Lost?

This was really, really weird even for all of the madness Kate Bishop had seen recently.

Kate Bishop stood on her feet, bow in hand and a special arrow nocked. She had been aiming at Elizabeth with said arrow, a weapon she had been promised could kill anything. She hadn't hesitated, she had been about to release the arrow when something had struck her from behind and pain had torn through her.

Kate Bishop stood somewhere outside her body, staring at the golden knife that had been thrust all the way through her so that the point had come out her chest! Gold was sweeping all across her body and she fought not to gag as something flew down from nowhere to land on her forehead! Golden hoops sprouted from it! She could not nothing but watch as her body was turned into a golden facsimile of herself. The other Avengers each had things landing on their heads, and each was starting to turn gold!

Kate Bishop was floating somewhere as dark power flared all around her and it hurt. She screamed over and over again, but no sound came. Then, she was warm and comforted as she floated in something that pulsed with life.

I know that hurt. I am sorry. Came from nowhere to seep through Kate's mind, easing her fear and pain. Elizabeth?! I can and will make it better. Easy, girl. I have you. It will be okay, Kate Bishop. Just a few moments and no more worry. No more pain. Just calm and warm.

She knew it was wrong, but she felt so good. It felt so perfect to just let go and Kate relaxed in whatever held her even as she felt things happen all around her. There were sudden flashes of green, red, gold and purple power and Kate screamed as her world fell away. Still no sound! She screamed again and again as agony flared though her. Golden flashes and more agony pile don atop what she was experiencing. Then a familiar voice thundered nearby.

"Send them back!" That was Ric. "We cannot protect them all! Magos! Hold her!"

A roar of gunfire heralded more flashes of power but Kate was numb now. She felt detached from everything even as something grabbed hold of her arm and the pain stabbing her redoubled.

"No! Those were mine! She is mine! You cannot have her!" Elizabeth was actually cackling from nearby even as Kate reeling under these sudden changes. Then there was a flash of blue and everything went away.

"Oh my god." A soft, scared voice sounded from nearby even as Kate felt her senses returning. Her eyes were open, but she couldn't see much of anything. She wasn't blind, it was very dark. "Is she-?"

"She is alive." That was the Magos. "But I can't stop this! This change. This corruption. It is… Omniessiah be merciful. This is evil!"

"The change is not completed yet, you held it enough, I think, Magos. Let me see what I can do." The other said and sudden, awful cold spread through Kate's entire being. It was so cold, it hurt! "There. Get the orb off her face and I can disable the nanites." Something grabbed hold of Kate's forehead and she tried to scream as new agony flared. Something was yanked off of her forehead and then, warm blue suffused every pore even as Kate managed to make noise. She tried to scream. It came out a croak. "Easy, Kate Bishop. Easy."

The voice was familiar. The kindness as well. Kate had met the speaker and liked her.

"L… Lotus?" Kate managed through a throat that felt far too tight. She stared up at a form that was not the Lotus she had seen before, but the face that sat in the middle of the form was the same. Sad, so sad. The rest of the form was all spindly and alien, but Kate didn't care. This being she knew and trusted. She had woken in the Lotus' care and while her methods had been a bit abrupt, the alien had never been anything but kind.

"Hello, Kate Bishop." The being who had been the Lotus said softly as warmth surrounded the now shivering girl. "It has been a long road since we last saw one another. So much has changed but now? I need your help just as you need mine."

"I… still… owe you… from the last time…" Kate managed just a hint of snark in protest and the Lotus smiled!

"I am not keeping score. Are you?" The Lotus asked even as Kate relaxed further.

"I failed." Kate said weakly even as her body slowly uncoiled from whatever had happened under soothing waves of power.

"Any direct confrontation with Elizabeth will fail." The Lotus was calm, but deep sorrow lay underneath. "Even insane and discounting her powers, she is the best planner I have ever encountered. You stopped that plan though. Well done."

"What plan?" Kate asked as a familiar red robed form appeared in her vision. The Magos was doing something and Kate felt a little better.

"From what she did? I am reasonably sure she wanted the tower and its inhabitants." The Lotus said after a moment. "With her, it was hard to tell before she went insane. Now? Trying to anticipate her simply doesn't work. She defies all probabilities."

"I don't-" Kate paused as her head cleared further. Probably whatever the Magos was doing. "Plan? Oh. She was angry when I asked her to get the battle out of the tower. Away from the hospital."

"This version of Elizabeth could not care less about collateral damage but she had to pretend to in order to fool your friends into attacking her enemy." The Lotus said heavily. "My friend Eliza cared about such, but she does not exist anymore. I hoped, but when she stabbed you from behind and tried to Corrupt you, I had all the proof I needed. My friend is dead. Madness and eventual oblivion are all that is left."

"I am sorry." Kate said, more or less automatically. "What can I do?" She jerked. "Oh my god! The Avengers! She was-" Her worry faded as blue energy flared anew, soothing her. "I…"

"Calm. Be calm, Kate Bishop. They were sent home." The Lotus reassured Kate. "There are many who are watching this mess unfold. Who cannot intervene for many reasons. They can help in such cases and did. Your friends are safe. We are not."

