"We can't hide them forever, Thanos was able to trace the tesseracts signature through space, and I'm sure that's how his goons found Vision and Dr. Strange, he's not going to give up."
"I know Bruce, but what other options are there?" Rhodes asked, his head in his hands. Friday had confirmed Stark was still on the ship when it left the earths atmosphere, and he was still stunned. Peter had curled up in the corner with Pippin for comfort while the adults tried to come up with a solution.
"Hey Rhodey, we'll get Tony back, ok? He's probably up there talking the aliens to death as we speak." Shay said, the corner of her mouth lifting into a half-hearted smile. Patting his shoulder she turned back to Bruce, "in the meantime we have to make a plan, can the stones be destroyed?"
"It might be possible, but the power required…" his voice drifted off as he performed calculations in his head. "Visions stone is the only one we could try it on, I have no idea where the others are, or if Thanos already has them."
"If Tony and Strange return first, we could try his." Rhodes said.
"I suggested that already, he was not on board." Bruce answered.
Shay sighed. "So, it's back to Visions stone, is there a way to remove it without killing him?"
"Maybe, I mean there's a lot more than the stone in him, but I couldn't do it, not here and not fast enough, we don't have time to waste."
A strong voice from the door interrupted their musings.
"We'll go to Wakanda."
Steve Rogers stepped through the doorway and Vision entered with Wanda, Nat and Sam bringing up the rear.
"Nat… hi." Bruce spoke softly, a mixture of caution and wonder in his voice and face.
"Hi."
The awkwardness of a first meeting after four years absence would have been far worse if the universe itself wasn't hanging in the balance.
Vision groaned and Wanda shot Shay a nervous look.
"Let's get going, I can have a look at that once we're in the air, ok Vis?" Shay slung her go bag over her shoulder and wrapped her other arm around Visions back to help Wanda support him to the waiting quinjet. Shay threw a look over her shoulder to the kid who'd been uncharacteristically quiet. "You stay here Pete, hold down the fort."
Peter's face fell and he grumbled to the floor, "Tony would have let me go along."
"Yeah, he would," Steve said, setting a gentle hand on the red clad shoulder, "but he might need you back here when he returns. Vision's got a target on his back now and we need to stay focused on protecting him. Now, Clint will pick up Scott and meet us there, so wheels up in five, full armor and extra ammunition, got it?"
The team whirled into action. And while everyone was suiting up and checking their weapons a red clad form slipped through shadows and into the jet, folding into a dark corner and melting into the jet as the suit camouflaged itself.
Shay grunted as the piercing pain of Visions wound shot through her own abdomen. "Sorry Vis, this is going to hurt, if you want, I can put you to sleep first."
Vision shook his head, "just do it."
Wanda flinched as pain twisted Vision's face. Golden light flowed from Shay's fingers and through the open wound and her breathing slowed as she concentrated on the feeling of the muscle fibers under her hand and in her own gut. Synthesized muscle responded to her command, stretching across the cut ends and knitting themselves back together, the red skin followed and Shay and Vision sighed in unified relief.
"Can you phase?" Wanda asked, her eyebrows still scrunched in worry.
Vision raised a hand and tried to phase through the bench under him.
"No."
"I don't think that's something I can fix, there's nothing… material left in there, Vis, but there's an odd energy signature I can't manipulate, it feels… wrong, oily... Maybe Bruce can figure it out?" Shay turned to where Bruce sat slack-jawed.
"I… You glow. And you healed- but Visions' an android?"
"A lot has happened while you were away."
Shay told him the story of the past four years, assisted by projections from Vis's incredible memory bank:
The defeat of Ultron, the devastation of Sokovia. The New Avengers, the new threats. Zemo, the accords, the fight. Shay choked as she tried to explain what her gift had done to Rhodes.
Vision brought up War Machines video feed of the incident.
Sam landed with Shay in his arms as a helicopter drifted to the ground in the distance. Metal wings wrapped around the pair as Rhodes charged palms raised in warning.
"Congrats, you're both criminals now. Put your weapons down."
Green vapor pooled around their feet, wrapping around the shield of Sam's wings, reaching for the camera, spreading like a venomous cloud.
A flash of reflected light off metal, and Sam launched himself upward, Shay came into view, lunging for Rhodes.
Rhodes left hand bucked slightly against the discharge of his repulsor, the smoke flashed red.
The screen went black.
"What- what happened?"
Rhodes squeezed Shay's shoulders in response to her penitent expression. "No more apologies, remember?"
She swallowed and nodded, "yeah, I know."
Rhodey continued the story from there, Shay had been hit, nearly died, gotten patched up in a Polish hospital just to be dragged out to The Raft still unconscious. Rhodes himself had been left paralyzed from the waist down.
Here Shay found her voice again and finished the retelling.
Tony and Steve's fight in Siberia, the Rogues breaking Sam and Shay out of prison and being healed in Wakanda, returning to heal Rhodes, the intervening year of being on the run and the eventual dissolution of the accords.
"So, we got the band back together, well, short of you and Thor… Can't believe he's really gone. What happened?"
Shay listened with interest as Bruce explained Hulks flight out of the world and into a new one. That interest quickly turned to horror as he talked about Ragnarok and the subsequent escape.
Shay knew Nat and Steve were also listening. The constant presence of glow, that warm and safe feeling that they shared had shifted, and she felt their sympathy and grief. Nat's emotions were tangled with relief, heartbreak, and longing all wrapped up behind a wall of steel. Her dark eyes flashed over catching Shay, and she knew Nat had noticed the compassion she'd sent through the glow. The meaning of the look in her eyes was plain.
Survival comes first.
Shay nodded her understanding, and she breathed, in and out, slower, centering herself for the work, bracing. Careful to keep the glow invisible, she reached out to each of her compatriots in turn, offering what she could.
Bruce- *courage, comfort*
Rhodes- *strength*
Steve- *Confidence*
Nat- *Peace, comfort*
And then her sense passed over someone else, someone who shouldn't have been there at all.
"Peter. I know you're there, get your but out here now!"
