Killing

"Kill."

Kate Bishop's soft, incredulous word was the only sound in the room. Neither of the blue suited heroes seated across from her moved as she worked her way through that.

"I am not an assassin." Kate said finally. "I don't kill for a living. I kill if I have no other choice or if I mess up. Heroes are not supposed to kill people." She shook her head. "The sheer amount of paperwork involved means I try very hard not to."

Hope nodded vigorously at that, clearly she had done the same rounds with the paperwork gods and lost just Kate had.

"It happens." Clark was quiet, sad if anything. "Hope and I have both been in the position of having to take lives. It shouldn't be as easy as it is."

"No, it shouldn't." Hope agreed. The platinum haired blonde shook her head. "Humans have been violent for almost the entirety of their recorded history, no matter the reality. Unless religion or an outside force keeps them from violence, they continue to be so. Killing an opponent is faster and often easier than disabling them. Where humans with no powers are concerned, it is quick, it is simple and there is no thinking involved. Especially in the heat of a fight."

"When or if you have to kill someone without the heat of battle around you cold, unless you are a complete psycho, it is not easy." Clark agreed. "People become desensitized to killing, either through environment or training, but even then, it can be hard for humans. Asking this of you is just her latest insanity."

"Who is she?" Kate asked, fascinated despite herself. She felt instant, bone deep revulsion at the thought of taking a life. Avengers saved lives! It was what they did. But still…

"Elizabeth was the last daughter of an emperor who led an empire that fell." Clark was reflective, not sad, but musing? "She was an aberration among her peers. She didn't want power. She was abused as child and fled to people who could protect her. Who did protect her."

"Who could abuse the daughter of an-" Kate paused and groaned.

"Who indeed? The one time wife of said emperor. Her own mother abused her. Tried to brainwash her." Hope was grim now. "What happened should have driven her mad and in many ways, it did. To her credit, she never claimed to be sane even before this last mess. She had the ability from an early age, to walk between realities."

"Naturally?" Kate was dumbstruck by the sheer power required for such.

"Your words mirror mine and just about everyone else's." Clark snorted. "She was and is darned scary. Especially when she trained to be an assassin." Kate swallowed hard at that and both superheroes across from her were grim. "Like your Natasha Romanoff, but more so."

"If she walked between realities, she could get anywhere. Anywhen." Kate shivered despite the room's comfortable temperature and Hope took her hand again. Kate grasped it, grateful. "Natasha is scary enough at times. Add such a power and- Oh my god!"

"There were and are those who worship her as a goddess." Clark shrugged when Kate stared at him. "To her credit, she never wanted that and she has stopped them when she can. Quite strongly on occasion."

"A goddess of what? Vengeance? Justice?" Kate asked slowly. "Assassins?"

"All of the above." Clark shrugged again. "Remember we are talking multiple worlds, multiple cultures sometimes within those worlds and not all of them human. I have met her. She is scary."

Coming from this man? This epitome of superheroes? Oh boy!

"And she wants me to kill her." Kate shook her head. "Like you say, I have no chance."

"According to her, you do." Hope disagreed calmly. "Personally, I have never met her, but I met her enemy once and he was a pain in the butt. I didn't even realize he wasn't from this reality until we trashed his plans, disabled his forces and tried to take him prisoner. He vanished and we got our first look at the extra reality conflicts that are still going on between him and Elizabeth." Kate looked at Hope who swallowed hard. "I saw an entire world torn in right in half by golden power. There were people on it, screaming for help and I could do nothing but watch it die."

"Elizabeth is incredibly powerful. She is anything but stupid. A fact that the other conveniently forgot when he tried to enslave her." Clark nodded when Kate looked at him. "When I met her, she impressed my colleagues with the sheer depth of her plans. Even Bruce who defines the words 'contingency planning' was impressed. Elizabeth always had a plan and multiple backup plans. Even for her own descent into madness and needing to be stopped."

"So… I am her plan?" Kate was more than bit dubious.

"I don't blame you for doubts." Clark reassured her. "No one who has met either of these crazies would. That said? Yes. As best we can determine, you are her backup plan in case her first plan for stopping herself failed. Which it apparently has."

