Author's Note: About Ellie's last name. I'm familiar with the Japanese instruction manual identifying her last name as 'Williams.' I've declined this narrative, and given her the last name 'Coulsen' for *mysterious purposes*… It's her mother's last name.

That being said, she is not related to Agent Coulsen from the Marvel universe. That is all.

After their little session, Natasha urged Ellie to get some food, and she hadn't needed much encouragement. It's pretty awesome, because the cafeteria here doesn't have rules like with the Fireflies or in Jackson. No notes required, just get in line and ask for whatever you want. Ellie'd gotten another tuna sandwich since the one from yesterday was so good. With the chips. And she'd put a few in the sandwich like Nat had suggested. It was almost as good as the day before.

Afterward, not really having anywhere to go or anything to do, she'd gone back to her room and had a nap. After waking, she'd looked out her window for a while.

She hadn't been outside in over a day, but there's something really pleasant about the Chimera. It's mostly steel everywhere, but her bed is cozy enough. There are lots of windows, bunches of bright, bright sunshine pouring in over and between the clouds. It's beautiful. And when it's clear below, the world stretches out underneath her like a living map. She watches for a while in satisfied fascination.

Probably early afternoon, she starts feeling a little stir crazy, so she takes a walk.

The Chimera has a lot of crew, mostly in these blue and white uniforms. There are guards with guns, but the atmosphere isn't really military. She passes by people conversing about all sorts of stuff, some of it making sense, some not. They seem to be plenty busy. She gets a few looks, but little special attention.

Security's light, too. At that AIM facility, she'd needed that badge to get anywhere, but here she can go where she wants with only a few exceptions.

Walking down a main corridor, she sees large double doors with a 'Tech Lab' placard on the side. She walks through them.

It's pretty open, but there are tables everywhere. They're covered in tools and parts, some of which look familiar, but many don't. There are also a few larger machines, complex looking with robotic arms moving around and making sparks. She doesn't bother trying to understand them. There are a variety of techs in lab coats tinkering with things, and one guy in just jeans in a t-shirt working at a bench against the wall. Not far away, there are what look like a bunch of suits of high-tech looking armor on stands. She realizes it's the same kind of armor that Tony guy was wearing. Then she recognizes the guy in jeans. She walks his way.

He looks up. "What's up?" she says casually.

He considers her for a moment. His eyes move in quick little movements, with his thoughts, she guesses. "Nanotech. Skinny ties. Hammer Industries stock. What's up with you?"

She's got the impression he was being clever, but it's Greek to her, as Joel used to say.

"I'm bored," she says simply. She looks at the table he's working on. There are a lot of advanced tech parts that make little sense to her, but there are a few pieces that she recognizes as part of the armor. She picks up a gauntlet.

"Careful with that," he says, "hate for you to take your arm off."

"If I did, could you replace it with one of these?"

"It's armor, not cybernetics."

"Do you guys have cybernetics, too?" She looks, brows raised in curiosity.

"On the cutting edge, maybe. You should ask Bucky sometime."

"Who's that?"

"A friend. Got a temper, though."

She tries to get her hand in the gauntlet, but it won't fit. "Can this thing shoot lasers?"

He looks at her incredulously. "But of course."

"Seriously? That's awesome!"

He continues working on another gauntlet. The other hand, it seems like. Parts of it are open and exposed. He's palpating it with a narrow instrument that makes tiny sparks when it connects. She watches him for a bit.

Eventually, he looks up. "Sure you don't want to lose interest and move on?"

Ellie thinks, and nods.

He's clearly vexed for a second, then he wipes it from his face. "I don't know what to offer you, kid. This stuff's pretty advanced, and I add more to my to do list than I take off every day."

She looks around him at the row of armors. "How about one of those suits? That could keep me busy for a while."

"You're not getting a suit, and—" He stands all the way up. "Do you know how many people ask me that? 'How about one of those suits, Tony?' 'Let me take a ride in a suit.' 'Come on! Just one time!'" He levels a finger at her. "You're not getting a suit. And listen to this. There is one person, exactly one person besides me who gets a suit. And that's Rhodey." He glances to the side, an annoyed look on his face. "And even then it's mostly because the government made me."

"Who's that?"

"Rhodey? An old friend. You may meet him in the coming days. Alright, fine, you want something to keep you busy?"

Ellie thinks. "Yeah, sure."

"What do you know about circuitry?"

"Um… a friend once showed me how he fixed a toaster."

"A toaster." Tony is somewhere between incredulous and stupefied. Then his eyebrows jump up. "You know what? That's a start. You ever soldered anything?"

"Uh, I watched him do it."

"Alright, well, let's start you here." He walks to the other end of the table and gestures to a small piece of tech held by a delicate vice and another one of the instruments he was using. "This needs soldering, but it's pretty straight forward. Put your hand here. Here, it's—think of it like a glove. Yeah, like that. Secure your fingertips. Move a little, it will turn on.

A small screen in front of the chip turns on and offers a hugely magnified image.

"Whoa!" says Ellie. "Those are the circuits? They're so small…"

"I told you, this is advanced stuff. But here, you see all the red lines? Those need to be soldered together. Left to right, listen—are you listening?"

"Huh? Yeah."

"Left to right. Otherwise it'll screw it up."

"How do I…?"

