Okay, so I have been cross posting this on AO3, and apparently going back and forth between the two I got a little mixed up. So the last chapter I posted was posted out of order. Hopefully things make a little more sense now! Apparently this and the next chapter never posted. Gr!
Miranda clutched the sides of the sink, the porcelain cool against her skin. She let out a shaky breath, pressing her forehead against the bathroom mirror. Music thumped absently from the club, reminding her of what lay waiting for her outside the sanctuary of the small room.
"What the hell are you doing?" She whispered, closing her eyes. "This is not you. You do not touch emotions with a ten foot stick. That is your sister's thing."
Goosebumps rose on her skin as she remembered the feel of his fingers on her arms, her back. Her grip tightened, her knuckles white. "You know why you told yourself 'No attachments.' You know what's coming."
For a long time she just remained like that, forehead against the glass, gripping the sink as though it were her only life lifeline. If she did not leave, she did not have to face the consequences of her mistake. She did not have to face those blue eyes. That smile. That mouth...
"You are stronger than this…" She reprimanded herself. "You quit smoking god damn it."
"No you're not."
Miranda pulled back, blinking into the mirror's reflection. A woman stood behind her. She was petite, her dark features tainted by bitter hatred. "You've always been weak."
Slowly, Miranda turned. She thought of the knife strapped to her calf, of the quickest way to get it from there to her hand. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"
"Don't think I don't know how you've been played like a puppet. Letting our sister pull your strings."
Miranda took an uneasy step back, putting a hand out to steady herself. "You...I don't understand how you are getting through. After everything I did..."
"I'm not through yet. But, oh, I am so close." The woman's smile was wicked.
Already, Miranda could see the small star bursts of red in her sclera, the sheen of sweat on her skin. This kind of complete possession would drain the host in a matter of hours.
"And when I get through-"
"When?" Miranda snarled, "Don't you mean 'if.'"
"It's not a matter of if, darling sister." The woman stepped closer. Miranda could feel panic gripping her, her heart pounding wildly in her ears. She took a shaky breath, attempting to get a grip on herself. The only extraordinary thing about this woman was the entity possessing her. She was only inches from her now. She was nearly a foot shorter than Miranda, but it did not seem to deter her. "But when. And when I do I'll be coming for you."
Smiling, the woman stepped back. With a small wave, she turned from Miranda and moved towards the door. Rooted to her spot, Miranda could do nothing but watch her leave.
The girl paused, glancing back over her shoulder. "Oh. And daddy says hello."
A rage so total and complete overcame her at those words. The world was a wash with red. A force welled inside her that she had not laid claim to in a very long time. It sparked a heat in her lungs and swelled out from her center to capture her limbs, setting her fingers to pins and needles.
The woman screamed as she was flung backwards. Little more than a rag doll in a wild child's hands. Her fingers clawed at her throat as an invisible force held her against the wall, her feet searching for a ground that was nowhere to be found. Miranda approached her, arm still raised, fingers mimicking the force that held the woman there.
Miranda bared her teeth. "You can tell father that I will never undo what I have done. And you know very well that you are not strong enough to do it yourself."
"I don't need to do it. Because you will do it for me." She rasped, her lips turning blue. "I just need you in a little different mindset."
With a snarl, Miranda closed her fist. The woman made a small, strangled sound. It was barely audible over the snap of bones and cartilage. Miranda let her fingers loosen, her hand falling back to her side. The woman's body collapsed to the floor. Miranda gasped in one breath, then another. She raked her hair back from her face, pulling at it.
"My god. What have I done?"
The music cut off suddenly from the other side of the door. All at once, two things consumed the stark silence. Miranda's cell phone began to ring. And someone started screaming. Multiple someones.
Miranda shoved open the door to the bathroom, plunging herself into the chaos of the club. Two women knocked her shoulder as they scrambled past, sobbing. One of them clutched the side of her face, blood welling between her fingers.
The monitor on her phone read "Eiko."
"So we have a bit of a problem." Eiko said, she sounded a bit breathless.
"No shit." Miranda growled.
The main space of the clubhouse was in shambles. Tables were overturned. Bodies lay on the floor, their blood streaking the tile. Something howled. The sound rose every hair on Miranda's body. Fear welled, striking in her the primal instinct to run. To be away from this thing. To put as much space between herself and a creature that had haunted humanity since the dawn of time.
"What's going on?" Eiko asked.
"They are here. I think they are coming after me." Miranda said.
"We can spare a few girls. We just about have the portal up and running."
"No!" Miranda slapped her hand against the hall wall. "No. You shut that thing down. Under absolutely no circumstances will you power that thing up. Not until you get the okay from me. Do you understand me?"
"Mor. It's not interdimensional. She can't hijack it."
"I don't care. Nothing about any of this feels right. Now shut it down. I'll handle the situation here. You find that crack in the Divide and you seal it shut. I don't care if you have to use the fucking baby Jesus himself to do it!"
"Of course. Right away." And then the line was dead.
Miranda pressed the heel of her palm against her temple, her hand shaking so hard she nearly lost the grip on her phone. Someone was shouting. Sam?
"Get out of here! Go!" He commanded. She could see him across the dance floor, ducked low, guiding two women behind the protection of a booth and out into the hall beyond.
"Don't let them touch you!" Bucky bellowed. "You can only do damage when they are solid. Don't waste your energy if you can see through them.
