A month passed by with nothing happening except for Evie plotting to escape and the Avengers were still looking for her. It had started snowing heavily where Evie is, giving Evie less hope for an escape; she couldn't walk in the cold snow for very long.
Thor found out that Heimdallr will most likely be able to see the baby when she is born, leading them to Evie wherever she is. They just helped they weren't too late.
Evie had managed to remember most of the life by now – though there were still huge chunks missing here and there – and she missed Steve and her friends more than ever.
And she had remembered Sherlock. Remembered how he had died. It was her fault for teaming up with Loki, for not helping Steve escape. She may as well have killed him herself. And she did kill people. She helped in an attempt to take over the world!
Grief and pain threatened to fill her up but she forced herself to stay calm. It wasn't good for her baby to be upset, she can feel what Evie feels. But every time she thought about Sherlock and what she did, she started crying. She tried to stop, to hold in the grief but a few times it overcame her and Evie sat in the bath or bed and she just cried. Once Colin came in while she was crying and just left.
But right now she can't do anything except hope the Avengers find her. She'd tried to write large notes in the grass, or even talk to Heimdallr, but nothing seemed to work. So she just had slowly fading hope.
Evie sighed as she lay back into the sofa and read the last of the Hunger Games trilogy – Mockingjay.
She struggled to remember much of the pop culture she had be a fan of before because her actual life was too much to remember and put into chronological order to bother with the pop culture. But as she read or watched some of it, it did feel vaguely familiar. But it was more a sense of déjà vu or she had a feeling of the ending and turned out to be correct.
She put that down to everything else taking priority in her memory.
But she was still in shock as she finished this book. "That did not just happen." She blurted. Colin appeared in front of her.
"What did 'not' happen?"
"Have you read this?!" She held up the book and Colin chuckled.
"Yes. It is very good."
"It's evil." She stated, "did you write it?"
"Ha ha." Colin rolled his eyes, "I'm not evil." She and Collin had, somehow, developed a love hate relationship. While she did, for the most part, hate him for what he had done, was doing and would do – she couldn't help but think that if they had met under a different situation they could have even been friends, he seemed to be a fun guy.
"No. You just kidnap people to take their babies for a living."
"I've told you. Her power will be amazing for mutants. You should be grateful for this." He sat down next to her and idly started flicking through the discarded book.
"But I know that you just want her as a weapon when you decide to kill all the humans."
"Just the ones that go against me." He smirked.
"Y'know the Avengers will find her. Whether you kill me or not."
"Don't be so sure about that."
Evie frowned, "how will you hide her?"
"They haven't found you have they?"
Evie shrugged but she was wonder why they haven't found her yet, they should have, they have the means to. "Yet." She told him hoping she sounds confident.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Clint sat down beside Steve and handed him a mug of tea. Steve glanced at it but shook his head, "I'm not taking that again." He said simply.
The Avengers have had to drug him a few times to force him to sleep over the last few months, he simply refused until he knew Evie was safe. When he did willingly sleep, it was restless, once or twice he had taken sleeping pills but he hated doing it because he dreamt of Evie being hurt and then struggled to wake up. So he was wary of accepting drink and food from them.
"It's safe. I promise." Clint told him, he took a sip of it to show him.
Steve sighed but it smelt good so he took it from Clint and took a sip, it was the perfect heat and tasted amazing, Clint always made the best tea. Steve drank some more before he felt the drowsiness hit him. Steve turned to glare at Clint and but the drowsiness clicked in before he could and he was out before his head hit the seat. Clint's fast reactions allowed him to make sure Steve didn't spill the drink and landed on the sofa not the floor.
And then the drowsiness hit Clint, he only had a sip so it took longer but he couldn't push past it, being tired didn't help and he decided to give into sleep. He needs it.
Clint woke up a while later, finding himself leaning on a still asleep Steve, he was gonna be pissed when he wakes up. Clint carefully untangled himself and glanced at the time; he had been asleep for half an hour. Steve should be out for another couple of hours.
"Did you forget you drugged it?" A voice whispered and he turned to see Natasha watching him.