"Just line it up. Use your hand, like that, yeah. Small movements. It'll work with you, just go slow. That's right. Yeah, now just—just pinch your index finger and thumb together slightly, it will—whoa! Yeah. There you go, you did it. Now you just got to do the rest of them."

"There's loads, dude."

"Yep," he pats her on the back. "Should keep you busy enough."

She offers him an amused look as he walks away and resumes what he was doing. He clearly hopes she'll stop asking questions, but he'll be disappointed. Still, this superfine soldering tool is pretty cool. She goes slowly from one circuit to the next. Every time she solders a connection, it makes a little zappy pop. It's cool.

They work in silence for a while.

"So you work on your own suit?" Ellie asks, still working.

He glances her way. "I'll do you one better. I designed it, back when I had my own lab."

She's honestly impressed. "Whoa, dude. Combination science guy and action hero? You're a rare pair in one person."

He doesn't offer any particular expression to that, then he chuckles. "I guess you could say that. But if you think that's special, you should talk to Bruce."

She doesn't know who that is yet, but she just leaves it be. "What did you mean when you said 'back when you had your own lab?' What happened?"

He looks her way again, this time scratching his cheek with a finger. After a pause, he speaks. "So you're talking to Tony Stark, and you might be the only person in this hemisphere who doesn't know what that means. I used to own Stark Industries. Started in weapons, moved to energy. Was kind of a juggernaut, in fact."

"So you're rich."

He resumes his work, adjusting instruments and reading displays as he talks. "I did fine. Problem is, I invested pretty heavily in some new tech years back that went bad. Really, really, cataclysmically bad. Long story short, I and a lot of other good people got dragged in front of a Senate committee, Senator Nash is a real dickhead, and they took everything from me."

"Everything?"

"Well, not everything. Just my company, my funds, my tech, all my patents, and my reputation. But they didn't take my freedom, I guess. You take your wins where you can get them."

"Ouch. Between that and the suit you gave up, the government really worked you over, huh?"

His eyes widen for a moment and he bobs his head up and down as if to say yeah, you could say that. But he doesn't speak.

Ellie smiles to herself, going back to her task. She's given him enough crap for now.

It's quiet again for a while, with just the clanks of people dropping tools on tables and the whirring and zapping of various machines operating. At one point, there's a verbal scuffle across the room between two techs, one accusing the other of taking his roto-tool. It's amusing.

Underneath all that, there's a constant dull roar, presumably from the four massive helicopter-like engines keeping this monstrosity in the air.

Ellie thinks. "Did you design the Chimera, too?"

Tony shakes his head, almost ruefully. "Can't claim credit for that. Sole credit, anyway. A lot of minds went to work on this bad boy and a lot of the other tools we use, like the quinjet. That one came from Wakanda, for the record. And I tried to improve it, believe me, but the core systems can't be beat. Accept no substitute, so to speak. Can't win 'em all.

"Gaffer and I leave a particularly large footprint on this ship and its systems, though. Good guy, little nerdy, but sharp." He presses a function on the touchpad propped up near the gauntlet and it flexes its fingers one at a time in sequence. "Gettin' there," he says to himself.

"You said you have a long to-do list."

"That's right."

"You run missions, too?"

"Kind of one and the same."

"How do you have time for all that?"

This time he looks at her. "Well I don't," he responds in his rapid, clipped manner. "Until I invent time travel. I could do it like Hermione Granger. Then it's all on the table. I'd just age faster. And don't think I haven't thought of that."

Ellie smirks, turning back to her work. He's pretty full of himself, but charming as well. "I don't know what any of that means." She looks his way. "Wait, so you guys don't have time travel, at least."

He gives her a long look. Conspicuously long. "Let's go with 'no.'"

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Ethically speaking. I'll just say this, tachyon is a hell of a catalyst."

Ellie frowns. That's the word Nat had used when talking about AIM's secret research, shortly before Ellie flipped the fuck out. "What is that stuff? Tachyon?"

Tony glances to the side for a second, possibly reconsidering his words. After a moment he turns to her. "Look, you know I can't answer just any question you have."

Ellie nods, but she doesn't look away because she wants him to answer this one.

He screws up his lips. "Tachyon is a molecular substance some goon at AIM was able to isolate by exposing an extremely cold solution of magnesium dust dissolved in liquid xenon—which, for the record, is extremely difficult to liquefy—and then exposed to a powerful electric current. The reaction rapidly forms sizable crystals of pure tachyon, which after their creation are generally stable and notably marvelous.

"After its discovery, some considerably more senior scientists at AIM were tasked with putting it to use, and eventually discovered that exposing it to further electric current produced a highly unusual field around the tachyon, which, when modulated and directed…"

He trails off, looking her way.

"Put it like this, it made it possible to create a bridge through time. Now, this is bad, Ellie—"

"But that sounds so cool!"

"Trust me, it's bad, Ellie, because there are side effects on spacetime that we don't fully understand yet. Not that it's stopped AIM from experimenting."

"What kind of side effects?"

"Massive, inexplicable electromagnetic and radioactive storms, pretty dangerous to anyone inside them, that kind of thing. It's exactly the kind of thing the Avengers are out to stop."

"And that's what they used to bring me here?"

"Well, close. Do you know what an isomer is?"

"Nope."

