Stephen and Juno walked side by side down the busy sidewalk. It was morning in New York, bitter cold yet bright and sunny as they wore their jackets zipped up to the collar, their hoods up to disguise their faces.
"Do you even like coffee?" asked Stephen.
Juno shrugged. "I think so. I mean, I got excited when you mentioned it, so..."
He stopped in his tracks.
She turned around, rushing back to him. "What? What is it?"
"I forgot Wong's order," he replied. "Do you remember what he asked for?"
"Something frappy hazelnut something?" she said.
"Eh, if he wanted to make sure I got the right thing, he should've come with us."
They began walking again, turning the corner and fixing their hoods to make sure they couldn't be recognised.
"Have you ever thought about looking into the future?" asked Juno, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Y'know, seeing how this all pans out."
"There's too many possibilities," he replied as he brushed shoulders with a passerby. "Even if I were to look, we still wouldn't know which one would come true."
"But you'd know what happens to me, wouldn't you? You could see if..."
She trailed off, distracted by a row of televisions sitting in a store window. She walked up to them, watching news reports play out across each one. All about her. A couple appeared on screen. They seemed withered and tired, grey-haired with lines around their red, watering eyes. They were holding up a picture of a girl as they talked to an interviewer.
"That's me," said Juno quietly.
"What?" Stephen replied as he walked up and stood beside her.
"They're talking about me."
"Every news outlet is talking about y-"
"No. Look..."
She pointed. They watched as the couple began to hold up more photos as a banner of writing moved along the bottom of the screen.
Mutant involved in New York attack 'went missing during 2012 alien invasion. Believed dead' says parents.
"I see they've finally settled on 'mutant'," said Stephen dryly.
She placed her hand on the glass of the store window, focusing until she could hear the TV clearly.
"The Queens couple identified the woman as their missing daughter Juno Wolfe," said a news reporter. "They said they were 'shocked and completely blindsided' when they saw her on TV, and are urging her to turn herself in."
It zoomed in on the woman's face as she cried, talking directly to the camera. "Juno, if you're watching this, we miss you and we love you. Whatever has happened to you, we can get you help. Please put an end to this, come forward. Come back to us."
She let go of the glass.
"What is it?" asked Stephen.
"Those are my parents."
"W-well... that's good, I guess? It means once this is all over you can-"
"I don't remember them."
He looked down at her.
"I always thought when I heard my last name it'd trigger something inside of me. A memory, a flashback. But it didn't. They said my last name's Wolfe and it doesn't mean anything to me." She looked up at him. "Maybe this means I'm gone. Maybe I'm not actually the same person I was before I got fused with this thing."
"You were stuck inside a time tear for eleven years, it's normal to not remember-"
"But I remembered you. I knew your name and where to find you even though I never actually got around to meeting you."
"You said yourself we're connected."
"More than I am with my own parents?"
A commotion further down the street caught their attention. There was a group of men in dark clothes, guns in hands, their faces covered in ski masks. They were running out of a bank, threatening people and smashing their way out of the building.
"Juno..." said Stephen sternly.
There was a gunshot - loud and terrifying - followed by the sounds of screams.
"I'll go," he said. "You stay here. Keep yourself hidden."
She watched as he strode towards the trouble, his discreet clothes materialising into his robes and cloak. He clenched his fists, creating discs of orange light, using them as shields from the bullets that began raining over him. He fought the gang easily, drawing them away from the civilians and into the middle of the road. Juno watched as one by one he took them down, until a stray bullet grazed his arm and knocked him to the ground.
She felt her heart stop. "Get up, get up, get up," she muttered.
But the gunman pointed and shot again.
Without thinking, she raised her hand, catching the bullet mid-flight in a cloud of golden matter. She marched towards them, twisting her hand and sending it flying back towards the man. It hit him in the neck, knocking him to the ground where he clutched the bleeding wound and writhed in pain.
She flicked down her hood, her eyes glowing as she used her powers to lift them all off the ground. Stephen clambered to his feet and turned in panic as she approached.
"Juno, don't."
The street was crowded with onlookers, but her attention remained on the men hanging in the air. She was angry, so angry that she couldn't think straight - it was as if her body was a car, and the mind stone had taken control of the wheel.
