reactor.
ANYWAYS
If you have any questions, please ask. I have plans for this little feature throughout my fanfiction life. If I can call it that. My excuse for it taking so long to get this chapter out, it's because I've lost both my muse, and my writing desire. I use present tense because I'm hoping not to jinx anything. I think I'm excited enough about this story again to pick it up.
I've had great ideas as to what I want to put Lady in, but I want to finish this one first. I don't know what's next but I'm tentatively working on plans for a Doctor Who one, but it will include Lady Legion as herself. It'll explain most of Lady Legion and her back story, though not why she travels throughout universes.
As for my past stories, I plan to go back and write an epilogue where it shows how she dies in each universe. I've already done so in my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story.
Well that's enough from me! I hope you enjoyed my chapter!