Clint rolled his eyes, "he wouldn't have drunk it unless he thought it was safe. And he needs his sleep. If it means sacrificing myself to sleep as well I'll do it. I need to sleep as well I guess."
Natasha smiled at him, "when did we begin to care about these guys?"
Clint shrugged, "it was an accident. Promise."
Natasha chuckled, "that is was. C'mon, Tony thinks he's found something."
Clint glanced at Steve, "should we wake him?"
"Only when it's certain."
Clint nodded and followed Natasha out of the room.
Tony was in the lab – he barely left it lately, always with Bruce trying to find a way to find Evie, they all were, they were worried about her. S.H.I.E.L.D weren't very helpful. Tony looked up at their entrance; Bruce and Thor were already there.
"Ah perfect! I've got JARVIS searching across all satellites for anyone that looks like Evie." Tony began to explain, they all nodded already knowing this, "somehow she's stayed out of them but we found Colin."
"Colin?"
"Colin Jóut."
"The teleporting mutant that S.H.I.E.L.D didn't grab?" Clint asked.
"That's the one."
"Why do we care about him? If he's not been causing trouble we'll leave him to S.H.I.E.L.D to find."
Tony nodded to show them that he understands and held up a finger, "Yeah I know but he's been seen in some shops in Canada, stealing baby supplies."
"And if Evie's remembered him, she might have known where he was and asked him to help." Clint said as he understood what Tony was saying.
"Exactly. Or the more horrible thought being, he knew about Evie and her baby, she worked with Loki. What if he's taken her?"
Nobody answered for a moment; they just looked at Tony thoughtfully.
"It's worth a try." Bruce said, "but how can we find him if S.H.I.E.L.D hasn't been able to?"
Tony looked at Thor for this, "Heimdallr? Jóut hasn't been a priority so we haven't bothered to ask him."
"I will go and speak to him." Thor announced, immediately stalking out of the room to go to the roof.
"Should we tell Steve?" Bruce asked. "And Irene and Mycroft?"
Tony shook his head, "wait for Thor first."
Thor arrived back ten minutes later in which the Avengers had just talked over Tony's theory and there plan if Evie is there.
"He can see him. He can send us all there." Thor told them.
Everyone grinned, "I'll go wake Steve." Clint offered, Steve will be pissed but he would forget when they tell Steve that they have a lead.
"Wait." Natasha spoke up, "we could be wrong. He could have a wife and stealing supplies for her. Every time we have a lead that doesn't find her it crush's Steve a bit more."
"So what do you suggest?"
"Heimdallr takes us there. If Evie's there, then perfect we bring her back. If she's not, we never tell Steve about this. The same for Irene and Mycroft. We can't give them false hope again."
Nobody bothered to mention that Mycroft didn't seem to care as much as the other two.
Clint nodded, "okay. We should suit up and head to the roof then."
They all hated travel by Heimdallr, it was disorientating and made them all feel sick and dizzy but they pushed past it. It was the fastest mean of travel and they don't know the coordinates so it was the only way to get there.
When they landed they were in snow so deep it reached their mid-shin.
Everyone was slightly shocked by the cold, but they couldn't let it stop them. They looked around to see that they were in the middle of a large field, behind them was a forest, around them were mountains but only a few feet away was a large house. They all ran in to the house before Colin could react to their arrival and teleport away. With Evie.
Tony blasted the door open, Clint readied his bow, Natasha was ready to fight, Thor held up his hammer and Bruce was ready to change into the Hulk if he needed to.
And then all they saw in front of them was Evie, she was standing in the doorway – presumably to the living room – and just stared at them with a gobsmacked look and then Colin appeared at her side.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Evie was quite happily making herself a sandwich as Colin was in the living room watching something on TV.
When she heard an explosion and something smashing, she jumped in fear and ran out to the hallway to see what the source of the noise was, holding a blunt knife as her weapon just in case – the best she could do with all the serious weapons locked away.
But when she saw who was there, she froze in shock.