She slammed them all into the ground, with so much force that the concrete cracked beneath them. Then suddenly, everything was quiet. She looked around at the faces of terror; people huddling together and backing away as if she were going to do the same to them. The men on the ground were completely still, blood beginning to pool around them.
"Stephen," she said. Her voice was a whisper, a soft, quivering sound that barely left her lips.
The sound of sirens invaded the quiet, growing louder as the flashing lights came into view. Police cars pulled up from every direction, screeching to a halt as officers climbed out and pointed their guns. Stephen raised his hands in an attempt to create a portal. But he stopped, holding them up in surrender as an officer aimed at him, screaming at him to stay still.
News trucks and reporters began to swarm the street as helicopters hovered in the sky above them. A set of SWAT vehicles swung around the corner followed by a group of sleek, black cars.
"I don't understand, I was helping," she said.
"They don't care," Stephen replied.
"Clearly."
"I told you to lay low."
She glanced around. "Make a portal."
"They will shoot me."
"Well then put us in that mirror dimension or whatever."
"Did you not hear the part where I said they'd shoot me if I try to move? We can't all be bulletproof like you."
"I'm not bulletproof. My powers are."
"That could come in handy right about now."
"I've already done it."
He looked down, noticing his body surrounded by her glowing forcefield.
"Ah. Thanks," he said plainly.
"No problem. Now make the portal."
He raised his hands again as the masses of men and women began to shoot. But before he could finish, a figure came swinging through the buildings and hurtling into the crowd.
"Sorry!" a light, energetic voice called out.
"It's Spider-Man!" A young boy shouted excitedly.
Stephen and Juno watched on as he bounced through the police, SWAT and government officials, disarming them and knocking them to the ground one by one.
He shot his web. "Really sorry! No hard feelings but I kinda know these guys." He was speaking quickly as he went. "See, he helped me get home after we got stuck on another planet so I kinda owe him one." He kicked one in the chest, sending him flying into three others and knocking them to the ground like bowling pins. "Oops, sorry!"
Stephen closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "Oh no," he muttered.
"Hey man!" said Peter as he landed on the ground in front of them. He turned to Juno. "Scary lady."
She nodded at him.
"What are you doing?" asked Stephen in a panic.
"I saw you on the news! It looked like you could use some help."
"Stand down!" A voice shouted through the megaphone.
The three of them turned to see everyone rising to their feet, dusting themselves off and groaning in pain. Down the street, the military appeared, travelling towards them in huge tanks with even bigger weapons.
"This isn't good," said Peter.
A strong gust of wind almost blew them off their feet as the rumble of propellors drowned out their voices. They looked up to see an aircraft hovering above them, its door sliding open to reveal Rhodey in his shiny armoured suit.
"On. Now!" He shouted.
Peter shot his web at the aircraft and soared up into the sky as Stephen wrapped an arm around Juno's waist and followed, his cloak flying them towards the open door.
They dropped onto the floor of the craft. Rhodey slammed the door and locked it before turning towards the cockpit.
"I got 'em!"
Bruce was piloting. He held up his hand and gave a thumbs up before flying them quickly away from the scene.
III
"Are you kidding me!?" Sam shouted.
He was pacing back and forth across the floor of the HQ, his face twisted in anger. Stephen sat on a stool nearby as Rhodey used the glove of his suit to stitch the wound on his arm.
"See, I thought it was pretty easy to avoid killing people," Sam continued. "But clearly not."
"I didn't mean to kill anyone," said Juno.
"But you know you're not in control of your powers," Wanda replied. "You know you're dangerous and you still went out even after we told you stay hidden."
"We just went for coffee."
Stephen rolled his eyes and dropped his head.
Rhodey scoffed in disbelief. "Funny, I can't recall ever murdering someone and being held up by the CIA on my morning coffee run," he said. "Worst thing to ever happen to me is they get my order wrong."
"I'm starting to feel like I shouldn't have helped..." said Peter as he stood nearby.
"No, no you... you did good," Sam sighed. "You bought us time to get there."
The room fell into quiet as Wanda flicked through news channels on the television. Sam continued to pace while others sat with their heads in their hand. Stephen nodded his thanks to Rhodey as he looked down at his stitches.
"I mean, I'm no world renowned surgeon..." said Rhodey sarcastically.
"No, it's... fine. Thank you."
Juno began to walk out of the room.
"Where are you going?" asked Sam.
"To see the big green dude, is that okay? Promise I won't get in the middle of any bank heists," she replied cynically.
