A/N: Sorry for the delay, I've been busy this weekend thanks to Halloween. Happy All Saints Day! Disclaimer: Same as last chapter
The next morning at precisely eight am, I found myself boarding a quinjet, my stomach twisting with nerves. I'd never chosen to go into a dangerous situation before, and I didn't know how to handle it. Usually bad things just happened to me, leaving no time to stew over it before.
Away from the others, Steve and I talked one last time before we were split up once again. He made me promise to stay safe, and I told him the same. I missed when we'd had days in a row to just talk to each other. Now it seemed like every other day he was on mission or a disaster happened.
When he finally had to go, I walked out from behind the side of the jet to find Tony standing there waiting.
"Hey kid." He said, waving me over.
"I'm nineteen, that's not a kid." I muttered to myself before walking over. "What?"
He handed me a phone like his, with a simple, glasslike screen where the information could be seen from both sides. Many people called it a "holographic phone" but that wasn't technically correct. No one else besides Tony Stark and his friends had phones like it. "Your phone is hideously outdated. I can't have any relation of mine carrying around such garbage."
"Hey! I like my phone. Siri and I have really bonded. But maybe she does need a friend." I slipped the phone into my purse. "Thanks."
He nodded but didn't get to say anything before Natasha waved him over and he had to board his jet.
"We have to get going too." Clint said, standing on the platform of the jet.
I took a deep breath. "All right. Let's go." I took a single step onto the platform, but my other foot was stilled by red magic wrapping around it. I turned around, spotting Wanda standing a couple feet away. She waved.
"Good luck!" She said.
"Thanks!" I replied, waving to her as the hatch started closing. I continued waving until the hatch closed completely, and the jet took off from the ground. I braced myself against the wall as the room lurched.
"You might want to take a seat." Clint said over his shoulder.
Unsteadily, I walked towards the sides of the room where the seats were and sat down. It was unsettling being on a plane, since I hadn't been on one for several years and that instance had been the only time. I'd been traveling to Sokovia for a trip that changed my life forever on that flight, and I had a feeling whatever was about to happen after this flight would change things as well.
I closed my eyes, playing back memories of Sokovia without meaning to. The trip had been a missions trip, meant to help establish a small school in one of the bigger, yet still small compared to what I was used to, cities of the country. I'd gotten to go for free for some reason, so I jumped at the opportunity. At the time, it'd seemed like that was the only way I'd ever get to leave the country and explore the world.
When we'd landed and for a few days after, everything was fine. We'd done the manual labor of fixing holes in the building, helped the teachers teach, and played with all the little students. Then, four days in, the bombs started falling and the soldiers came in. The entire country had been locked in a civil war, and now without knowing it, our city was in the next target of one of the factions. Things exploded and the world burned around me. I was only fifteen, but when our leader got shot down, the other girls in my group elected me to lead, and I became responsible for the lives of all ten of them plus the eight children we'd been hanging out with at the time. From the running locals, I found out that the airport was supposed to be a safe house from the attack, so I led my group towards that. The task was easier said than done. Hostile soldiers filled the city, and I had to sneak around them in the shadows to keep from getting killed. They afforded no mercy to anyone, be they soldier or civilian.
We were just a block away from the airport when a contingent of men came marching down the street on our left, ruining our chances of survival. I don't know what came over me in that moment, but I suddenly grabbed a gun and told them to run while I distracted the soldiers. I ran into the street screaming like a banshee and shooting at the men randomly. They chased after me while my friends and the children got away. It was then that I came out from my stupor and realized the predicament I was in. Running on pure fear and adrenaline, I snaked through the alleys and streets of the city, followed by the soldiers who saw the whole thing as a kind of game. Eventually, I found myself backed into a corner, on the edge of a ledge above a river. They jeered at me and one of them raised his gun to shot me, so I pulled the trigger on my own and shot him, killing him. I shot two more and then jumped into the river, leaving them in disarray.
I swam for what seemed like hours before I finally washed upon the shore by a pile of rubble. I pulled myself from the water and lay down, finally having time to take in all that had happened. Something in me shattered when I realized I'd killed someone, genuinely killed someone. I'd heard that the first kill was the hardest and it got easier after that, but that day I vowed to myself I'd never kill again. I could see the man's face in my mind, and picture his family, his friends, his job, his hope, all things that were gone thanks to me. By killing him, I'd probably wounded hundreds of other people, and I never wanted that on my conscience again.
