Disclaimer: I don't own any of the following Characters (although I'd like it) but just, in a "moral" sense, Blackdragon; all the other belong to Marvel .

SECRET INVASION: THE INVASION BEGINS

"So, do you want to tell me what's troubling you so much or not? It's not like we don't have the time to discuss whatever is troubling you. I'm not going anywhere until you don't tell me what's wrong… so split your gut, tell me what's wrong so we can go on discussing more important business." Chris and Pete are lying on the top of a hill, on the green, brilliant grass, hugged together, looking at the sunset. They've been silent for a while now, and, still, also after his questions, she refuses to speak, looking a bit sad and worried at the sky. And it's something he doesn't like: their relationship just begun a while ago, but between them the sincerity has always been the most important value, it's what their story is based on, it's how it started: thanks to the words, the discussions they shared during a time that was too hard for Chris to continue to handle it alone as she had always done in the past.

"Chris, c'mon – he tells her taking her face in his hands, kissing her on the lips with all the passion he has, forcing then the young woman to look at him in the eyes – do you trust me? If you do, then, speak to me, tell me what's the problem… did I do something wrong? I mean, I know I'm not exactly the most perfect man of the world, but…" To silence him, to make him stop to speak, she puts her hands on his torso and gives him another kiss on the lips, smaller, quicker, then she rests her head on his shoulder, still continuing to look at the sun, the both of them almost without add a single word for the rest of their time together; few moments later, she hugs him again, giving him a last kiss.

"I'd like to stay, but I've to go; I'm arrived at my destination, and soon Tony will call me to see why it seems that I'm lost in my thoughts…"

Drowning himself in her hair relishing what should be her vanilla scent, he is reluctant about letting her go, although he knows she has to, that, whatever she is doing, it must be important, or she'd be there with him, really with him, and not just on the astral plane. "You never answered my question. Do you trust me, petal?"

As he finally lets her go, she puts a finger on his lips, and, smiling at him, she just gives him the answer, a simple word. "Always." But it's not so simple for her. The question he did to her, it's the question she keeps asking herself from days and days, even weeks… who does she trust? Who can she trust? Can she really trust Pete? After all, he changed so much during the last months, that he could be really a skrull agent, send there to infiltrate Excalibur, MI13, the British government…

"Chris, are you here with me or not?"

As they land on a still unknown location, Tony looks at his younger sister; for the whole flight she has been like somewhere else, like she wasn't thinking about what's going to happen. Or, maybe, she is just thinking too much about it. I think I really scared the hell about her when I told her about the infiltration…

As they enter in a building, she uses her powers to transform the instable molecules of her costume, changing it into her usual civil clothes (a white shirt, a pair of beige pants, a waistcoat in the same colour and high heeled beige sandals), still without adding too words to what she already told Tony in the last… well, days. "Yeah, sorry, I was just… thinking. I'm ready now."

"I'm about to tell you all a secret, the biggest secret there's in the world. I'm telling you because… because I just don't know what else to do. –as Tony finishes this sentence, he decides to play clean, and removes his helmet from his face – the Skrull empire, dozens of world ruled over by a race of shape-shifting life forms. They are here now. Living among us. Undetectable. How do I know? Because Cage's Avengers went to Japan, and this is what they found."

On a steel table, lies the cadaver of a female skrull, dressed as the ninja Electra, behind the not so astonished faces of Tony and Chris, and the very astonished ones of Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards and Hank "Yellowjacket" Pym.

"She was a skrull? For how long?"

"We don't know, Dr. Pym" She politely answers Pym, trying to hide the fact that she doesn't like him too much, in light of the recent (and not so recent ones) events.

"And why couldn't anyone tell?"

"These are the questions, Reed. And she isn't the only one, there are others. I know this to be a fact. You two are the smartest people on the planet. Chris is one of the best trained psych of the world. I look at you, and I see, my armor sees… Doctor Reed Richards of the fantastic Four, Doctor Hank Pym of the Avengers and of the 50 State Initiative and Chris Stark of the X-Men and the Initiative. But I don't know if you are who you say you are. But we have to do something about it. now. Because this is just the beginning. I know it."

"Ok, Tony, and what exactly are we looking for?" as he speaks, Pym goes nearer and nearer to the "creature", as to have a better look at it.

"We have to understand how this skrull was able to shape-shift and stay completely undetectable…" Tony can't even finishes his sentences, that Reed, with already some tools in his hands, stops him.

"What do you mean with completely undetectable?"

"We mean "undetectable to any mutant power, magic-based power sets and technologies. Based on what we know now, even my psyonic powers, or Charles' ones, assuming that he is still alive, are completely useless." She turns the lights on, as well the screens and all the stuffs that are inside the lab, without giving a look at the 3 men. She knows that they don't trust her, and she doesn't know if she can trust them as well. And Reed, her former teach and MIT, the first man she worked for as an assistant… if he is the real Reed, does he knows that she knows about the Illuminati? That she worked for Charles, spying on him and Tony? God, even if he is the real Reed, how can I honestly face him?

"Fully undetectable, this is new."

"Yes Reed, this is new. Totally new."

"Or it's a trick" not exactly over the body, Pym seems to really believe what he is telling.

"A trick? How is it a trick?"

"Well Tony, it's simple. maybe those Avengers are Skulls and they're simply missing with you."