"I failed." Kate was crying now as softness wrapped around her and she was floating.

"Yes, you did not stop her so she is free to continue doing whatever she is." The warm was everywhere now and Kate was floating on a sea of bliss. "That said? You did thwart her and she never took well to being thwarted. She will seek vengeance or to enslave you again. We need to hide you somewhere that Elizabeth won't dare go. Don't be afraid."

"I am not afraid of you, Lotus." Kate managed through her bliss, but then the energy changed and Kate felt redness sweeping over her. It was different, that energy. Harder, colder, but… Still kind?

"Don't be afraid." The voice was very different now. Not male, not female.

"What are you doing to her?" The Magos demanded and then a hum sounded. "No! I…"

"Don't be afraid." Kate managed to open her eyes and saw something in front of her. A huge metal form that was nothing like the Lotus, but felt familiar. All that paled beside the swirling red lights that appeared on what would have been the head of a humanoid form. But beaked? Not human in the slightest. The swirling lights seemed to be coming from eyes or something similar and Kate fell into them. She wasn't afraid. Not now.

Later

When Kate Bishop woke, she was calm. She didn't hurt. She felt good. She lookeda a herself incurious and was not at all surprised to see her body clad in the jeans and T-shirt she had started this mess in.

"Good morning, Kate Bishop." The Magos said from nearby and Kate turned to see the red robed form sitting by a wall, surrounded by red energy. "How do you feel?"

"Kinda silly, actually." Kate heaved a sigh. "Elizabeth suckered me in nicely, didn't she?"

"She fooled me too and I had been warned not to trust anything she said." The Magos shook her head. "You seem to have no ill effects from the injuries or treatment. That is good."

"What happened?" Kate asked. She should have felt worry, fear, but she didn't. She felt good. "What did she do?"

"Elizabeth stabbed you with a knife composed of nanites that spread through your body. Apparently, she was trying to turn you into a slave. She did the same to me when her enemy was disabled, but my internal defenses held them off long enough for us to be rescued." The Magos replied. "The mad one was stopped, but just barely. Your friends were returned to their reality and they should have no ill effects. Or so I was told. This is so wrong."

"If you can go, Magos, please do!" Kate tried to beg that, but her emotions were still subdued. "You don't need to stay with me."

"Yes, I do." The Magos retorted without heat. "If I hadn't been there, you would be a golden slave right now and you would not think it wrong. It is. It is so wrong, what she nearly did to you and me."

"Neither of them are 'good' people, Magos." Kate said weakly as she tried to rise and couldn't. She stared at herself again and saw red energy all around her, just like the Magos. "Are we prisoners?"

"No, but they cannot trust us any more than we can trust them." The Magos replied, still calm. "I am sworn to remain by your side until this is done. I will abide by my oath."

"I... Okay." Kate could see the other was going to be stubborn, so she tabled that. "Both of them are bugnuts crazy. Everyone said that, but I didn't believe. Now I do. I thought I could get through to her. I was wrong." Kate lay back, trying to feel her way through the madness of her situation. "How can we possibly fight someone like that? I mean, Lorinos got taken by surprise, so if that wasn't a trick of some kind, he can be taken out. But Elizabeth? We had her and then… We didn't." Kate could not repress a shiver as she recalled the point of the knife coming out of her chest.

"From what little I have gathered, that is her power. To alter reality at whim." The Magos said very quietly. "What I have gathered is very little. Our hosts have been fairly kind, all things considered, but they have also been circumspect. Understandably so, against such a threat."

"If Elizabeth has the power to warp reality like Wanda can…" Kate shivered hard at the memory of some of what the woman known as 'The Scarlet Witch' had done. "...then we are screwed. We cannot fight someone like that."

"Fight, no." The Magos agreed. "Beating her will require more than simple violence. More than deception. More than I am capable of." She admitted.

"You are a Healer." Kate said slowly. "Not what I think of when I think the word, but in your reality, you heal."

"When I can." The Magos was non-committal and Kate remembered a bit of what had she had seen in the Magos' world. Not a nice place at all.

"So, what now?" Kate asked as she tested her limbs. They moved, but not far. The energy didn't hurt her, but she could not move them further than a few inches. "She has to be stopped. I think… I think part of her wants to be stopped, but the rest of her is too broken to realize that it is for the best."

"Do not empathize with her." The Magos warned. "Elizabeth is a threat to everything. She has the power to kill anyone I know of, probably even including the Emperor or Omniessiah." She made gesture that looked religious. "That said? I don't know her motivations. Revenge, certainly, but beyond that? I have no idea."

"If it were just revenge, she would have done it." Kate said slowly and the Magos looked at her. "She has incredible power. If she can warp reality, then she is could kill anyone. Anywhere. Any time. So why hasn't she?"

"That is a very good question." The Magos admitted. "One for which I have no answer or even a working hypothesis."