The sudden movement of the jet rocked me from my memories and my eyes flew open, looking around.
"Relax." Clint said, looking back at me. "We just hit some turbulence."
I slunk back down in my seat, relieved. "Oh ok. I haven't flown much so I didn't know."
We flew for maybe forty five minutes, the occasional shaking of the plane grating on my already frayed nerves. We touched down upon a landing pad just outside of a large, plain white building. When the door opened and Clint and I walked out, I spotted two people, a man and a woman, waiting just outside the glass doors.
Clint sped towards them and conferred in low tones while I looked around at my surroundings. Clouds littered the sky in shades of white, gray, and angry black. Back at California, the weather had been sunny, but here in New Mexico, it seemed like a storm was about to break.
I approached the people and they introduced themselves as Erik Selvig and Jane Foster. It took a second, but I vaguely remembered Jane being involved with Thor at some point. She was a world renowned astrophysicist and so was the Selvig guy. Even scientists who'd barely even looked into astrophysics, like me, had seen their work and thought it was brilliant.
I introduced myself as Nika Marianna, but Clint added that I was also known as Nika Stark, and I could see their impression of me change. I glared at Clint, hating the change being Tony Stark's daughter did to people's perceptions.
"So, why are you here?" Jane asked Clint."I've sent you all the findings about the stones that I've found. I think that…"
She kept talking to Clint as we walked in, but I stopped paying attention. It became too much about theory and the stars, things I didn't give a crap about. I just wanted to set up the shield technology in their mainframe and get home. Besides being the home to Jane's research and a very new lab, I didn't even see why this place was so important. We walked through boring hallways with interns and scientists scurrying around carrying books and notes, past a large room which housed a telescope, and finally ended up in Jane's office. From being the head of the whole lab, it was surprisingly small with sparse decoration. A girl with brown hair was bent over a paper on the desk, reading it with a bored expression on her face.
"Hey, Jane-" She said, pausing when she saw us. "Oh hey Clint and is that the Stark chick?"
"Hello Darcy." Clint said, nodding at her to acknowledge her. He turned back to Jane and Erik. "Keep the updates coming, but that's not why we're here. We came because a missile with your lab's name on it is coming this week."
Irritation flashed in Jane's eyes. "But this lab is brand new! I don't want to lose all my research all over again. "
"Neither do we. Nika is going to set up a shield that will counteract the missile. Even so, it's probably for the best that you evacuate your team and yourselves until it's safe again."
"Can you just alert us when the missile is coming?"
"It's cloaked. We won't know until it's too late." I piped up.
Jane turned to me, acknowledging my existence for the first time in a while. "And you know how to protect against it?"
"Yes. It's not that complicated. Can I access your computer?"
"Uh, sure."
I sat down behind the desk and logged myself into the computer without needing to consult her for the password. I started plugging in coding to the mainframe of the base.
At first, Jane and the others stared at me and watched me wok, but then Clint turned back to Jane and told her to evacuate the base. They argued for a little while, her refusing to leave her work and him arguing that they couldn't risk her death, but I didn't really register the exact words of the argument since I was preoccupied.
With the programming set up, I knew I needed to move on to the physical component of the shield. All the pieces had been prebuilt by Tony and I overnight and simply needed to be positioned at the correct intervals to project the shield over the whole base. There were eighteen overall, so I doubted the second part would go as fast as the first especially without help.
I looked around the room. Clint, Jane, and Erik were discussing something and seemed very invested, so I doubted I'd get any help. The girl on the other hand was just scrolling through her phone with a spaced out expression on her face.
"Hey…uh…Darcy." I said, remembering her name.
She glanced at me with biting indifference. "What?"
"Can you come help me set up the shield outside?"
"Why would I do that?"
"Do you really want this whole place to burn down and you to die?"
"I guess not."
"Then come help me."
She sighed. "Fine. You owe me though."
I wasn't sure how her helping me save her life meant that I owed her, but I was grateful enough she agreed to help that I didn't argue. "Okay, whatever. Come get the stuff with me."
I strutted through the compound, losing maybe ten minutes before I realized I was lost.
"You do realize that you are headed to the basement and not outside, right?" Darcy asked.
I glared at her. "That would've been nice to know like five minutes ago."
"Yeah but it was more amusing to watch you think you were going the right way when you weren't."
