Ready for War

The Raft

Coulson and May walked into the Raft, Strucker and a still tranquilized Viper in tow. The on-duty agents stopped what they were doing and saluted the director. "Director Coulson. We have two cells prepared, just as you ordered."

"Good to hear."

The Raft was one of the few SHIELD facilities that remained standing after Ultron's attack last year. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Coulson ordered that the building be given a complete overhaul. With Tony's help, it was much better equipped to handle superhuman occupants. Viper, even if she was stronger than anyone at SHIELD, was pretty low as far as superhuman threats went.

A pair of agents, clad in the old Apprehension body armor and armed with powerful ICER rifles, grabbed hold of Baron Strucker and took him to get processed. Another pair took Viper and left to do the same.

The Raft's warden walked out to meet Coulson and May. John Walker, former Captain America and leader of the anti-registration forces that were almost completely wiped out by Hydra's massive attack,. He himself was very nearly killed himself, but he had been standing next to Iron Patriot when his armor detected the incoming attack. Osborn managed to erect his shield in a nick of time.

A nick of time for them both to watch both sides slaughtered in a deluge of white hot high caliber ordinance.

Walker never forgot that day. He still had nightmares. His psychiatrist diagnosed him with PTSD.

Coulson, when he was officially recognized by the UN as SHIELD director, appointed him warden of the Raft. John was forever grateful for a chance to continue to serve.

"Director Coulson, I promise we'll make sure Viper stays behind bars this time," he said with a wry smile.

Coulson chuckled and shook his hand. "We can only hope. If we're lucky, I'll have a few more prisoners for you."

"Think we got the room to accommodate them."

With no more business to conduct there, they took their leave. On their way back to the quinjet, May asked, "What now?"

"We return to base," he answered. "Whoever was left at Strange's left to check out that other ship. I have a feeling that's where the prisoners are."

"Rambeau said Doom was up to something in Latveria. Those aliens she was tailing found something in his family gravesite, but whatever it was disappeared when she was taking them out."

"When wasn't Doom up to something? We'll keep an eye on Latveria and whoever their leader is." Coulson read the reports. He knew that Lucia von Bardas had been assassinated during that STRIKE operation in Latveria two years ago. But, he didn't know who the current leader was. He had been there twice, and both times had been greeted by a von Bardas LMD with no clues as to who the true ruler was.

It wasn't Doom, that much was certain. If it was, they would have heard from him by now. "I'll tell Rambeau not to get too bent out of shape about it," he continued. "She has other, more important things to worry about."

The Himalayan Mountains

One of those other, more important things Monica, and the rest of the heroes, had to worry about was within radar range of the pair of quinjets and the X-Jet. The Kree vessel was still cloaked, but according to Jean, they were there. She could feel the alien minds, foreign and mysterious.

"Okay, team, Jean just confirmed that the Kree are here. I want Shadowcat, Vision, and Moonstone to take care of any of those sentries. Take them out fast, because we'll need Vision and Moonstone to help the flyers handle the ships. Ant-Man, I want you to take a team with you aboard the warship and do what you did the last time."

"Gotcha. Though, I'm pretty sure I can handle that by myself."

"Pretty sure isn't good enough, Scott. Take back up."

He sighed, but nodded. Then, he took a moment to silently appraise the available heroes and determined who he wanted to take with him. "Jan, Natasha, and Bucky should do."

"Alright. As for the rest of us, we'll take care of the ground forces. They don't breech the inhuman sanctuary under any circumstances, understood?" He saw nothing but nodding heads. "Good. You guys got that?"

=Understood, Captain,= Cyclops replied.

=Ja, your elementary orders are noted, Rogers,= Zemo answered.

He shook his head.

"What about Ronan?" Bucky asked.

They all knew that none of them stood even a ghost of a chance against him one-on-one, or even all at once. He was more powerful than any of them. Still, if he decided to assault the sanctuary with the rest of his troops, they had to try something. "I want all of our heavy hitters concentrating on him if he shows up. Thor, Carol, Jen, Moonstone, Jean, Mandarin... Bruce."

T'Challa managed to send a wakandan quinjet to Malibu in time for Bruce to arrive just before the teams left the Sanctorum. To him, it was a no-brainer. His team needed the Hulk's specific skillset, even if there was a chance that he was going to be overwhelmed. Still, that wasn't going to stop him from giving it his all. "Code Green, then," the scientist stated with a small, but nervous, smile.