"Think of it like this, if the recipe for tachyon is ABC, the isomer 2-tachyon is ACB. Which changes how it reacts on the macro level almost entirely. They used 2-tachyon to bring you here, and we still don't know what the side effects are. Which is a problem." He looks her way, and she detects a certain amount of sympathy. "That's all I can tell you right now, Ellie. I promise."

Having absorbed the information as best she can, Ellie puts on her best 'I'm fine' face that she can and resumes soldering the little microscopic connections on the chip in front of her.

Tony's eyes linger on her for a moment, then he turns back to his own work.

"Tony," she says.

He looks up. "Yeah, Ellie?"

She takes a breath. "Do you really think you can get me home?"

He doesn't respond at first. He rubs his goatee. "You know, Cap gets on me about making promises I can't keep." He sets the tool in his hand down and leans on the counter. Ellie looks up, and he meets her gaze. "Ellie, I believe so. We don't know what they're doing, yet, or even why they're doing it, but that's never stopped me before. If Monica and her science goons could figure it out, I think we can, too."

Ellie's brow is wrinkled with the tinge of hope.

"But I can't promise it will be safe, or that we will be able to find the path back in any reasonable length of time," he finishes.

A wave of cold wells up in her. She looks down.

"But we're going to do our best."

Ellie nods, not looking up.

She can still see him in her second sight, of course, and he looks out of his element, and a little uncomfortable. He glances over his shoulder. "And speaking of our best. Bruce!"

Ellie turns to see a mild-mannered man in a richly colored purple button down and slacks approaching them. "Hey, Tony," he says. He looks Ellie's way. "I see you didn't hesitate to put the new recruit to work. Hey," he says, offering her his hand. "I'm Bruce."

She shakes it. "Ellie."

"We kind of met, but," he chuckles nervously, "you know." He turns back to Tony. "Tony, I just got off a call with Hank."

"That's what I was waiting for. Hey, kid—forgive me, Ellie, I gotta go over some things with Bruce, I'll be right back." He gives her a pointed look. "You be careful with that, yeah?"

She smirks. "Yeah, I know."

"And don't touch anything that looks like it could blow you up." With that, he puts his arm around Bruce's shoulder and they walk across the lab, talking about some kind of science stuff.

She's tempted to try to put one of the gauntlets on, but the feeling in her chest kills the impulse. She takes another breath. She's about to resume her tedious task when she stops.

Her life back in her world, with the infection and all the other threats around her, taught her that good hearing is invaluable. Joel only deepened that lesson. But unless it's her imagination, and that seems less and less likely, ever since that day, it's been even sharper.

She hears Bruce utter the word 'tachyon' across the lab.

"—in a way, the 2-tachyon readings are what we expected, but we've got a ways to go. He's treating it like exotic material—"

"Like any good scientist would," says Tony.

Ellie frowns. If she focuses, she can see them a ways behind her with her second sight.

Tony is standing with one arm across his belly and one under his chin in consideration.

"Right," says Bruce, "but he needs us to figure out how the tech we lifted off of AIM works." Bruce gestures a lot with his hands when he's talking.

"Which is what you were doing," Tony points out.

"Yes, Tony, and don't make me point out—"

"I'm the tech guy, you're the chemist, I know."

"Here's what I'm saying; he can see what's happening on his end, me on mine, but we have to bring this stuff together."

"That's what I said in the beginning."

"Yes, Tony, and I know how much you love hearing you were right. I was able to do a good amount of analysis on the tech. Mostly, it's familiar, from other AIM tech, up to and including their time-manipulation rig. How it works is a little beyond me. We need the software to bring it together. Which," at that point Bruce gestures to Tony.

Tony purses his lips. "Jarvis can't crack it. I mean, it was wide open the moment I gave it to him, but he can't reverse engineer the reaction. AIM's programmers are getting smarter, leaving out unnecessary details. Pure function. He posits it's a high level project."

"I mean, you think?"

"Right. But it means we know it will work, not what it will do."

Bruce nods a few times. "I mean, that's pretty scary, Tony."

"So we scale it down. How much damage could it do?"

"I don't know, Tony. If it causes a chain reaction of some kind, maybe a lot. What if 2-tachyon isn't the fuel? What if spacetime is the fuel, or something?"

"Alright, let's not get ahead of ourselves." Tony puts his arm around Bruce's shoulder again as they keep walking. "Let's get Hank back on the phone and talk about next steps."

Double doors leading from the lab close behind them smartly.

Time manipulation? Spacetime chain reactions?

Ellie takes her hand out of the glove and leans against the table with her head in her hands. She waits until the thoughts slowly drain from her swollen, overworked brain.

A little while later, she sighs and stands up. She looks over her shoulder. Techs are still at work around the lab, but there's no sign of Tony.

He completely forgot about her. She scoffs. Then she notices someone approaching her. It's the Captain guy. Steve.

He's in the same uniform she saw him in yesterday, without the shield. It involves a lot of riveted leather, in a deep blue. The significance of that with the red and white on his shield was not lost on Ellie. He's closely shaven, with clean cropped hair. His eyes are light blue, like Nat's, but more open. They make her feel like she can trust him.

He stops in front of her with a little smile. "Afternoon."

"Howdy," she replies.

He surveys the desk. "You meet Tony?"

"Yeah," she replies.

"He put you to work?"