"Ooookay." Kate shook her head. "I don't get it. I am just a human. No powers. Yes, I can sneak around, fight the bad guys, but I am not an assassin. I don't kill people." Hope raised an eyebrow and Kate swallowed hard. "I mean…"

"Kate Bishop, bows and arrows killed a lot more humans than guns have simply because they have been around longer." Hope was desert dry now, but her grip didn't lessen on Kate's hand. "Add to that, it is quiet. You can. You just don't want to and I applaud that."

"Me too." Clark reassure Kate who had tensed. "So many people who should know better think that violence is the sole answer to problems. That killing is a quick and easy solution to problems. Not just those we call 'villain' either. Far too many in positions of power think that brute force wins every time. It doesn't."

"Or positions of no power." Hope continued when Clark trailed off. "Got a rival or just someone inconvenient? Kill them and be done with it. But it never stays 'done with'. Something always comes back to bite the people who did it. Either good old fashioned 'revenge for the death of a family member' or in more modern cases, the law. Even villains learn not to randomly kill bystanders or they get some version of your universe's 'Punisher' showing up."

"Yeah." Clark admitted when Kate stared form one to the other. "So many say vengeance is wrong. For many reasons but it always was a factor in human thinking. 'Wrong us, do not revenge'?" The last was not in his own voice, but one from Kate's world!

Just the image of this man quoting Shakespeare at breakfast was funny. Him doing it here, now? In that voice? Kate had to giggle despite the seriousness of the topic. Probably his intent from his grin. Hope smiled at her and Clark did the same as Kate nodded.

"Add superpowers into the mix and it gets much messier." Kate allowed whens he finally had her mirth under control. The man did a wonderful 'Thor' impersonation. Had they met? It was possible. "Even without magic or technology so advanced it might as well be magic, humans remain human. We think like humans for the most part."

"Anyone who doesn't, is by definition not in their right mind as a human." Hope agreed. "We want simple solutions. We err towards the quick, the easy." Kate snorted and Hope smiled wider. "No, I won't quote Star Wars, even though it is apt."

"Thank you. This is weird enough as it is." Kate waved her free hand to encompass the room and the its occupants. One incredibly famous superhero and another who was, if not quite in his league, then just as willing to 'do the right thing'. Having breakfast with her of all things! "So I am the plan?"

"As I say, we cannot be sure. Elizabeth is sneaky and Machiavellian to the bone. But, we are reasonably sure that both of them are moving you on this course." Clark was stating facts, not trying for empty reassurance or platitudes. Kate appreciated that. "Elizabeth wants to be stopped and Lorinos wants her stopped. That said? We do not want him to win their conflict. If he, god forbid, got her powers or just winds up able to roam unchecked, then things will get very bad."

"Worse." Kate shook her head. "But, honestly, guys… I may be able to kill, if it is absolutely needed, but… What good is an arrow against someone like that? Either of them?" She had tried to kick Thor in the shins once in a fit of teenage pique. Only the once. The broken toe had hurt almost as badly as his laughter at her hopping around on one foot, clutching her wounded appendage.

"No one knows." Hope admitted. "We are just as stumped as you are about how you are supposed to stop her. And even if you did, by some miracle or divine intervention manage to kill her? Such would change you. Probably not for the better." Clark nodded his agreement.

"I am very confused." Kate admitted. "I know bows and arrow. I know fighting. I don't know quantum physics except what I have read. I don't have any place in a conflict of such magnitude. Do I?"

"No and that baffles us as well. But, you clearly are intended for such or you would have probably died on your trip across the barriers between realities." Clark was quiet now as Kate stilled. "We have kept up with many such things and your injuries were caused by impacts. We know that crossing the boundaries unguided can result in such, but it usually results in said crossing person dying. That you didn't means someone intervened. How or why, we have no idea."

"The best guess I can come up with is that you are the key to this, somehow." Hope gave Kate's hand a gentle squeeze. "From what I have gathered, Elizabeth never tells anyone all of the plans and this one, she may have even kept from herself somehow. Self preservation is part and parcel to life, so she will fight to protect herself, but you are no physical threat to her as you are."

"So, what do I do?" Kate asked. "I mean, go on, obviously. Jump more. Be astounded, confounded, scared out of my mind. All that?" Her usual snark was surfacing after all the shocks but neither of the others seemed worried. If anything, they seemed relieved.