He nodded and let her go. She wandered down the corridor to the lab where Bruce sat programming something into a computer. A large, intimidating machine sat in the middle of the room. She felt a twinge in the back of her neck and reached up instinctively to cover the stone with her hand. She could still feel the faint, hairline crack from their last attempt to remove it.
"You built this quick," she said.
He looked up at it and shook his head. "Shuri helped me finish it. We flew it back over from Wakanda yesterday."
She wandered deeper into the lab, eyeing all of the equipment as if she were on a tour of a museum. At the back, encased behind thick glass was a sleek black suit. It was thin and shiny like Lycra, shaped like a woman with armoured panels over its breasts. There was a belt around the waist lined with empty pockets and holsters. She pressed a button and the glass slid open. The suit shimmered like light on metal.
She reached out to touch it, her brow furrowing as the fabric rippled beneath her fingers, almost sucking her hand in and rebuilding itself around her skin.
"Tony was building it for Natasha," said Bruce.
She turned to see him standing behind her. She wondered how a creature so big could move so quietly.
"It was one of the only things to survive the wreck," he said.
She moved her hand across the suit again. "Why does it move like that?"
"Nanotechnology. It's what most of the guys suits are made out of. Nat always jibed on him for not making one for her."
"I don't think I've met Natasha yet."
"Well you won't have."
"She's dead, isn't she."
"Yep."
She closed her eyes and sighed. "Sorry."
He started walking back to his work station.
Juno followed slowly. "What happened to her?"
"She gave her life to save the world."
"Kind of like what you're trying to get me to do..."
Bruce looked up at her in confusion.
"Give up the stone, save the world," she said.
"You think the world's in danger right now?"
She gave him a strange look. As if she knew something he didn't. But before he could say anything, the lab door opened.
"We need to talk," said Wanda. "All of us."
Rhodey stood in front of everyone with his hands on his hips. They all sat around, listening as he began to speak.
"Now they know we're involved, they've given us an ultimatum," he said.
"Who?"
"The government. The military. Basically everyone." He sighed. "Our choices are hand her over, or be considered enemies of the state."
There was a rumble of panic around the room as everyone tried to speak at once.
"W-well, what do we do?" asked Peter, his eyes wide with worry.
"We hand her over," Rhodey replied matter-of-factly.
Juno's head snapped around to look at him.
"Look, I'm sorry but what else are we supposed to do?"
"We can't just turn her in with the stone inside her," said Wanda. "What's stopping them from turning her into a weapon?"
"She's right," said Bruce. "We all saw what HYDRA did to Bucky Barnes."
"So we make it clear that they can't do that," said Sam.
Wanda folded her arms. "And you really think they'd be able to contain her?"
"You're talking about her like she's not here," said Stephen.
The others continued to argue.
Bruce stood up. "They don't know what she's capable of. The people in this room are the only ones equipped to deal with this."
"You think that's what we're doing?" Rhodey replied angrily. "Dealing with it? It's been two weeks since she turned up and we're no closer to removing the stone than we were at the beginning."
"We're closer than the government. Who'll just lock her up like they tried to do with Loki. And look how that worked out."
"They have no idea about this stuff," said Stephen, he was growing angry, the lines in his forehead deepening as he spoke. "They could barely grasp what we told them about Thanos!"
"If they come for me, I will kill them," said Juno bluntly.
He looked down at her. "Not helping."
"I'm not trying to help," she said. "I'm being honest. I'm not a sceptre or a tesseract, you can't put me in a box and lock me away in a vault."
Rhodey raised his hands. "Alright, we're not going to be... killing anyone."
"Hopefully not. But this is my life. I'll fight for it if I have to."
Wanda and Bruce shared a look, as if the same memory flitted through their minds at the same time:
'We've dealt with enough bad guys to know that they don't just give up their power willingly.'
'She's not a bad guy.'
'Mm, well I hope you're right.'
"Let's try removing it again," said Sam.
"It's not ready," Bruce replied. "We put her in that machine now, she won't survive."
The building began to shake as if an earthquake had hit. Everyone stood up, looking around at each other before making their way to the large window. They stood huddled together, fists clenched, prepared to defend.
A row of large aircrafts hovered outside as the ground below swarmed with armed forces. They were here for her, and they had the HQ surrounded.