Steve nodded. "This isn't going to be easy."

"Is it ever?" Natasha uttered.

"This is going to be harder than anything else we've had to overcome," he amended. "Ronan has an infinity gem. That's a big advantage in their favor. Nothing we have comes close."

Vision cleared his throat. "I will not take offense to that, Captain."

To that, Steve smiled sheepishly. He had completely forgotten that Vision had an infinity gem of his own. "Sorry, Vision." That realization changed everything. He didn't know if the gems were equal in power, with the only difference being the user's experience level. According to Thor, it sounded like Ronan had only had his for a short while, while Vision had his for a year. While he was still unraveling the secrets of the gem, he had grown quite powerful during his training.

He could have very well been the tipping point in their battle. Even still, Steve refused to change his stance. This was going to be the most difficult battle they had ever taken part in. But, it was a battle that they had to win, or the human race was going to be wiped out.

"Any word from Monica?"

"Not yet," Rhodey answered. "Sam said it sounded like she was going to hang out in Latveria until SWORD showed up to take those aliens in."

"Aliens? Not Kree?"

He shook his head.

"Fantastic. More aliens," Tony muttered.

Steve huffed and placed his helmet on the seat beside him. "Let me know if and when she calls in. We need her for this." With that, he headed to the cockpit. Clint was busy outfitting his arrows with the toxin Coulson gave them, so his usual seat was empty. Steve sat down. "Are you okay with the strategy?"

Carol nodded silently.

"Look, I know I'm asking a lot from you, working with Rogue. If you don't feel comfortable—"

"You're doing it again," she said, cutting him off before he could finish.

"It?"

"Coddling me. Like I'm incapable of putting my feelings for Rogue aside for one battle. I know what's at stake, Steve." She sighed harshly. She started to put the jet on autopilot; her finger was right on the switch and inches away from flipping it up, but she pulled back. "It was hard... to not put my fist through her skull."

"But, you didn't."

"No, I didn't. Any other time, I would have punched her into the next state. Not now." She grew silent, eyes focused intently on the icy blue sky before them. "Interesting little thing I realized a few hours ago. Wanna hear it?"

"Sure."

"Remember when Zemo shot us?" It was a rhetorical question. How could anyone possibly forget something like that, even if it didn't happen to them? "Don't recall ever seeing the X-Men show up to help us out."

He frowned. It was something he hadn't even thought of, then or now. Now that she mentioned it, he knew she was right. "Yeah, they didn't."

"Kind of funny, since they gave us major shit about their friends dying. It's almost like that little thing slipped their minds or something." She smiled bitterly.

"Carol—"

"I'm not mad or anything. I just found that interesting."

He had heard that line before. Tony, Clint, Bruce, Thor, T'Challa, both Scotts, Peter, Bucky, Sam, Rhodey, Luke, Danny, and Pietro had, at one point or another, told him that if a woman ever said that to him, he had better start apologizing right then and there. Because, if a woman said that she wasn't mad, she was livid.

Carol had a good poker face. He hadn't beaten her once in Texas Hold 'Em. He had become pretty good at reading people, thanks to his brief partnership with Natasha when they were both still with SHIELD. He had become good at reading Carol in particular thanks to their spending so much time together. He had seen her when she was angry, and he had seen her when she was 'not mad or anything'.

The latter was much worse, and much more insidious. "That doesn't change anything. We're better than that. This tit for tat—"

"Steve, I just said—"

"I heard what you said. I don't believe you. What happened happened. Nothing can change that. We all screwed up. But, holding grudges and holding lapses in judgment over people's heads won't help long-term relations. We need the X-Men on our side; not just now, but in the future. You don't have to like it, or them, but that's how it has to be. Sometimes we have to work with people we don't like to get the job done."

She scowled at him, but it didn't last long. Her shoulders deflated and sagged. "Fine. I just..." This time, she did switch the jet over to autopilot. "I'm just so fucking tired of being the bad guy. It's like I can't breathe around Rogue without one of those twits jumping in to defend her."