The Avengers, minus Steve, were all standing in a fighting stance with their chosen weapon primed.
Colin appeared at her side and stared in shock for a second before reaching out to grab her arm, she knew he was going to teleport them away and just by some instinct she whipped round and thrust the knife into his side.
He cried out in pain and released her as Clint loosed the arrow and it embedded itself into Colin's shoulder. He felt to the ground, kneeling as he tried to catch his breath, blood steeping through his shirt and onto the ground.
Evie ran to the Avengers and Bruce grabbed her pulling her into his side protectively.
Colin looked up at them and just grinned Evie knew he was going to teleport away but then – he didn't. He frowned, obviously trying to concentrate to teleport away.
Clint smirked, "the arrow was dipped into the cure." With that Tony stepped forward, grabbed his arm and shoved the sleeve up roughly. He pulled out a syringe and as carefully as he could while the now woozy Colin tried to struggle.
"Just in case." Tony said grinning at him.
Colin glared and carefully stood up, wincing as the knife moved. It had gone between his ribs, but not very deeply due to it not being sharp. Colin pulled out the arrow and then the knife and just stared at the Avengers defiantly.
Natasha grabbed Colin and handcuffed him.
"Anything you wanna grab Evie?" Bruce asked as Clint rung S.H.I.E.L.D to get them to come and search the house.
Evie shook her head at Bruce and then looked between all of the Avengers and then the semi unconscious but still scowling Colin, "Where's Steve?"
"At home. We'll explain when we get there." Natasha said stalking past Evie to go outside, everyone following her. Thor roughly dragging Colin with them. Colin didn't bother struggling, he's smart enough to know that there's no escape with these guy's while powerless and having lost blood like he had. While it wasn't much, the pain still made him look out of it.
"Hold on, what's going on?" Evie asked, "how did you find me?"
"We'll explain when we get home." Tony repeated.
Once they were outside, Evie frowned, looking around the landscape, "no jet?"
"Nope." Tony winked at her and placed his hand on her shoulder; she frowned but didn't pull away.
"Heimdallr, take us home please." Thor spoke up, Tony tightened his grip to help keep Evie steady and then they were surrounded by light. Evie felt like they were teleporting but it was much smoother then Colin's teleporting. She had to close her eyes from the light but then she felt like she was spinning. It was disorientating. She could move but not very much, it made her feel much more relaxed but she still didn't like the feeling.
And then, they landed on Avengers tower. Evie stumbled but Tony hand on her shoulder kept her steady. "Thanks." She glanced over to see Colin's slight look of appreciation through his obvious pain.
"Nice teleporting. Is this 'Heimdallr' like your Scotty? 'Beam me up Heimdallr'." Colin asked with a knowing grin. He looked slightly deranged.
Tony smirked at that but nobody else reacted, Evie just frowned, struggling to remember the reference, it was familiar.
"What did S.H.I.E.L.D say?" Natasha asked as soon as they landed looking at Clint.
"They're sending people to the house. And someone'll come here to take him." Clint explained gesturing to Colin who's arm was gripped tightly by Thor.
"Chuck him into Hulks room for now." Tony told him making Clint smirk as they headed inside; Colin was looking around trying to take it all in.
"I told them we've found Evie," Clint added, "but I told them we want to rest today and go report to them tomorrow. So that we can all talk." He sent Evie a specific look and she nodded.
"I'll call Irene, Myc and Pepper?" Bruce suggested. Evie perked up at the names looking at Bruce who winked at her.
"Yeah, but just tell them to come here. Don't tell them why." Tony answered, grinning at Evie. "I want to see their faces when they see her. Actually, JARVIS can just tell them to come back. J?"
"Will do sir." Colin jumped at the voice.
"I take it you have remembered Evie?" Thor asked and Evie nodded.
"Yeah. Not everything but most things."
"All thanks to me." Colin spoke up arrogantly, "Y'know she thought you idiots wanted her baby." He laughed loudly.
"We've heard." Tony answered glancing at Evie who looked away sheepishly.