"Some of us should go out there," said Wanda before turning around to the others. "Find out what they want."
"We know what they want," said Rhodey, gesturing to Juno.
"And they're not getting it," Stephen added sternly, making eye contact with him.
Large guns emerged on the flanks of the aircrafts, pointing at something in the air. After a few moments, the pilots saw people gliding across the sky towards them.
"Hold fire, it's the Avengers," said one of the pilots into his radio.
Wanda, Rhodey, Sam and Stephen stopped in the air opposite them.
"We're here for the girl," a voice sounded through a speaker.
"We don't have her," Sam shouted.
"We know that's not true. Release her to us."
"Or what?"
"Or we follow our orders, infiltrate your facility and take her ourselves."
"You don't know what you're dealing with," said Wanda, her hands and eyes glowing a deep red. "We're trying to protect people."
"That's not the Avengers call."
"There are more of us inside," said Stephen. "Your men don't stand a chance, so for your own sake, call this off."
"We are not going to do that."
Suddenly, the craft in front of them went up in flames before one by one, the others began to explode too. Like dominoes.
"Strange!" Rhodey shouted.
Stephen turned his head, but before he had a chance to look, his cloak had tugged him backwards. A large piece of shrapnel flew past him, close enough to skim the hairs on his beard.
"What the hell was that!?" asked Sam as he flew past them, his large wings gliding through the smoke-filled air.
"I know," said Wanda, turning to look back the building.
There was a hole where the window once was. Shattered glass raining down onto the ground below. Juno stood in the empty space, her hands burning, eyes glowing so bright they could see it through the smog.
The people on the ground began to fire at her, turning the open space into a war zone. She jumped from the building, crashing to the ground and landing on her feet just how she'd watched Carol on the roof of the sanctum. Then she attacked.
They watched on as hundreds of people and vehicles battled her. A whole army against a single person, yet she wasn't the one losing. She flung people through the air with a flick of her wrist, crushed tanks by clenching her fists. She shot bright, golden blast through the crowds as they charged towards her, all the while walking slowly towards them.
"We need to stop her!" Wanda shouted.
"On it," Rhodey replied before soaring down towards her.
She saw him coming, swiping her hand and throwing him against the building before he could even get close. Then she sensed someone behind her. She turned around and held out her hands, catching Sam mid-air with her powers. He halted still, groaning and gritting his teeth as he tried to break free. She closed her fists slowly, tightening around him before slamming him to the ground.
"Juno, what are you doing!?" Stephen shouted.
"They were trying to take me!" she replied.
He looked down at the devastation, his heart pounding in his chest. It was a massacre. He had made excuses for her, tried his best to protect her, but he didn't know how to justify this. He wasn't sure he wanted to.
"You have to get her away from here!" said Wanda. "Stephen! Now!"
Juno was storming across the ground, taking out anyone that crossed her path, when suddenly the ground opened beneath her and she found herself falling. She landed face first on a hard wood floor and rolled onto her back, groaning in pain.
There was a loud thud. She looked up to see Stephen standing above her. He was breathless, cuts on his face, his skin coated in a layer of soot.
III
The Avengers stood amongst the wreck, looking out at the destruction Juno had left behind.
"It's the stone," said Wanda. "She's... protecting it without even realising that's what she's doing."
"She knew exactly what she was doing," said Rhodey.
"But she's under its influence."
"Then we should get it out," said Bruce.
They turned to see him crouching, running his hand over the rubble. He was angry, so angry that he was almost scared the Hulk would return.
"You said it'd kill her," replied Rhodey.
Bruce rose to his feet, towering over the others as he walked towards them. "The stone is the stone. But she is what gives it power. She is the amplifier, she's the sceptre, she's... the gauntlet. And yeah, removing it could kill her. But if we leave it in there, we're creating a weapon that no army, no magic, no avenger could defeat."
"She's not a weapon," said Wanda.
"What do you call this!?" Rhodey opened his arms, gesturing to the destruction.
"She felt threatened. She was defending herself."
"It might not be what she wants to do," Bruce interrupted. "But if it's what the stone wants, then it becomes her goal too. So... the stone is coming out. Whether it kills her or not."