"Be yourself. Hawk-Eye." Hope smiled at Kate as she gave her hand one final squeeze and released it. "I am betting that has something to do with it."

"If I do that? I will try to save her." Kate admitted. "It is what I do. I try to be the hero. Will that doom me? Doom us all?"

"Again, we don't know." Hope warned. "I have dealt with people who have lost their minds before. It is not possible to anticipate such. She has been broken by what happened to her That is clear. She seeks vengeance on the one who did it to her. That is also clear. The rest is murky even when not confounded by realities so very different from our own." Hope paused as Kate yawned. Kate stared at them over eyes that shut around the yawn and then Hope's face held horror. "I hoped for more time."

"I…" Kate swallowed hard and gave herself a shake. "No! I am talking with my friends! Go away!" She put just the right hint of teen-aged angst and threat into her tone ans she focused on Clark who was suddenly busy fiddling with his cape as Hope fought a grin. The lethargy vanished as if it had never been. "I need to be myself. Maybe it is time I started acting like myself?"

"God help us all." Clark muttered not even close to under his breath. Kate looked at him and he would not meet her gaze. "I um,… did my research before coming."

"And in your reality, I bet I am the comic book character." Both of the other nodded. "You read my comics." Kate wasn't sure if she should be honored or horrified.

"Well, duh." Hope smirked at Kate as the girl turned back to her. "It was the best source material we had for you. At least they did better than some of my comics." Hope mock shuddered. "The horror. That is why I am here. Why I pushed so hard to get you here and hidden from anyone who would try to take advantage. I do not know you except from those comics, but I understand being a teenager. I was one far more recently than he was." She nodded to Clark who nodded back. "And he was never a girl."

Kate opened her mouth, but a warning glance from Clark had her shut it quickly. Teen she might be. Stupid, she wasn't. If he didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to tug on his cape. Not with him in reach. Nosiree! Besides, that had only been one comic where he was shape shifted to a female form, right? She couldn't remember and it was really not a good idea to ask such embarrassing things of such a person at breakfast of all places.

"I accept my limits." Clark said softly. "I think the way I do. You think the way you do. We likely would not agree on a lot, Hope Corrigan, but we agree on on this. Kate Bishop needed time to come to grips with this madness. We may not be able to help her in what she has to do but as we can aid? We must."

"Agreed." Hope settled back into her chair. "So, Kate. Any other questions?"

"Millions. Billions, probably." Kate admitted. "But none I dare ask." She smiled bit wanly. Said smile fell. "You don't think she can be helped, do you?" Hope and Clark eyed one another and neither spoke. "Or the other?'

"The other is happy with what he is." Hope said very softly. "He is a sociopath, He doesn't feel bound by society's rules or mores. What we found in his labs… No. Not him." She admitted. "I am just as human as anyone else when I find such things. I got very angry and I am still. I want him dead at my feet but that isn't who I am. I can hope Elizabeth ends him before you stop her, but if not? Sooner or later someone will get him."

"Either one of our kind will get him or he will try to betray the wrong person and get smashed into bloody golden paste." Clark seemed calm, but Kate could tell he too was angry. "That said, if Elizabeth is free to do as she wishes, things will get worse."

"Do I want to know?" Kate half asked, half joked.

"Like many Hope and I have dealt with, she blames other people for her fall and subsequent imprisonment." Clark said heavily. "It isn't her fault she is insane, after all. She wants Lorinos dead as the one who did it to her. After?"

"It is never their fault, no. And they usually want revenge for whatever happened." Kate shivered in memory of some bad episodes and then nodded. "So… Does anyone have any idea where I will 'drop in without calling ahead' next?"

"There are several possibilities from here, but few that would allow either of them to get you out." Hope replied after a moment. "Most that we know of that are easily accessible from this reality are either dead realities when all life was destroyed for whatever reason or they are sealed and no one can get in or out."

"Or you could come with me." A calm voice spoke up.