"I did. I'm an idiot I know but I am so freaking sorry." She forced herself to look up and look at everyone, "for everything."
Tony laid a gold-titanium-alloy covered hand onto Evie's shoulder, "it's okay. We know you were daemonised."
"No- it's not. I can't even-"
"I think we should talk about this with Steve as well." Bruce said as the elevator stopped on the common room floor. Evie glanced back at him and nodded taking a deep breath. She has so many apologies to make and she had no idea where to start. Steve would be a good start.
The elevator doors open and nobody moved for a moment, just waiting to see Evie's reaction.
Colin whistled, "Nice." He muttered but nobody was listening.
Evie had immediately seen Steve, still asleep on the sofa. And everything hit her again, what she had done. She had misinterpreted so many things, so maybe she also misinterpreted Steve's willingness to forgive her. She wouldn't be surprised. She expects him to hate her.
Evie slowly stepped out of the elevator and made her way to Steve, she was shaking with nervous. She wanted to kneel down but that was too much of an awkward position being so pregnant, so instead she carefully sat down by his head and lightly stroked her hand through his hair. It had grown quite long since the last time she had seen him, and even then it had been quite long. She wondered when the last time it was cut had been.
"Steve?" She whispered, "Steve? It's me, Evie."
Steve slowly opened his eyes and he looked up towards Evie, he sat up slowly his eyes wide with shock, he glanced at the others – minus Thor who was taking Colin to be locked up – and then back at Evie.
"Evie?"
"It's me." She nodded, "it's really, really me. I've remembered."
Without thinking, Steve reached out to Evie and pulled her towards him, kissing her softly. Evie responded immediately and the soft, sweet kiss quickly turned passionate. It was so familiar to her, kissing Steve. It just came naturally; she never wanted to not be able to kiss him again.
Until Clint coughed loudly and they pulled apart sheepishly.
"Been a long time coming." Tony muttered grinning at them both.
"But we should all talk." Clint added and everyone nodded but Evie couldn't keep her eyes off Steve. The lovely amazing man. He was looking back at her, with disbelieving eyes but also excited and just happy.
"Wait," Steve shook his head pulling his eyes off Evie, "I- how did you get here? When did you get here? Am I still dreaming?" Steve asked all the questions at once, he looked as if he wanted to ask some more but stopped himself to give Evie and the other a chance to actually answer the questions. Evie looked at the others in question as well, this rescue had gone so quickly she had no idea how any of it had happened.
"Do you remember the teleporting mutant? Colin Jóut?" Tony asked as everyone took a seat in their usual places and Steve nodded, "We found a video of him stealing baby supplies in a store in Canada and I thought that because he worked with Evie and Loki, it made sense that he knew about the baby. How powerful she will be, so he might want her. Or if not Evie, you could have remembered him and thought that maybe he'll help you, his teleporting skills definitely would help, so you could have contacted him. But no matter what, it was worth going there to find out." Evie frowned but didn't comment at Tony's answer.
"How did you get there? Why didn't you wake me?" Steve demanded.
"Heimdallr took us, since we didn't have co-ordinates but he could see Colin, he can't see you Evie." Bruce told her and Evie frowned. So that's why they didn't come sooner or why Heimdallr ignored her every time she tried to talk to him.
"I don't know why..." she told him with a shrug.
"We'll figure that out later." Tony told her thoughtfully.
"And Steve, we didn't tell you because it was a hunch and there was no point in getting your hopes up for something that might just tear it down again." Bruce explained softly, Steve sighed but nodded.
The elevator then opened and Thor walked back in and smiled at them all, "he is successfully locked up. I think he may have passed out, however. S.H.I.E.L.D will need somebody to let them in when they arrive." He told them.
"Who?" Steve asked.
"The teleporting mutant...Colin was his name?" Evie nodded at Thors questioning look.
"So what was it Evie?" Tony asked, "did you go to him by choice or-"
"He kidnapped me." She told them. "When I was in Minnesota actually, about a month or so ago."
"You ran because you thought was wanted to take Freya?" Bruce asked softly and Evie nodded.
