A/N: I know I haven't given you guys much of an idea as to when in the fandom timelines this story takes place; sorry about that. Obviously, Bella is 22 now so her storyline is very AU, but I haven't given you any real indication as to when her story diverges from the cannon material, and I think that will be easiest to explain if it is revealed as the story goes along. However, the Avengers timeline won't make much sense unless I give you a little fair warning here before you keep reading. In this AU, Loki and the army of Chitari have NOT attacked... yet, but the Avengers came together as a team under other, equally dire, but far less public, circumstances (that I will reveal as the story goes along). As such, they are close as a team, almost like family, but they haven't been pushed to the limits emotionally the way they will be in the battle for New York when it eventually happens, Thor hasn't been forced to return to Asgard with Loki as his prisoner, the Bi-Frost is intact (for now... I know that's completely off-script for the Marvel Universe, sorry), and Tony is not having PTSD-like symptoms from his brush with death in NY. Also, since the Marvel cinematic universe leaves a lot of the backstories for our Avengers' characters unexplored, I may not follow the histories that my fellow comic-nerds know and love from the original cannon. Now, on with the story (sorry for the super long A/N). I hope you all enjoy.
FINDING HOME
SUMMARY – Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?
MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER – All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER 5
Fury was living up to his name when Rogers, Barton and Thor arrived at SHIELD HQ. He understood all too well what it was like to lose family, and he felt for Stark, he truly did, but having the entire Avenger's team, and whatever SHIELD resources they decided they needed, being diverted to search for one girl, a girl who was a stranger, even to her own uncle, was completely unacceptable to the Director.
He had been fully prepared to refuse their request to use the quinjets and order them to take their asses back to the A Tower to await a real mission after Romanov's call. That was until Agent Hill had pointed out quite forcefully that Isabella Swan might be useful to SHIELD.
"What possible use could we have for a twenty-something girl with no combat training or higher education?" he had demanded of his agent when she'd tried to talk him into allowing the mission.
"Isabella Swan was being hunted by someone, or something, that viciously killed her entire family without leaving any evidence behind for the police to find, and she managed to escape and completely fall of the grid," Hill reminded him, "At the very least she has important information about a potential enemy, one that could potentially set their sights on Tony Stark if their connection were ever discovered. Finding her means getting our hands on that intel."
Nick didn't want to admit it, but she had a point there. Despite them having never met, Tony was this girl's flesh and blood, and whoever this killer was, they had proven they were willing and able to kill her family. If someone was going to take a stab at one of the Avengers, knowing who or what was coming was invaluable.
"And besides," Hill continued before he could say a word, "Swan has been a virtual ghost for three years. You and I both know that's not easy. Are you really telling me you have no interest in potentially recruiting someone who can do that with absolutely no training? Just imagine what she might be capable of if Agent Romanov got her hands on her."
"Fine Hill," he barked, not pleased in the slightest, but willing to admit that this little side mission of theirs might have some merit, "I'll authorize the use of the jets. But when they find her, she better be worth all this trouble."
And so here he was, thirty minutes later, staring down Captain America, Hawkeye, and Thor, his eye full of frustration and concern.
"Your jets are fueled up and ready to go," he told the Captain, "But I expect regular updates on the progress of this mission, and if at any point I believe your attention is required elsewhere I will pull every last one of you off of this," he warned sternly.
"With all due respect sir, Isabella Swan is Stark's family. And that makes her family to each and every one of us," Steve spoke up, never breaking eye contact with the Director. He respected the man greatly, but he didn't trust him, and he wouldn't choose him over the Avengers if that was what it came to. "We will never stop looking for her."
"Then you'd best find her quickly," Fury had returned just as evenly, not betraying his surprise at being challenged by the military man. Over the last months since calling the Avengers Initiative into action, he'd watched this team come together and become a fairly cohesive unit, but they'd yet to be truly tested, and with their luck, there was probably a world-ending disaster waiting right around the corner. So, perhaps, this Isabella character might be the perfect person to act as the glue that held their misfit team together when the time came.
"Yes sir," Rogers responded before he and Thor made their way into the first jet, Hawkeye simply nodding his acknowledgement before heading to his own aircraft.
As he watched them leave the base, Fury couldn't help but wonder just what exactly they were all getting themselves into on this one?
Clint Barton sat at the controls of his quinjet, bound for Jacksonville, taking advantage of the autopilot to review all the new intel Natasha had sent him.
Isabella Swan. She was a conundrum. On the one hand, a seemingly average teenage girl who was forced to run away from a bad situation. On the other hand, an accomplished escape artist skillfully evading a determined and violent enemy. Determining how those pieces fit together would be the key to finding her, but all of them were drawing a bit of a blank there. It was obvious that they were missing a vital piece of information, and that it was something huge.