"She wants to beat her mother." A new voice sounded and both restrained women went still as the red energy around them faded and a door unfolded from one wall. There was no other word for it. It wasn't there and then it was. Kate hadn't noticed but the room wasn't quite right. It shimmered a bit here and there. Holographic illusions? The female form that entered the room wasn't human. Indeed, it was composed of transparent golden energy! She wore civilian attire and her face held lines of both laughter and sadness. Dark hair, piercing hazel eyes. The not-corporeal woman bowed to both of the others. "Kate Bishop? Magos Biologis Metrodora Thelema? I am Lynn. We need to talk."

"And we should just trust you?" Kate didn't bother moving and neither did the Magos.

"If we wanted you dead, young lady, you would be." The ghost or whatever she was replied without heat. "If Elizabeth wanted you dead, you would be." She made a face. "You would prefer being dead to what she wants though. Orokin did love their horrors and the Royal Family had access to all kinds of nasty things."

"I um…" Kate swallowed hard and nodded. "I apologize. It has been a rough time. I don't know how long. A week or so?"

"Apology accepted, but not really needed. You have been put through a wringer. As for how long? Time has little meaning in such cases, Kate Bishop." Lynn reassured her. "You are alive. That is a good thing. But now? You are hunted. That is a bad thing. I will help as I can, but I am limited in my own ways. I am also as fallible as I was when I was alive as has been proven far too many times recently."

"You are dead." Kate shook her head and scoffed. "Nope, not even close to as weird as some I have seen."

"Yeah." Lynn beckoned to the pair and they stared at her. "You are not prisoners. Neither am I. None of us are enemies of the ones who control this ship. They can be quite pragmatic, but they are not evil like the Orokin were." She made another face. "Not that such is possible. The Orokin went out of their way to make things as bad as possible just to do it occasionally."

"You know? The more I learn about these Orokin, the less I want to know." Kate groused as she rose, careful on the oddly tinged floor. It felt normal under her booted feet.

"Welcome to my world." Lynn smiled, but it was tired and heartsick. "Check your sanity at the door." She shook her head. "Come on, Better we not test the patience of our hosts too much. They are gearing up for war and this has only mildly delayed them."

"I don't think I want to know." Kate said as she she followed the golden form through corridors made of metal that looked wrong. "I have enough problems. But um… Can Elizabeth catch us?"

"Maybe." Lynn led the way to a door that was set in one wall. Said door vanished and a human shaped imprint appeared, rotating from somewhere. "In you get." Kate just looked at her as the Magos stepped to her side and Lynn frowned as neither moved. "Oh. Right. You don't know if this is a trap or not. Lotus?" She asked as Kate stared at her.

"She means well, Kate Bishop." An image of the Lotus appeared on one wall nearby. "Make up your own mind, but you know you have a friend in me."

"Me too. I still owe you." Kate said softly. "If I can help, I will."

"You cannot." The Lotus said heavily. "This conflict has been millennia in the making and there are far too many sides for even me to postulate probabilities. You have no place in this war. That is a good thing. Go. Please. Stop Elizabeth if you can, but if not? Be safe and far away from our war."

Kate smiled at the image and took a step into the human shaped hole in the wall. Lynn coughed and when Kate looked at her, Lynn made a 'turn around' gesture. Kate did and went utterly still as whatever she was in rotated! She drew in a breath to protest, but then she was standing on the deck of what looked like a small spacecraft. She had been in a few, during her time as an Avenger. She stilled further as the Magos appeared beside her, clearly upset.

"That was rude!" The Magos snapped.

"We do not have a lot of time, Magos." Lynn replied, not 'quite' an apology. "Elizabeth and Lorinos are both pursuing Kate Bishop. Neither will be gentle if they get hold of her again. We have very little time to act if we wish to end this on our terms instead of either of theirs."

"Neither of which would be good." Kate unbent a little. "I take it you have a plan?"

"Sort of." Lynn shook her head as other forms appeared nearby. Warframes. None moved closer than they were but all seemed ready to act. "Elizabeth cannot be beaten physically. If she is defeated, she will just reset our reality or shift into another for a time if she is restrained or killed here. We cannot defeat her and Lorinos is almost as bad. He flees at the first sign of actual, physical danger and sends more proxies. He can be stopped, Ric did, but… Elizabeth cannot be." Sadness shone in Lynn's face now.

"So, what can we do? No one is invincible." Kate declared.

"Not us." Lynn said softly. "You."

"Me?" Kate was very dubious now.

"Yes." Lynn smiled at her, bu tit was sad, so sad. "My son loved comic books. I know what you are and what you have done. Kate Bishop. Hawk-Eye."

"And…?" Kate drawled the word out to at least three syllables worth.

"And the only way we can find to stop someone like that is one you know. It is also a way we are utterly forbidden, for very good reason, Kate Bishop." Lynn said slowly as the starfield around the ship seemed to dance. No, they were moving. Fast. "You can end this. Will you?"

"How?" Kate demanded. "I can't beat her! I can't shoot her or slice her! How do I stop her if I I cannot-" She broke off and went utterly still as Lynn nodded to her. "No." She breathed, horrified.

"Tenno are forbidden to travel in time, Kate Bishop." Lynn said heavily. "Avengers are not."