The ground vibrated beneath her feet. Daisy stepped into view, pure determination on her face. Daniel Sousa moved at her back, gun raised. Miranda almost laughed at the uselessness of the weapon. But he wouldn't know any better.
Daisy raised up her hands and the vibrations strengthened. "Let's see what they think of this."
One of the shadows sifted and twisted, moving towards her in a terribly unnatural stop start of motion. The concentration of vibration hit the monster square on. It screamed and then burst apart, dissipating like smoke in the night.
Bucky appeared beside Daisy. "Well that's a neat trick." Even from across the room, his smile seeded butterflies in her stomach.
"Get a grip," Miranda snarled, jerking up her pant leg and grasping the hilt of the knife hidden there. Light flashed off the jagged blade.
Taking one last centering breath, she dashed out into the fray. She tried not to focus on the small amount of relief she saw in Bucky's face when she stepped out onto the dance floor.
"It's not gone." Miranda said before turning on the dark that surrounded them. "Come on! Do what you came here to do!"
Something rumbled low, the feel of it rising from the floor and into their feet. She turned as a rippling black mass erupted from the dark overhang of the VIP lounges. She brought her arms up in time to block its first blow, but the second landed squarely on her ribs. She twisted, fingers grasping for purchase on anything tangible, and pitched the creature behind her. It twisted like a cat trying to right itself, but Bucky was on it before it had a chance to regain its ground. The room exploded into motion. Daisy and Sousa rushed forward as the creature threw Bucky off like he was little more than a fly to a horse. Daisy raised her hands.
"Don't!" Miranda called. "You will just dissipate it again."
It roared at them, savage and raw. Miranda took that moment of distraction to fling her knife as hard as she could muster. It buried itself in the back creature's head. What should be its head? It staggered a step then crumbled forward, its body bursting apart as it hit the ground. The knife skittered across the floor away from them and into the dark. Miranda surged forward in search of it.
"Maybe they left?" Sam asked.
"No. They are still here." Miranda breathed. She could feel their presence. Feel it in the tingling sensation threatening to over take her arm. In the way her hair raised on her skin, knowing she was being watched.
"There should be two left." Daisy said. Her eyes were on Sousa, watching him as he approached the hall that led toward the exit. His gun was raised, eyes narrow. "What do you see?"
A light at the end of the hall flickered. Then another. They winked in and out, a random, disorienting pattern. Bucky moved forward, flanking his fellow man out of time. Then the lights burst apart, sinking the hall into darkness, leaving only the sound of glass showering the floor as the only evidence that a world still existed in the darkness.
An energy blast shot forward from the hall. Its line of fire lit its path down the hall, revealing inky, spiderous shapes clinging to the walls and ceiling of the hallway. For just a moment they caught the shape of a tall, slim figure. Shuri.
Bucky and Sousa dropped to the floor, narrowly avoiding the strike of the blast. Shuri struck again and again towards the shapes on the ceiling, screaming her frustrations as she missed again and again. The creatures burst apart into hundreds of small writhing, skittering shapes that scrabbled down the walls and towards the center of the dance floor where Miranda stood. Bucky and Sousa pulled back, desperately trying to avoid the touch of the small shapes.
Daisy scattered them, hitting them again and again with vibrations. But they moved like water, welling back into the vacated area the second that the vibrations stopped. And then Miranda was surrounded by hundreds of ink black insects. Miranda's fingers were open wide at her sides. The creatures formed a perfect circle around her, screeching their anger at the invisible barrier they met. They crawled and tumbled over each other, rising up and up in an attempt to reach its top.
She heard Bucky calling her name. Sam swore, frustration clear in his voice. But Miranda steadied her breath, focused on the integrity of the barrier around her. She just had to hold out until they realized they couldn't reach her.
Like a changing tide, their tactic shifted. They drew back from her, leaving the perimeter of the barrier. They tumbled and climbed and crawled until they rose up into a singular solid shape. Miranda took an unsteady step back, catching her breath. But before she could regroup, the creature began to scream. It clawed at its back, twisting and trembling before bursting apart.
Her knife fell to the floor, its jagged blade glinting in what little light remained. Dark swirls embellished its surface. Behind where the monster had stood was Bucky, body still poised in the follow through of its throw.
"Okay." Daisy said, taking an unsure step toward Sousa. "What the hell was that?"
Miranda surged forward, scooping the knife up off the ground and tucking it back into the sheath at her calf.
"Seriously. Like, you are telling me that horror show's greatest weakest is a knife?" Sam asked, running a hand down the front of his dirt smeared shirt.
Miranda shrugged a shoulder, forcing any unease out of her voice. "No one ever said it needed to be complicated."
Bucky's eyes were on her. They had the same expression they had so many times before. When she would ask a question that seemed just a little too close to the truth. When she had stopped his metal hand mid swing. When he had found her alive and mostly unharmed after a fall through a second floor window. But this time, she could tell that he did not intend to stay quiet.
Several people dressed in black tactical gear surged into the room at once. The quiet dissolved into shouts. Assault rifles were raised, muzzles trained on them. Miranda stared down the line of the barrel closest to her, leveling the man with a stare that contained every ounce of anger and irritation in her body. He stepped back, suddenly seeming to question his orders..
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Sam shouted, his hands going up. "We are friendlies. You hear?"
Miranda moved back toward her companions. "So. I suppose SHIELD is going to be upset that this little side show they have been trying to keep under wraps is about to see the light of day?"
"On the ground!" Someone screamed at them.
Daisy laughed uneasily. "Yeah. This is going to be all kinds of fun."