The new speaker had both blue suited super heroes on their feet between Kate and the speaker even as Kate's mind caught up with several flat impossibilities. One, the room wasn't that big. The white horse that had suddenly appeared on one side of the room should not have fit in it. Two? It wasn't acting like a horse. It was eyeing Kate even as Hope moved to shift herself between the horse and the still seated human Avenger. Clark didn't move but he seemed to be listening hard. Kate had only thought herself still as the horse opened its mouth and spoke! Yes, it had been speaking before! Why was Kate so calm? Why wasn't she reacting? Snarking or gibbering on the floor? Why was she feeling sudden relief?

"None of that, please sir." The voice from the horse was melodious, female. Clark recoiled slightly even as it continued! "I am not your enemy, Kal El." The horse paused and made what was clearly a face as it continued. "Or Clark Kent as you style yourself more commonly. I meant no disrespect, to your home, Hope Corrigan, but many forces are converging on Kate Bishop as we speak. Your DSA is the least of them. She needs to leave. Now."

"Who are you?" Clark all but hissed that. "The voice I know."

"My name is Elizabetta and you do not know me, so trust will not happen." The horse did not take her huge, gentle eyes off Kate who was fully relaxed now. "Kate Bishop, come. Please!" She begged.

"She is under my protection!" Where did the helmet that Hope was wearing now come from? Her mallet was back in her hands too. It looked almost as big as she was.

"You cannot protect her, Astra! We can!" The horse wasn't moving. Wasn't fighting. She was begging. "Kate! Please!"

"You…" Kate breathed. "Do I know you?"

"They can see and hear through you!" The horse pleaded even as reality ripped behind her. Golden energy flared and fear crossed the face of the horse. "No! Not now!"

"Well, well, well..." The woman who stepped into view was wrong in so many ways. Kate didn't know her, but somehow, she did. Somehow, she knew she was now in more danger than she had ever been in as Elizabeth, last daughter of the Orokin Emperor eyed her and her companions. "Still meddling, eh Clark?" The last was snide. "I didn't expect this or you, Elizabetta. You know better, my dear."

"Better to try than to do nothing and moan when things go wrong." Clark hadn't moved. At all. That boded. Was that golden power flashing around him? Holding him? "You won't have her."

"As if you could stop me." Elizabeth paused as Hope took slow step forward. "My dear Hope, don't. It won't end well." Elizabeth warned.

"You are trespassing. I am going to have to ask you to leave." Hope was quiet, but readiness sang in every centimeter.

"I do apologize for not asking an invitation when this one.." She nodded to the horse who seemed utterly frozen. Could she move? "...tried to throw a wrench into the works of my carefully laid vengeance. I do not want excessive collateral damage across the realities and I certainly do not want to hurt any of my siblings." The face she turned to the horse was sad now. "You know I won't hurt you no matter how you fight, Elizabetta. Go home. Rest. Tend your herd and remember me. That is all I ever asked."

"We cannot give up on you any more than you could give up on us!" The horse's voice turned into a scream, of rage or pain. "KATE BISHOP! PLEASE!"

"Elizabetta…" Kate shook her head slowly as she remained focused on the horse. "Do I know you?"

"No." Elizabeth snapped as the horse winked away in a haze of golden energy. "You don't know her. And it is better that way. They fill your head with silly things like forgiveness and absolution." She raised a hand, beckoning Kate. "For me there can be neither. Come. We have much to do."

"I want to help you." Kate said softly. "But I don't know why or how."

"There are many reason, my dear Kate." Elizabeth was trying for reassurance, but it fell flat in the face of her malevolence. "Some are your own, some are imposed. I can help you past those, if you wish." She sighed as Clark seemed to swell. "Come on, Kal El, don't make me get mean!"

"I know what Lorinos does, but you are just as bad in your own way." Hope moved to stand fully between Kate and Elizabeth. "We were talking and having breakfast. You are being rude. Please leave."

"You cannot fight me." Elizabeth was sad now. "But you will, won't you? Damn it girl! You are both needed! Don't make me choose which one of you dies!"

"Neither. Elizabetta! Take me home!" Kate felt an overpowering calm surround her and she was suddenly bareback astride a crying white horse as it ran down a rainbow towards a black hole. That way lay only death, so why wasn't Kate afraid? As if responding to her thoughts, the horse spoke again.

"Because you have been here before." Elizabetta was still bawling as she flew into the black hole and left all the realities in her dust. The rainbow vanished when they did.

Elizabetta showed up first in Warframe: Prisons and we shall see more of her. Them.