"I asked for it."

"Where did he go?"

"With Bruce somewhere."

"So he ditched you?"

"You know, it seems like it."

Steve smiles good-naturedly. "Forgive me, but I saw you on the security feed and figured it was time you and I talked a little more. You busy?" He gestures to the chip she was working on.

She looks down at it. It was something to do, but at this rate she can annoy Tony whenever she wants. "Not really."

"Great. Follow me, I'll take you to the bridge."

Steve walks briskly down the main corridor leading to the bridge. He can hear Ellie following behind. He hasn't gotten a chance to have a real talk with her yet, but she's already left an impression.

What Ellie's been through in the last 36 hours would be incredibly stressful for anyone. And terrifying, that too. Nat had told him how Ellie hadn't hesitated to take her own shot at Taskmaster back at the AIM site. And how hard she'd taken the news about what AIM had done to her. He was worried she'd slip into melancholy—or, these days they would probably call it depression. But she hadn't.

She'd gotten up this morning and found ways to occupy herself. Not only had she accepted Nat's offer to spar, she'd impressed her. Nat told him herself before flying off to support Maria and her SHIELD agents on a mission. He also noticed her chatting with Tony on the feed, and he even let her touch some of his tech, which Steve happens to know is not common.

Then he, still a stranger, had offered to show her the bridge, and she had scarcely hesitated. He glances over his shoulder.

She's glancing about casually, taking in the new sights. She notices his look and meets his eyes.

Steve's spent a lot of time with people who have been through it. The faint wrinkling of the brow, the tightness around the eyes. Ellie's face runs the gamut. She's too young for that. At least, she's supposed to be. But her green eyes aren't defeated, like some he's seen. They're still open, still ready to see the next thing.

"Bridge is right through here," Steve says.

The hydraulic doors open in front of them and the chatter and light of the bridge flow over them.

Ellie's eyes turn to it and widen in wonder. "Whoa…"

"Before operations, we group up here to discuss…" Steve trails off because Ellie runs right past him, looking around eagerly. Steve can't help but offer a wry smile to that. She stops in front of the war table.

Jarvis's projection centers and enlarges. "Greetings again, Ms. Ellie."

She squints at the projection. "JARVIS? Is this where you live?"

"Well, technically, I'm housed in a server bank at an undisclosed facility formerly belonging to Mr. Stark. What you see in front of you is a projection I use for interpersonal communications with the team."

She looks over the holographic sphere of undulating projections, her head tilted. "Weird."

"I won't argue."

"Why do you keep calling me Ms. Ellie?"

"Well, it is my wont to refer to esteemed colleagues in this fashion, though I usually use their last name. Yours is unknown to me, though."

"Huh." Her eyes start moving again and she walks around the war table. "I guess you can call me Ms. Coulsen, then."

"Certainly, Ms. Coulsen."

Ellie hustles up the steps to the upper deck, where over a dozen SHIELD officers control the consoles running primary Chimera functionalities. She stops in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the front half of the bridge, offering a view of the launch platforms below, the forward engines, and the open blue sky beyond.

Ellie presses a hand against the glass. "So awesome…"

Steve walks up next to her, still wearing a little smile. "She's a marvel, alright."

Ellie turns to one of the pilot officers, Eric. "Are you flying this thing right now?"

He looks up from his screen. "You could say that. Then again, we all are." He gestures to the other pilots.

"Whoa… that kind of makes sense. Who controls the engines?" She points to the one over the starboard bow.

"You mean, who turns them? We all play a part, but technically Sonya has that duty right now." He gestures to Sonya a few seats away. Her blonde ponytail swings to the side as she looks their way.

"Hey, can I try for a minute?" Ellie asks eagerly.

There's a bit of laughter at that. Sonya smiles. "I'm afraid not, unless Cap gives the go-ahead."

Ellie looks up with hopeful eyes.

Steve shakes his head, still smiling. "Let's save that for another day."

"Aww…" says Ellie, but it's clear she knew it was a long shot.

"Care to join me in the observation deck?" Steve gestures up to the enclosed area overlooking the bridge.

She glances up there. "Sure."

Steve leads her up the steps and through another set of hydraulic doors.

"Avenger recognized," sounds over the intercom.

Alisande is standing in her usual spot, looking between a tablet and the displays in front of her. She looks tired.

"Alisande," Steve recognizes.

She looks up and smiles. "Hey, Cap." She glances at Ellie. "New recruit?"

"Not exactly. This is Ellie."

She holds her hand out to Ellie. "Alisande. Shield liaison. Pleasure to meet you."

"Same," says Ellie, shaking her hand. "Well, not the liaison part."

Alisande chuckles.

"Mind if we have the room for a few minutes?" Steve asks her.

Alisande is momentarily surprised. "Oh! Um, sure. Actually, I was just gonna get some coffee."

"Hope you weren't up too late working on contingencies again."

"Oh, no. Well, okay, I was, but sometimes you get on a roll, you know?" She turns as she's about to exit through the rear doors. "World's not gonna save itself!"

Steve smiles. It's a phrase he'd once used in front of her that she likes to repeat to him. The doors close automatically behind her, leaving just them and the dull roar of the Chimera in flight.

"Is this the part where you grill me?" Ellie asks suspiciously.

"No, nothing like that. Seems only right that I let you get to know me a bit, and vice versa."