But he couldn't concentrate on analyzing what that missing piece might be because as he continued to stare at the two dozen slightly varied headshots on his tablet, he couldn't help thinking she was so much like him…
Before Clint had become SHIELD's Hawkeye, the master assassin and dutiful agent, he had been exactly what she was now. A child forced to grow up too fast after watching his whole family murdered. A teenage boy who became a man the day he found the dismembered bodies of his father and younger brother. And a runner who had mastered the art of being no one at all.
He could still remember his fear, his pain, his anger. His family's deaths changed him fundamentally as a person, and he knew that by the time SHIELD had recruited him, he was a completely different person than the boy he had been.
And Isabella would be no different. The streets hardened a person. If she was truly still alive, she wasn't going to be the beautiful young girl smiling in these pictures he held in his hand.
She was going to be distrustful because when on the run from enemies such as hers trusting the wrong person got you killed. She was going to be paranoid because looking over your shoulder becomes a habit that simply can't be broken. She was going to be fierce and strong and very possibly violent because someone alone in the world has to learn to fight to survive.
His heart ached for Isabella, or Charlotte, or whatever name she was going by now. Because even if they found her, and even if she was alive, even if they could find and eliminate her enemies and make her safe again, even then the innocent joy that he saw in the eyes of the woman captured in these images would be lost. Her eyes had been forcefully opened to the world around her, and that would have changed her forever.
He sighed sadly and set down the tablet, taking back the manual controls as he approached the landing strip. Clint would worry about the aftermath later. Right now he needed to do what he could to find her and bring her home.
Meanwhile, the other quinjet was still in the air, heading West.
Captain Rogers spent the majority of the flight to Seattle reviewing every piece of intel he had been able to find on Isabella Swan. Her family, friends, medical history, school records, everything. He was beginning to feel like he could really understand her, or at least understand who she had been before her family was murdered, and hopefully that would help him to predict her moves and find her before she got herself killed.
"We will find the daughter of Swan," Thor spoke suddenly, sensing his growing worry and seeking to reassure him.
"How can you be so sure?" Steve asked him, brow pulled together in a deep frown.
"She is of the blood of the Starks," Thor reminded him, "If the Man of Iron is any indication, Starks are not easy to kill. Too stubborn to die."
A part of him felt like snorting at the demigod's statement, but the bigger part of him felt the need to point out a hole in that theory, "Renee Dwyer was also a Stark, and that didn't save her, or her youngest daughter."
"Have faith my friend," Thor was undeterred, "Isabella Swan is a young warrior maiden. There is no other way she could have faced such a violent enemy and escaped their clutches back then. And a warrior such as that will survive long enough for us to find her."
He tried to take comfort in what the man was saying, but in his gut he knew that something very dark was brewing here, and he feared they might already be too late. Never, in all his long life, had he ever wanted so desperately to be wrong…
"Rogers," he answered his phone when it began ringing loudly the moment they landed in Seattle.
"Steve, it's Natasha," came the voice of the widow through the line, "We've made some progress on our end. I am sending you and Thor everything we've found so far, including the address of a gas station you'll want to stop at while you're in Seattle."
"Thank you. We will," he assured her, knowing Tony was also listening to the conversation, "Keep me posted."
"They have found something to help us in our search?" Thor asked as he hung up the phone.
Steve passed him the tablet with the new intel, "It appears Isabella was using the name Charlotte Connelly when she left Forks. The photo at the end is a close up of her with the new hair, and what appears to be a nondescript red motorcycle. I don't recognize the model, and the lack of plates makes it difficult to identify. It may have even been built with spare parts, which means it's likely unregistered."
"But she would have had to have already had it before she fled," Thor concluded, "So it might be a good starting point to determine who might have helped her before she left. Someone must have helped her build and maintain the motorcycle, yes? So if we find her mechanic friend, they might have answers as to where she went next."
"It's not a lot to go on, three years after the fact," Steve pointed out.
"But more than we had when we left New York," Thor reminded him, "We will find her." Steve really hoped that he was right…
As they stepped off the quinjet, Rogers breathed in the moist, cool Washington air. The city sky line could be seen in the distance off to one side, but turning the other direction, he noted they were almost entirely surrounded by lush forest as far as the eye could see.
It was odd the feelings this brought out in him. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, and now lived in New York City, and though there was a seventy-year gap in between, he felt comfortable in the sprawling city, with its bright lights and busy streets. This place reminded him of one of the many base camps from the German countryside during the war. It had him thoroughly unsettled.
He tried to ignore the growing feelings of unease as he and Thor climbed into the waiting black SUV and made their way to the gas station Natasha had informed them was Isabella's last stop three years ago, but the hairs on the back of his neck continued to stand at attention, and he simply couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them…
A/N: PM or leave a Review to let me know who you think Rogers is sensing with his super-soldier instincts. Victoria or one of her helpers? A wolf from the pack? Perhaps a member of the Cullen family, or a Volturi guard? Someone else entirely?