"What on Earth made you think that?" Steve asked.
"Na'qut..." Evie muttered sheepishly.
Steve's eyebrow rose, "you believed-"
"No! Well yes, but only because he made sense. She's going to be powerful; you'd be an idiot to not want her as a weapon."
"Well then we're idiots then." Tony told her seriously.
"And S.H.I.E.L.D won't try to take her?"
"We won't let them." Clint said, "yeah, she'll be powerful but she deserves to grow up with her mother as a normal girl."
Evie nodded, "thank you." She looked around at them all, "how- why are you being so-" she cut off as the elevator opened to reveal Pepper, Irene and Mycroft.
Pepper looked shocked but she grinned, Mycroft just froze but Irene laughed out loud and immediately ran at Evie and engulfed her in a careful hug.
"Thank the lord." Irene murmured, "you've finally remembered?"
"Yeah." Evie laughed hugging Irene tightly. "How did you guess?"
"I've known you my whole life Evie." Irene reminded her, "I know you." She pulled back to look at Evie properly and laughed before hugging her again. Tony moved over to give Irene room to sit down beside Evie. Irene took her hand, almost as if she was afraid if she lets go, she'll lose Evie again.
Pepper came over and hugged her softly and kissed her cheek, "good to have you back Evie."
"Thanks Pep." Evie grinned at her.
And then she turned to Mycroft who had just stepped out of the elevator, he was staring at Evie with an unreadable expression in his blue eyes.
Internally he felt so happy to see her, but then he remembered the last time he had seen her before the battle, she told him not to come to her if he starts self-harming again. That made him begin to doubt himself and his friends again.
And she is the reason Sherlock is dead.
But then he really looked at her and right now she looked tired, but her eyes were wary and concerned, she started to stand up but changed her mind, not knowing whether to hug him or not. And he saw the Evie he used to know, his best friend, the girl that he could tell anything to. Evie Rae.
"Evie," he greeted softly and Evie smiled at him.
"Croft,"
Nobody moved for a moment all waiting to see what Mycroft would do, but then he opened his arms and if she could, Evie would have run into them; she walked as fast as she could though.
Mycroft hugged her tightly and Evie barely resisted the sobs threatening to overtake her.
"Been too long Evie Rae."
"That is has." Evie murmured. They separated and Mycroft placed his hand on Evies cheek just looking at her for a moment. "I'm so sorry Croft, about everything."
"I know." Mycroft hugged her quickly again, he didn't forgive her but he was dealing with it so Evie could live with that. He stepped back from her and sat down beside Thor as Evie sat back down between Irene and Steve.
"How are you all being so amazing?" Evie asked after a minute of silence, "I...I killed people. I lied to all of you. I took sides with the bad guy. And yet you're all here looking after me? Helping me? I don't understand."
"Well, you're our friend Evie." Tony answered simply.
"And we know it wasn't your fault. You were daemonised." Irene added with a shrug.
Evie hesitated but shook her head, "no. I have to make sure you all know this. I made the decisions. I knew what I was doing but I just didn't care. That's what the daemon did. The outcome outweighed everything it took to get there."
"What was the outcome?"
"Rule the earth. Give mutant's more power."
Everyone nodded looking considering for a minute, "why didn't you tell us about your powers?" Steve asked, "told me?"
Evie shrugged, "I knew I should have but it never felt like the right time to and then it just seemed too late. Like I had purposely kept it from you even though I hadn't exactly."
"So you were never going to tell us?"
Evie shrugged, "I didn't have a plan."
Steve nodded to himself as Evie glanced around at everyone, she didn't know what to say.
"Look, I am so fucking sorry. You've all been amazing to me and became like family and love you all," she looked at Steve specifically, "and I did this I don't blame you if you hate me and don't want me being near you anymore."
"Evie, we all make mistakes. Without the daemon would you have made the same choices?" Bruce asked her knowingly.
Evie immediately shook her head, "no. I wouldn't have even- after the first kiss with Regalis, if it wasn't for the daemon it would not have happened again." He directed it at Steve who just nodded silently, obviously thinking.