"Are you the leader of all this?" Ellie asks, gesturing around broadly.

"Well, no, not really. To the Avengers themselves, I'm often seen as a sort of leader. But mainly in spirit. There's a little leader in all of them, though they don't always recognize it."

Ellie looks like she's not sure she follows, but she lets his words sink in.

Steve crosses his arms, looking through the interior windows down to the bridge below.

Nat had told him Ellie was tough, when it was just the two of them, so he'd known she'd really meant it.

I could be wrong, he had said, but it seems like there's something you're not telling me.

Nat's back had been to him. She turned slightly, so he couldn't see her face even reflected in the glass window. She never gets caught off-guard.

There is, she'd replied. There had been a pause, a rare hesitation for her, then a rustling as she'd crossed her arms.

How much she reminds me of a younger me.

"Since I said this isn't about grilling you," says Steve, "what if I leave it up to you?" He turns to Ellie. She returns his look, apprehensive, but receptive. "If I asked you to tell me about yourself, what would you say?"

Her expression dampens a bit. "Not something I get asked very often. Didn't Nat tell you everything?"

He shakes his head. "She said she promised you she wouldn't. She told me a bit about where you come from, though." He looks out the window again. "That things got bad. Really bad, before you were even born."

He sees Ellie nod in his peripheral.

"That you've seen fighting, hard fighting, like most here don't their entire lives."

She doesn't respond to that.

He glances at her. "What do you fight for, these days?"

Her eyes are far away. "The people I love," she says. She looks up then, but he doesn't say anything, so she continues. "I like to think… I think about it a lot of days. I like to think that the worst of it is behind me. I had to go through some ugly stuff, just to get where I am. Then, some bad things happened, and I went through some more on purpose. I almost didn't make it… But I kept going until I felt like I'd done what I needed to do. Until I felt like it was okay just to take care of me, and the people I had left. And I had that. I was lucky enough to have that. Until yesterday."

She gazes off at some distant thing. "And then I went and fucked it all up."

Steve frowns. "You did? How's that?"

She looks up, almost as if she'd forgotten he was there. She shakes her head. "Abby tried to stop me, to talk me out of it. Getting closer to the lights. She almost succeeded, I—" She winces and shakes her head. "But I didn't listen, because I'm stubborn, and stupid."

Steve considers her.

"Yeah," he says, looking down at the bridge with this arms crossed, "I've met quite a few people who confuse 'stupid' and 'brave.'" Ellie looks up sharply. "And 'stubborn' and 'determined' are two sides of the same coin."

Ellie frowns, looking vulnerable, but she chews on his words.

"You know, you and I have something in common, Ellie."

Suspicious, she returns his look for a few moments before looking away. Finally she speaks. "I was trying to think of a clever comeback, but I don't even know you well enough to do it. What do we have in common?"

"You might not guess it, but I was born in 1920."

"Huh? 1920? That's… wait, what year is it here?"

"2042." He's looking down over the bridge below through the interior windows. He turns to her. "What about where you come from?"

"Same," she says, almost looking disappointed. "You're seriously that old? You look, like, thirty."

"Well… yes and no. I was recruited in the early years of World War II to take part in a special program the US government was running. They gave me something called the Super Soldier Serum. It was meant to make a whole group of fighting troops that were faster, stronger, and had more endurance."

"Whoa, that's crazy," says Ellie. "Did it work?"

"On me, it did, but I was the only success. Most of the serum was destroyed, the formula lost. Still, they sent me over to fight against the Axis powers. It worked. We strung up quite a few victories. They gave me this shield and styled me 'Captain America.' It felt like an impossible name to live up to." He cocks his head. "I grew into it, though.

"And we did go on to win the war, of course, and…" He gives her a considering look. "Did your…"

Ellie seems to understand, nodding. "Yeah, the Allies won in my world, too."

"And that's very good, but I myself hit some bad luck. Guess it had just run out. I was on a mission in the arctic. Things went bad, I lost my ship, and stranded in the icy waters, I froze. The serum protected me from dying, though. So my body was preserved."

Ellie doesn't interrupt, she just stares in open fascination.

"They would find me and thaw me out in 2029, almost a hundred years later."

"You seriously survived that?"

Steve thinks of a response. In the end, he just shrugs.

"Whoa…" Ellie turns thinking about that. She frowns. "So… assuming our worlds have a similar history…" Her face darkens for a moment, brow twitching. "Up to a certain point, anyway. When you woke up… everything must have been different."

"Sure seemed like it," he confirms.

"The people you knew…"

"Yeah."

That hits harder than he expected. Ellie's face falls in sympathy. "I'm sorry. That must have been painful."

It moves him more than he was expecting. He glances down sheepishly for a second, then finds a little smile. He nods. "It was a difficult time." The conversation is taking him back to days he hasn't thought of in some time. "For a while, I didn't know what I would do. What felt like just days before, I had had a clear purpose. Now… there was no war to fight. No one I knew left to fight for. Then Nick Fury came along and showed me I was wrong."

"Nick Fury?"

"He is," Steve winces, "was, the director of SHIELD, and a great and brilliant man. SHIELD is a private paramilitary organization dedicated to anticipating and responding to global threats."

"Are the Avengers part of that?"