He looked at her closely. She didn't appear to be close to breaking down, which was good. And this pent up anger she was trying to let loose, that was good, if she decided to take it out on the Kree. "I imagine Gen. Ross says the same about us." He smiled wryly. "That's what friends do. They look out for one another, even if it means looking over past transgressions."

The Avengers had done it countless times, in regards to Clint, Jessica, and Natasha. But, most of all, they had all done it with Bruce. They always looked past what the Hulk did and saw him for more than just a list of negative actions.

"Yeah. I guess," she mumbled as she folded her arms across her chest.

She was still holding onto what happened to her, and was letting her anger and hatred fester in her heart. Eventually, that would be all she could think about, and that was no way to live. He didn't want to see anyone walk down that path, but least of all someone he loved.

Without fearing the consequences and not caring if anyone saw, he grabbed her hand and kissed it tenderly. "It's okay to be angry. What happened to you was unthinkable. But, don't let it consume you. After long, that moment will define you, because your entire life will become centered around that. I don't want that for you, and I know you don't either."

For a long time, she just stared at him, face slightly red and eyes clouded with an emotion he hadn't seen in them often. "I—" she nearly said before she snapped her mouth closed. She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. "Thank you. I... I'll keep that in mind."

He smiled and kissed her hand again, more quickly, but just as tenderly. He cared about Carol a lot, and only wanted the best for her. He could see the path she was trending down from a mile away. What kind of friend – platonic or romantic – would he have been if he had just sat idly by and let her run right off the cliff to self-destruction? "You're welcome."

He smiled and held her gaze for a brief moment before getting up and returning to the cabin.

From what he could tell, it didn't appear that anyone saw what happened. If they did, they knew they had more important things to worry about.

"That was some pep talk," Rhodey said quietly. More matter-of-fact based on how long he was up there, rather than him actually having heard what was said. Not that it matter either way.

"I... we need Carol to have her head in the game."

"Yeah." He glanced over the Avengers, many of whom were making their final preparations. His eyes settled on a stoic Vision before returning to Steve. "The way I see it, Vision and Jean are the only ones who can take Ronan down if we can't take the gem from him."

Vision, he already knew about and had accounted for, but Jean? "Is her telepathy really that strong?

He nodded. "Had him incapacitated for a short while before he nuked half of Genosha. If we can give her some time, she can do some irreparable damage, if not outright beat him."

Steve was the first to admit that he didn't know anything about psychic powers. As far as he was concerned, it was right up there magic and time-travel on the list of things he was hopelessly confused about. But, Rhodey was there; he saw what she did first hand, so he took his word for it. "If you think so, then it's worth giving her a shot."

The radar in the cockpit beeped loudly. "Guys, we got company. Lots of it," Carol announced from the cockpit.

There was no need to ask what she was talking about. They could all see it plain as day. The final Kree warship. It was even more massive that the previous ten, at least twice as large. Meaning twice as many cannons, twice as many ships, and twice as many foot soldiers than the previous ones could muster.

Also, Ronan.

"Here we go. Work together and we'll get through this in one piece."

"The abominations' shields have been breached!"

The light red sphere that had been protecting the inhuman settlement from the Kree's invisible attack finally fell. It lasted for several hours, which succeeded in not only staying the Kree's hand, but also giving the heroes a chance to thwart the invasion and arrive just in time to witness the beginning of the invasion.

Ronan nodded and tightened his grip on his universal weapon. "Move out. Leave no stone unturned. We do not leave until every abomination in this structure is either dead or captured."

Thousands of Kree soldiers boarded personal aircraft and transportation vessels to either to begin their assault from the air or be take to the ground.

Hundreds of ships poured out of the hangar bay doors near the back of the ship. Dozens upon dozens of the Kree sentries rocketed out of the hangar doors in the midst of the ships. The cannons were fired up; they would have been ready to fire within the minute. The warship was also equipped with energy missiles, which those manning the guns wasted no time in firing. They weren't very powerful, but they were strong enough to punch holes in the sanctuary walls.

It was only a mere fraction of what arrived mere hours ago, but what was left of the Kree armada headed by Ronan the Accuser unleashed its full, unyielding might on the hapless inhumans.

The final Kree salvo had begun.

A/N: This is it, everyone. The climax starts next chapter. Let me say thanks for sticking with me, despite the long waits between updates. I will appreciate all the support. :)