III
Stephen had crafted a cell. Bars of sparkling orange light surrounded her as she sat on the sanctum floor with her knees to her chest. Since she fell from the sky, Juno had been a prisoner - a prisoner of the mind stone, of her lack of memories, of her connection to him. But as she sat there, encased inside his makeshift cage, she sensed that it wasn't to keep her trapped, it was to keep everyone else safe.
Stephen was walking slowly around her, rubbing his mouth with his hand.
"You know, I could break out of this," said Juno.
"Mm no you couldn't. Protection spell. Same thing I use on this." He pointed to the eye of Agamotto.
"It was a joke. But alright, nice to know you've really thought all of this through."
"You think now's the time for jokes?"
"No. I don't." She rested her chin on her arms which were folded over her knees. "I said I was sorry."
"Sorry." He almost laughed. "You think you can just say sorry like some kid that knocked over her mom's favourite vase? Juno, you killed people!"
"I know..." she whispered, her eyes welling up with tears. "I know."
His jaw tensed as he spoke slowly. "There's only so many times you can say you didn't mean something before it starts getting hard to believe."
"Well if you tell someone enough that they're bad, pretty soon they're gonna start being bad!" Her eyes flickered like a broken light, as if she were trying hard not to lose control. "Why can you and everybody else have powers and special abilities and all of that stuff and be seen as good? As 'Avengers'," she air-quoted. "But I'm a threat? It's not fair. I want to be good. I can be good."
"What you just did was not good."
She dropped her head and began to cry. "I... I don't know what that was. I was scared! They were coming for me and all I could hear were everyone's thoughts in my head and they wouldn't shut up and they wanted to do it, Stephen, they wanted to hand me over-"
"I wouldn't have let that happen!" he roared.
She recoiled, falling completely silent as he began to erupt.
"This whole time I've been on your side, Juno! Keeping you here, messing with time just to find answers, defending you against the others when they said you were dangerous! I've risked the anonymity of this sanctum, of sorcerers everywhere! I've spent time with you, consoled you-"
"Slept with me." She looked up at him. "Knowing I'd already hurt people. That I had this big, scary hunk of shit in the back of my neck."
He glared down at her.
"Don't act like this was a one-sided thing," she said. "I never asked you to go back and find out what happened to me, I never asked you to have Wanda come and teach me how to use my powers, I got in that machine willingly and I let them try to take this thing out, it was you who made them stop because it was hurting me."
"It was going to kill you."
"Maybe you should've let it."
"I couldn't!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my responsibility!" He walked right up to the bars, pointing his finger as he yelled. "In every timeline where you die, I go on to become what I am. And in the ones where you survive, I don't. You're not supposed to be here! So all of this, the blood on your hands, it's on mine too!"
"It's not my fault." She stood up and gritted her teeth. "That for some reason the universe keeps trying to push us together."
"But it's not." He shook his head. "You're not the Juno I was supposed to marry. You're not anything - you're an anomaly!" He clutched his robes. "I became this, so you should be dead. But you're not. Because you're too freaking stubborn to die!"
She reached her hand through the bars, dragging him through the air towards her until his throat was in her grasp. Their eyes connected in a mix of fear and anger, as she felt his pulse throbbing under her fingers.
"Are you scared of me now?" she asked sinisterly.
"I don't want to be," he replied.
She let go of him.
He nursed his neck with his hand, clearing his throat and sitting down on the ground in front of her. She sat down too, looking at him through the glowing bars.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have- I don't... I don't think you should be dead, and I'm not scared of you."
She glared at him.
"Because I want to believe that there's an end to this for us- for you. The second I stop trusting you, there's no way out." His voice was hoarse. "I just wish you'd stop making it so god damn hard."
"I have no desire to rule the world. I don't have a vendetta, I'm not on some mission to destroy humanity. I never asked for this."
"I know."
"But you're out of your mind if you think I won't take down anyone who comes between me and my freedom."
He felt a shiver run down his spine. Fear. He had just told her he wasn't scared, but as he sat across from her, staring into her eyes as they glowed like the stone on her neck, he wondered how true that was.
Wong rushed into the room. He was flustered and breathless as he pointed out towards the hall.
"They're here," he said.
"Who's here?"
He walked around the corner, stopping when he saw the rows of people waiting for him. The Avengers - all of them - stood in the hall, suited up. Ready to fight.
"Hand her over," said Sam.
He walked forward, stopping opposite them as his eyes trailed from one end of the line to the other. He shook his head slowly.
"I'm afraid I can't do that."