"Eh, more like associates. Fury started the Avengers, too. That's what he recruited me for. I was the first. And I'll never regret the decision."

"His last name's really Fury?"

Steve chuckles. "As far as I know."

"That's so badass…" says Ellie. Then her eyes snap back to him, looking sheepish. "Sorry, am I not supposed to swear?"

"That's more of a public facing policy."

A little smile grows on Ellie's lips. Then it fades and she looks away. "Oh…"

"What's the matter?"

"I get it, now. When you said we have something in common." A sad look comes over her face. "We were both taken from our homes and our loved ones against our will."

Steve nods. Ellie continues to ponder.

"You, you found the Avengers."

"That's right. They're my family, now."

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" says Ellie. "Are you gonna make me an Avenger?" Her eyes light up. "Oh! Maybe then Tony will have to give me one of his suits! He said they shoot lasers!"

Steve chuckles. "I don't know about that, but we may be able to come up with something a little safer for you to do, if you want. In a formal capacity."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not familiar with your skillset, but I'm sure Alisande could put you to work. She's clearly busy enough."

"Like to earn my keep?"

"No, not like that. In a way, you're a refugee of AIM, like a lot of other people we help. You're free to stay with us until we can find a way to fix what happened to you. This is just an offer. Like I said…" He looks out the other windows at the wide, blue sky. His mind is back in that bunk after he woke up a hundred years into the future. He's holding his head in his hands and trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he'd left the world he knew and loved behind. "It helped me."

"Okay."

"I—" He stops and turns to her. "You sure? Just like that?"

"Yeah. Alisande, I liked her." Her eyes drift to the side and some of the darkness comes back. She shakes it off. "I'd rather stay busy."

Steve smiles. She continues to impress him. He nods sharply. "Then it's done. Hang out here, I'll tell Alisande on my way out." With that, he starts walking to the rear doors. He stops short. "And Ellie?"

She's distracted at first, clearly digesting everything, but she meets his eyes.

"You're tough, kid." He lets the words hang for a moment. He gives her a nod. "I admire it."

Her cheeks redden. He leaves her with that, and walks smartly through the doors.

Ellie sits on her bunk. She found out she can dim the lights with a little slider, so now they're a soft, golden glow. The sun set a while ago and the stars are out again, she can see them through a gap in her curtains. She's not tired just yet.

Her mother's journal is in her lap. She counts herself very lucky it happened to be in her bag that day. She pulled it out to read it, but she hasn't gotten that far yet. She's just holding it, running her thumb over the weathered leather cover. It's just what she wants to do, for now.

Something catches her 'eye.' It's a familiar, sunny glow. She smiles in recognition.

The door to her room opens and Kamala hops around the corner, striking a pose.

"Hey," says Ellie with a smile.

Kamala pauses. "Hey. That… was kind of strange."

Ellie looks back, uncertain.

"You, uh…" Kamala giggles. "I thought I'd surprise you—sorry, I really should have knocked—but you already knew it was me, didn't you?"

Ellie's mouth curls into a smile. She nods.

"That's so cool. Hey, how are you holding up?"

Ellie sniffs, and shrugs, as if to say 'fine.' She bends over and puts her mother's journal back in her bag. She scoots over on her bed to make room for Kamala, who happily hops onto it and crosses her legs in a sitting position.

"You're back from your mission?" Ellie asks.

Kamala nods.

"Did it… go okay?"

"Totally, we kicked butt, as usual."

"Huh. Good."

"Were you… were you worried about me?"

Ellie stares back. "I mean, a little, yeah. Isn't it dangerous?"

"Well, a little. We're not reckless or anything, though—usually," she clarifies. Ellie must not look convinced because she continues. "I mean, it's like this; Tony says what we do is like guerilla warfare—do you know what that is?"

Ellie nods.

"AIM has more money and muscle and guns and stuff than us by a long shot, so we don't attack them directly. We strategize. We pick times and places where we can get in and out quick, gathering intel, freeing captured inhumans and stuff."

"So you pick fights you know you'll win."

"I mean, where the odds are in our favor, for sure. Sometimes they get the drop on us, though, and we have to take risks. But we're smart, and strong, and we protect each other."

"Are you saying an Avenger has never died?"

Kamala's face saddens a bit and Ellie thinks twice about asking, but Kamala shakes her head. "No… it has happened. It's super sad." She considers Ellie. "Don't bring this up with Clint, but—"

"Clint?"

"Yeah, um, Clint, Hawkeye, if you haven't met him yet you probably will soon. Years back he was married to another Avenger, Mockingbird. She was killed by Mephisto, protecting him."

"Mephisto?" Ellie probably sounds like a parrot.

"Really bad dude, long story short. Anyway, just know that we protect each other. Things have to get really bad before any of us is in real danger like that."

"Okay. I'll believe you."

Kamala smiles. "What'd you do today?"

"Um," Ellie thinks. She chuckles. "Well, Thor took me to Asgard."

"What? Whoa…" Kamala frowns. "That's surprising…"

Ellie smirks. "When we got back, Nat saw us. She looked kinda pissed."

Kamala leans in. "Did she?"

"Thor basically ran."

Kamala's eyes get even wider. "He did?"

"Totally," says Ellie, and they laugh. "Then, Nat took me to the HARM room and beat the crap out of me."

"What, really?! Jeez, Ellie!"