"How did you actually meet Regalis?" Clint asked, "did you know he was Loki?"
"In the library. He didn't look like Loki and his name was Regalis. He reminded me of Jake in a way," Irene shifted awkwardly beside her, she could see where Evie was coming from, "Californian, dark skin, cheeky and yeah..." Evie trailed off and thought for a moment, "but no. I didn't know he was Loki."
"When did you find out that Regalis is my brother?" Thor prompted.
"It was actually on your birthday Croft," Evie answered glancing at him, she hesitated but then said, "and Sherlocks... that's why I was so late to dinner. I went to get your presents from his apartment and then saw him out of disguise. You're presents are probably still there come to think of it."
"That was the day he attacked the president." Tony commented, "And teleported away."
"I knew something was up when he came into the apartment!" Irene announced. "How did he do that?"
Evie frowned, "I knew but...I can't remember. I'm sorry. When I remember I will tell you immediately."
Natasha looked disbelieving but she didn't comment.
"Why didn't you tell us straight way? That Loki was Regalis." Clint asked and Evie shrugged.
"Because, by that point, I was in love with Regalis." She felt Steve shift away from her and she wasn't sure if that was a conscious or unconscious movement, she hoped for the latter but she doubted that. "And I had been daemonised for a while. But before I could make an actual decision, I found out I was pregnant so I wanted to talk to Loki properly so I did and found out his plan."
"Then you came to tell me?" Irene asked and everyone frowned at her. "Not about the plan." Irene corrected herself, "the pregnancy though."
Evie nodded, "yeah. You didn't take it well."
"In my defence I was daemonised as well, but I am sorry. I should have supported you."
Evie shrugged, "it's not your fault." She didn't want to tell Irene that her rejecting her loosed some of the internal fight against the daemon. "and then, Steve, that's when we broke up." Evie glanced at Steve who wasn't looking at her; he was just staring at the floor with his jaw clenched. "I am so sorry." She said again to the room.
"It's going to take up a while to trust you again." Tony told her simply, "even trusting you completely may never happen." Evie nodded in understanding, "but you're our friend and want to try and stay friends."
Evie looked at him in surprise, he smiled softly and reassuringly at her, she looked around the room in question to see who actually agreed with Tony.
Pepper had a similar look on her face to Tony.
Bruce looked the most relaxed out of anybody and she realised that, Bruce is used to feeling like the monster, he's killed people too and had such a hard life. She made a mental note to talk to him privately at some point soon.
Clint had a considering look on his face but he nodded when he caught her eye. Natasha looked completely blank and didn't react to her but Evie wasn't expecting anything, it was obviously hard for Natasha to trust and be friends with someone in the first place let alone after them betraying her.
Thor smiled at her and Evie smiled back.
When she caught Mycroft eye he just looked away, he didn't know how he should reply to that.
Irene just wrapped an arm around her waist in answer and then Steve smiled and nodded.
Evie almost burst into tears at how amazing everyone was being, "thank you. All of you. I can't- I think that's most of the reason I fought to keep the daemon, with it I didn't care about rejection or anyone really so I knew if you all rejected me, threw me in prison or something without the daemon I wouldn't be able to deal with it."
"We understand." Irene said moving to kiss her cheek, "but we love you. Well at least I do and I aint leaving you."
Evie smiled and hugged Irene, "thank you." She hesitated and glanced around the room, "it's been an exhausting few months, would you mind if I went to bed for a little while?"
"I'll go with you." Irene said, "I assume you'll use the room before you went to the X-mansion?"
Evie shrugged and nodded, "yeah. Actually, speaking of that, is everyone okay?" Evie hesitated before adding, "Logan?"
"They're all good; I'll give Ororo a call and let her know you're safe." Tony answered and Evie nodded thankful and started to stand up with Irene's help and they went into the elevator after an awkward 'goodnight' echoing around the room.
Evie glanced back once more at Steve who just looked back at her, he tried to smile at her and she smiled back before the elevator closed, she knew she needs to talk to him properly when she wakes up.