"Those aren't skulls. Well, I mean, I'm sure that at least two of them aren't skulls. Clint and Logan are the real ones." Leaning against a nearby table similar to the one where the skrull is, not wanting to stay too close to the thing, knowing too well what they will do with the body; she never liked too much biology, especially when it came to sectioning the bodies.

"How do you know that they aren't skrull, if your powers don't work on them?"

"They know things about my past that only the real ones can know. So they are the real ones or the skrulls took their places at least 7 years in the past."

"Either way, nothing detected it. this body is the key. Now, sorry, but I've to go. I'll call in for reports. Chris, is there anything you can do?"

As he asks her this question, she goes near the body, a bit reluctant, and touches it with her right hands, leaning her forehead against the one of the alien, to have a better mental contact. "I can work only on subjects that are still alive or that are dead from a short amount of time. I can't work on her mind. Her memories are gone; she is…ahem… passed out. Her mind is completely empty. I'm sorry. Give me a breathing Skrull and maybe I could try to find a solution on my front."

"Than, change back to Blackdragon and follow me, ready for super-speed, we must run."

"What happened?"

"Later, Hank. I'll call in. and now… Avengers assemble. Iron Man to StarkTowers. Gather the troops and fire up the quinjet. A skrull ship just crashed in the Savage land."

"Tony, I was listening to what you were telling Spider-woman… is this is?"

"We'll know soon."

"The Savage Land… it's where the Avengers had their first mission after they reformed, a while ago, right? Do you think…- she pauses, like in trance, remaining still in the air in front of Tony. – Tony, whatever it's happening, it will be best if I stay here, monitoring the situation with Fry from your docking station. Besides, I'm not an Avenger, and you'll not have to worry about me during a fight."

"What's happening?"

"I just want to check on something – she says as she flies away in direction of said room, finishing the last part of the sentence mentally, as she is already sitting at the desk, in front of the monitors and the computers, wearing Sage's glasses – Good Luck."

"Man, who haven't you gone out with?"

Me, Spider-Man. - On board of the quinjet just stolen by the "Secret" Avengers, at the back of Spider-Man, in front of the whole group, appears nothing else than the psyonic image of Blackdragon, at crossed arms, without her mask, as she usually does when she mind-travels.- And I'm still a little pissed off by this. By the way, Tony could take control back of the jet from a moment to another.

"Not anymore, sweetheart. I guttered the motherboard."

Well, he can still follow you. I mean, he controls the world's satellites.

"Chris, baby, listen to me please… you don't know what's going on. Just tell us that it isn't a Stark trap."

Don't you dare to call me "baby" never again, "Ronin", or to treat me like we are close. You lost this right when you lied to me. And believe me, I know too well what's going on. Do you really believe that I'm not aware of the skrull infiltration? By the way, we had plenty of opportunities to bust you all without all this. What I don't know… if it's a skrull trap.

"I hope it's a skrull trap. I'm sick of hiding. Of not trusting each other. I miss my family. I want to put this right. I want things to go back to normal."

Well, Mr. Cage, I hope that everything will end well, but I just want to tell you that whatever will happen, be ready to face a big mess. I want you to be careful.

"So what? Are we again on the same side of the coin? Because a minute ago it seemed that we weren't anymore."

Clint, please, try to understand me. Don't you see in what position I am now? – suddenly, Chris' image stops to talks to the whole group, and her psyonic voice goes directly into Clint's own mind- We can be on different sides, Clint, but you are and will be forever my best friend. You were, are and will be more than Tony has always been for me. I just don't want to lose the only person I can always speak to. The one and only I can really trust with all myself. Please, Clint, I just want you to be careful, you all. I know that I put you through a lot during the last months, that I've been a real pain, but… somehow, I lost myself along the way, I needed to find all my pieces again. And I needed to do it alone.

You'll never be alone, sweetheart. Maybe we never dated and we'll never do, but it doesn't mean that I don't care about you, because I do, it just means that I don't like you in that way, ok? So, please don't say I'm sorry, and be careful, you too.

"Mistress Stark? I beg your pardon, are you here?"

A lot of time later, Chris is still at the docking station, controlling all the data she has about the skrull, trying to find an answer, an answer she can't find. But she is sure, it's somewhere, when she hears Jarvis' voice at her back. She was so concentrate in what she was doing, that she even didn't notice his presence, or the remote control he is keeping in his hands…

"Oh… yes, I was just…." In that moment, she screams, her entire body goes into shock thanks to the link she shares with her brother.

AAAAAGHHHH!!

"Tony… This was Tony screaming in pain… someone…. How did you enter here?" And now she knows. She knows who she can't trust. Because he just activated a virus on all human technology – and on her brother's armor too, nearly killing him – and is holding a gun at her heart. A bullet: what a way to die for her, who played the hero for all her life. Really funny… and she doesn't want to be remembered because she died in a funny way. So, while "Jarvis" starts to fire at her 1,2,3,4,5,6, times, already injured, she jumped outside the window, while bleeding, without paying to the "HE LOVES YOU" that Jarvis keeps repeating, and while she see through Tony's eyes the ship opening and revealing an "armada" of heroes…or someone poising as the "heroes" she knows… in that moment, the world goes black around her, and for Christine Marie Antoinette Stark Johnson this could be the end. And she knows it, too.

Ok, now you can tell me if you liked it or if you hated it... I WANT A lot of reviews!!... see you in two weekends with thea new chapter of the Blackdragon saga... the invasion continues, and this time it strikes New York!