"Can you please just lead me to the helipad?" Irritation laced my voice, and I placed a hand on my hip for emphasis.
"Sure. You could've just asked in the first place."
If looks could kill, that girl would've been dead. But since they can't, I just glared at her back while she led us to the helipad outside. Personnel had unloaded the eighteen packages and I stripped back the doors of the crates and shoved some of the parts into Darcy's arms. Taking the rest myself, I led Darcy to a spot just outside the helipad and started putting together the pieces.
Once they were arranged and screwed together, Darcy and I grabbed another set of parts and assembled it several meters away. We did this again and again for seven more generators, leaving my arms aching from carrying the pieces and Darcy complaining constantly. After we had just picked up another set, something in the air changed. I'd felt this once before, when I'd been outside of Tony's house. My heart stopped. I was too late; a missile was about to hit us.
"Everyone run! Get away!" I screamed to the people nearby. Despite Darcy yelling after me, 'what the hell are you doing', I ran back into the base and repeated my warning. Panic overtook many of the employees, speeding their steps. Though I didn't know how I ended up there, I ran into Jane Foster's office.
"You have to get out!" I told her and the others breathlessly. "There's a bomb coming. I didn't finish in time."
"What?" Jane asked incredulously, but the man, Erik, was already rushing her out the door so I had no time to answer. I took a few steps to run away too, but then an explosion rocked everything. The walls shook, the window shattered, and debris knocked me over. My body pulsed with pain, but the sharpest was in my finger. After the initial shock wore off, I looked down at my right middle finger and was nauseated by the sight. After a large piece of the ceiling broke onto it, my finger bone had snapped and now poked out of my skin. I shoved down the bile in my throat and looked away. Clint was on his Bluetooth, probably calling backup. Seeing me unsteadily starting to rise, he gave me a hand up.
"We have to get to safety before the next bomb falls." He said seriously.
I nodded mutely, too in pain to speak. Now that I was standing, I could recognize another pain besides the burning one in my finger; my ankle pulsed and I knew from past experience that it must be sprained. Clint hurried from the room, gesturing for me to follow him. I limped that way, wondering how he managed to not get hurt. He just got lucky, I guessed.
Another blast rocked the building, collapsing the walls and ceiling in the space between Clint and I. I could no longer see him. "Clint?" I called when everything settled.
"Nika. I can't get to you from here. Is the window clear for you to jump through and meet me by the helipad?"
"Uh.." The window pane had been blown out, but shards still stayed in the frame and littered the floor. I doubted I'd get through without injuring myself, but it was worth a shot. "Sure."
"I'll meet you there."
His footsteps got softer as he left me behind and I moved closer to the window, sliding over the glass so it didn't stab into the thin soles of my boots. Stepping through the window pane, I had to duck and swerve but I made it outside with only a few scratches.
One final blast destroyed the compound, knocking me over onto the glass. I hissed in pain as a thousand shards bit into my skin and drew blood. My eyes clenched shut in pain momentarily and then opened to see the desolation around me. What had been a lab just minutes ago was now a pile of rubble and ash. Also broken glass, which I was privileged enough to be lying on.
Above me, I heard another plane whizz by. Not another missile, I thought to myself with a groan. Squinting against the sun, I looked up to see what was definitely not a bomb. Several men in parachutes were floating towards the ground with multiple guns strapped to their hips. I scrambled to my feet, adrenaline pumping through my veins as my head screamed danger! danger! Ignoring the pain of my ankle, I sprinted towards the empty desert around the lab. From the corner of my eye, I spotted someone trying to move rubble off themselves.
I ran towards them and joined in helping. Once the person was freed from the wall, I recognized the ash and dirt smeared face of Jane Foster. I helped her up, though I almost fell over in the process.
"Where's Erik Selvig?" I asked, searching the rocks for him.
"Somehow during the blasts we got separated." Concern filled her voice as well as a certain extent of anguish. That made sense, seeing as she just lost her brand new lab.
"Let's go find him then." The men falling from the sky had totally slipped my mind.
We ventured into the unsettled rubble, coughing in the dust. Jane yelled Erik's name and I did too, but we received no response. I suggested going outside and searching there, but right after my words, a hand clamped over my mouth. My scream didn't penetrate the thick fabric of someone's sleeve and my kicks and struggles didn't make my attacker so much as flinch. He carried me outside despite my kicking like a feral cat and he and his colleague dumped Jane and I into the back of a truck.