"I got a few hits in."

"Dang, that's awesome!"

"Then I wandered around and found Tony in the Tech Lab. I bugged him for a while and he put me to work soldering some chip."

"What?! He never lets me touch anything!"

"Oh, and I met Bruce." A thought comes back to her. "Hey… he said something weird. We shook hands, but then he said we'd already met, but it was the first time."

Kamala blinks. "Oh," she smiles. "You don't know. Um… do you remember Hulk?"

"'Hulk?'"

"You know, big, green, made of muscle."

"Oh my god, how could I forget? He was terrifying."

"He and Bruce are the same person."

Ellie stares. "What?"

Kamala giggles. "I don't mean this at your expense or anything, but it's really fun for me getting to explain all this stuff to you. Um… let's see, short version. Bruce was experimenting with gamma radiation many years ago, and there was an accident, it changed him forever. It took him a while to get used to it, but now, when he wills it or if he gets really mad, he changes into the Hulk."

Ellie gapes. "Are you serious, dude?"

"Um, yep."

"So if I make Bruce mad he might transform into a massive, green version of himself and pound me into jelly?"

Kamala laughs in spite of herself. She puts her hand on Ellie's knee and shakes her head. "No, no, no. Look, Hulk and Bruce are… different, I'll give you that. And Hulk does have a temper. But they're both good guys, trust me. He'd never hurt one of us." She glances over her shoulder. "And please don't say that in front of Bruce. He's… kind of a sensitive guy, it would probably hurt his feelings."

"Or he'd snap me like a twig."

"No! Ellie, I'm—"

"Okay, okay, I'm done. I'm just saying. I believe you. It's hard not to believe you, honestly."

Kamala tilts her head. "What do you mean?"

Too innocent to recognize her innocence. Ellie offers a crooked smile and just shakes her head. "After that, Steve came and found me. He showed me the bridge—so cool, by the way—we had a conversation and, um, he offered to put me to work and I said yes."

"Work? Like how?"

"I'm gonna work for Alisande. I met her today, too. I like her. She got to know me a bit. I told her about my background, which I found out is actually pretty top secret."

Kamala nods.

"She set me up with this girl Alicia and she's showing me how to read SHIELD equipment and reports and stuff. It was pretty cool, I just finished about an hour ago. Going to pick it up tomorrow."

"Dude, that's so cool!" Kamala high-fives her. "I always wanted to work for SHIELD when I was a kid. I was gonna go to school for engineering, then… well, other stuff happened. So, would you call it a good day?"

Ellie thinks. It hurts for a second, because in her mind, a good day starts with her waking up next to Maedlyn. Her day had started… pretty bad. But then it got better. A lot better. So she nods, and it feels honest.

"Cool." Kamala's thinking about something. "Hey, if you're exhausted, I can get out of your hair, but if not, there's one more thing I can show you. It's kind of a big thing, actually."

She probably should go to bed sooner than later if she's really gonna tangle with Nat again in the morning, but she's not out of curiosity for the day. "Go ahead."

"Okay, so you remember the internet thing?"

"I remember."

"I talked to Nat and Steve, and they agreed, here…" Kamala reaches down to a messenger bag she'd brought and dropped by the bed.

"Are Nat and Steve like the mom and dad of the Avengers?" Ellie asks.

An incredulous laugh bubbles out of Kamala. "Uh…" She laughs again. "I guess, kinda? It's so funny that you asked me that. Oh! You should ask Nat that."

"Mm, I don't think that's a good idea."

Kamala laughs and pulls some tech out of the bag. There's a laptop and a smaller device, a phone like they sometimes see in abandoned malls and stuff.

"Okay, so—do you know what these are?"

"In theory."

"Okay, so Nat says you can use these as long as it's not overwhelming—"

"Oh my god, dude, will people stop talking about overwhelming me?"

"I know, I'm sorry. Seems kind of hard to, honestly. Anyway, here, look." Kamala opens the laptop and scooches side by side to Ellie so she can see. "This has internet access. So does the phone, which is basically the same thing but more portable and you can call people. I just—I actually did a lot of thinking about the fact that you've never used the internet. I think it could be helpful for you. What do you know about the internet?"

"Um… that it was this huge, global thing. After the 90s, it was used for, like, everything. That it was really important, I guess. I don't know how it works, though."

"Okay, I'll try to keep it basic. This is a web browser, it's like a window to the internet. This, this is Zoomble, it's a search engine. Um, okay, a search engine lets you quickly find things on the internet, since it's huge, and browsing it manually would be impossible. This takes you straight to what you want. Zoomble is the one everyone uses. It's really good. Here, um, what would you like to know?"

Ellie looks back at her and tosses her hands. "I don't know, dude, this is your thing."

"I'm saying, like you can use the internet for all kinds of answers, and other things, too. Just think of a question, any question."

Ellie cocks an eyebrow. "How far away is the moon?"

Kamala purses her lips. "That's a good one." She types the words onto the screen with surprising speed. She hits a button, and the screen changes. There's a lot of text, but the larger text toward the top reads '238,900 mi.'

Ellie leans in, brow wrinkling in fascination. "Holy freaking crap, that's far."

"It is," Kamala agrees.

"You could go around the planet a bunch of times."

"You could."

"You can just ask it anything?"

"I mean some things it might not know, or might be debatable. But yeah."

Any question. The wrinkles on her brow deepen. "Can I see that?"

"Sure," says Kamala, handing the laptop to her.

Ellie places her fingers on the keyboard. A while back, Maria had basically coerced Ellie into learning to use the typewriters the adjudicators used. The arrangement of keys are basically the same, but it feels really different. She also had more fingers back then. It takes a while, but she eventually types in the question.

'How many people are alive on earth?'

She looks at Kamala. "Just hit the enter key," she says.

Ellie does. There's a lot of text again, but big letters on the top say '8,400,000,000 people.'

Ellie stares at all the zeroes.

"Wow," says Kamala. "That's a lot, huh? Impossible to imagine, really."

Ellie doesn't say anything. She's wearing her 'I'm fine' face. A powerful and uncomfortable feeling pulses in her chest. Then something else occurs to her and she sucks in a sharp breath. She grabs Kamala's forearm.

"Can you find a person with this thing?"

"Um," says Kamala, taken aback, "if there's any kind of public record of them, yeah, probably, but—"

Ellie fumbles with the track pad until she can get back to the search box. She deletes her question and types the name as quickly as she can. She keeps making mistakes, and it takes a minute.

'Anna Lisbeth Coulsen.'

She hits enter. There's a lot of text. It doesn't make much sense to her. She frowns in frustration and turns to Kamala. "I don't get it. I can't read this, did it work?"

Kamala is still a bit startled, she looks over the screen. After a few seconds, she shakes her head. "Ellie… I don't think there's anyone by that name."

A chill creeps from her chest and into her limbs, and she feels like she's sinking into the bed. Her face sags and she can't stop it.

Stupid. That was a stupid thing to do.

"Are you alright?" Kamala puts a hand on her back.

She still has no intention of crying in front of Kamala. "I'm fine. Forget about that." She just wants to change the subject, so she types in 'how many fish are there in the sea.'

The figure '3,500,000,000,000' comes up.

"What?!" says Ellie. "Bullshit!"

Kamala giggles. "Why do you say that?"

"How could anyone possibly know that? Three… I don't even know what the word is, trillion? That's inconceivable!"

Kamala laughs.

Ellie is incredulous. "You believe that? What's so funny?"

"I mean…" she laughs again. "It's just the word, inconceivable, it's kind of a meme."

"Meme?"

Kamala laughs. "Oh my god, never mind that for now. Yeah, I believe it. I mean, they couldn't possibly know exactly, but those science people are pretty smart. I bet it's a close estimate."

They go on like that for a while. Ellie can't deny, the magical knowledge box that can answer any question is pretty fascinating. She learns a variety of interesting but useless facts, then starts coming up with more interesting questions. Kamala shows her a website which is like an encyclopedia for everything, even pointless stuff. How to search for pictures of anything, and Ellie learns about cuttlefish, which are crazy and super interesting.

Kamala also shows her what a message board is. She asks Ellie what she's interested in, and she says 'I don't know, guns?' They find a gun board and a guy is asking why his perfectly clean gun keeps jamming, and it has pictures. Ellie quickly identifies that his spring tension is fucked up. She looks at the comments and it turns out she's right. They guy even thanks the commenter and says it fixed it.

An hour passes quickly, and Ellie realizes why Kamala warned her about getting 'sucked in.' She puts the laptop on the desk and the phone in the drawer.

"So…" says Kamala, doing an awkward little dance. "Do you want me to stay in here again?"

Ellie smiles. "It sounds like you want to stay in here."

"Um," Kamala looks embarrassed. "I don't know, I guess I just figure if I were you, I'd want to have someone to talk to… Not to be presumptuous, um, like I don't know what you're feeling, I just—"

"I get it, Kamala," says Ellie, making up her bed with her back to Kamala. "Honestly… you're right."

"Cool!" says Kamala. She clearly does want to bunk up. "I'll go get my pajamas."

"Kamala," says Ellie before she can leave. Ellie's back is still to her, but Kamala stops and looks back at her, an open expression on her face. "Since you're someone I can talk to…"

Kamala clasps her hands by her sternum, a tinge of concern on her face. "Yeah?"

Ellie sighs. She'd rather not, but she's learned in recent memory that when you're carrying something like this, it helps to say it to someone out loud. "There is something that's bothering me." She turns around and Kamala approaches slowly. "You said it seems pretty hard to overwhelm me." Ellie smiles ruefully. She tosses her hands lightly. "Maybe it's true. I've always kind of been into this stuff. It was just always fiction. At first I felt like I was losing my mind. But I don't think that, anymore. And I feel safe, with you guys. So I'm okay, for now. I'm okay."

Ellie's face twitches. She's trying to figure out how to say it without crying. She can't keep the tear out of her eye, but it doesn't fall. "But no one I love knows that, and I can't do anything about it."

"Oh, Ellie," says Kamala. She winces. "I get it. That sucks. I'm sorry."

Kamala steps forward and Ellie accepts her hug, feeling very thankful for her in that moment. She smells like dust and a fragrant oil. They break apart.

"You know," says Ellie, "I've been in a situation like this before, too."

"Really?"

"Kind of. And I'm going to say the same thing now that I had to back then." Ellie rubs her palm over her eye, wiping away the tear.

"This better not take forever."