The room was deathly silent. Every slight noise seemed to echo in the stillness. How was it possible that she looked exactly the same as I last remembered her?
I slowly got up from my chair. The scraping of the legs along the floor seemed to reverberate in the room.
I didn't dare to even blink, so afraid that if I took my eyes off of her that I'd lose her again. A few short steps and I was face-to-face with the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. Sure I might be biased. I imagine every girl thinks their mom is beautiful, but not every girl suddenly had their mother return into their lives after having been gone for over five years.
I could tell her green eyes were studying me, trying to find some connection as to why I would say such a thing. Perhaps she was studying me to see if I was telling the truth. Dad always did say mom was a human lie detector and could tell when we were stretching it.
Someone from behind me cleared their throat, breaking the tension in the room and breaking my eye contact with Nat.
"Um, Nat, is there something you would like to tell us here," Uncle Clint said as he slowly made his way to her side.
She sputtered out a slight laugh as she moved away from me, closer to where Steve and Bucky were sitting transfixed watching this whole scene play out.
"Listen, I've done some things in my time, but I would be the first to remember if I had a child somewhere along the say," her voice caught slightly on the word child. It was no wonder that this new revelation would affect her deeply as she had always been told since the graduation from the Red Room that she could never have children.
My mind started flying in a million different directions. Of course. If I was in a different universe then it was possible I could be in a timeline where I never actually existed.
The very thought of not existing caused my knees to shake so much I had to reach for the nearest chair to sit before I fell down.
"Of course," I said softly more to myself than anyone in the room, "You don't have a daughter in this timeline," I stated. She was at a loss for words, barely whispering out the "no" before she herself took a seat. I could feel everyone's eyes practically burning holes into me as I sat there, too stunned to say anything else.
My heart ached to realize that my own mother didn't know me, because in all fairness, at least in this universe, she wasn't my mother. So how could she know me? I felt the beginnings of a headache crawling up my neck.
How could things be so different on this Earth?
Wait. March 2018! Is it possible that things here haven't happened yet? That the most horrible day of my life and the lives of billions hasn't happened yet? Would it happen? Maybe this timeline escapes his wrath? But how would I know, how could I find out if there was time to stop things from going so wrong? I had so many more questions than answers and really no one to turn to for them.
Tony jumped up from his seat and advanced towards me with a purpose, "Alright McFly, it's time we cut through all of this bullshit and you just fill us in on what the hell is going on. Right now. No more stalling," The anger in his voice frightened me.
Steve and Bucky both jumped up to stop him from getting any further to me, "Getting angry won't help solve anything Tony," Steve's stern voice stated, gently pushing Tony back from his advancement.
Tears were clouding my eyes as I looked towards the three men. "I wish I could explain what was going on Uncle Tony, I really do," I mumbled before crouching into myself, wishing the chair would somehow magically swallow me whole.
"Perhaps I can help with that part of the story." Nick Fury sauntered into the kitchen, his black trench coat billowing softly behind him as he strode in.
Relief washed over me. If anyone could understand what was going on, certainly it would be Fury. Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived as just a few steps behind him was also the very same TVA agent that had tried to abduct me at the police station.
My fight-or-flight response kicked in as I overturned the chair I had just been sitting in, quickly moving further back away from the agent. My heartbeat rose exponentially as I realized I was cornered, that was until the soft red hair of Wanda Maximoff entered my view.
"What is he doing here, Fury?" she demanded as she stood in front of me, blocking the agent's view.
The tension in the room was at an all-time high.
Natasha and Steve stood in a protective stance ready to advance on the agent should he move. Bucky had moved around the table only a few feet from me and Wanda, positioning himself between us and our only other exit, the hallway. Behind his hip I could see he had a death grip a black military knife.
Pepper had jumped to her feet, moving quickly to get out of the way of any movement the other team members might need to make.
Tony slowly walked around Steve and Nat to stand only a couple of feet from Nick. Looking Fury up and down he finally spoke up, "well, if you can explain this cluster-fuck then I'm all ears." Clapping his hands he moved back around to take his previously held seat.
Slowly, everyone began to find seats again around the large dining table. Wanda stayed by my side pulling out two chairs, putting herself between me and the agent that sat towards the end of the table to Nick's right.
The seat to my right shifted slightly as I watched Bucky sink slowly into it. His eyes never seemed to leave the end of the table where Nick and the agent sat. I startled slightly when I felt his metal arm come to rest along the back of my chair in an almost protective manner.
Wanda's hand reached to take my trembling one in a move to calm my frazzled nerves, giving me a small smile meant to comfort and assure me.
Nick looked slowly around the table as each Avenger waited on baited breath for the explanation he had promised them.
"This is Agent Mobius and he is part of the Time Variance Authority."
"Should we know what that is," Steve spoke up.
"The TVA is real?" Tony spoke up, sitting further forward in his chair, much more interested now as he grabbed the tablet sitting discarded at his side, typing in information.
"Yes, it's real. Their job is to monitor timelines across the universes to make sure that variants don't pop up that disrupt the proper flow." Nick's gaze settled on me. It was clear he was labeling me as the variant in question.
"Universes," Peter mumbled around his mouthful of muffin, "you mean as in more than one Earth exists?"
Nick leaned back slowly in his chair, clearly settling in for what he realized would be a long conversation. Agent Mobius however didn't budge an inch which did nothing to calm my nerves. The fingers of Bucky's metal hand were suddenly resting lightly on my shoulder. I wasn't sure if he was attempting to offer support or be ready to restrain me should I feel the need to bolt. Either way between he and Wanda I wasn't going anywhere from where I sat.
"Yes, you might better understand it as the multi-verse," Fury continued to explain. "Madison is from an alternative Earth and somehow has made her way to our timeline. Her sudden appearance is what prompted the response of the TVA."
"From Earth 10943 to be exact," came the soft voice of Agent Mobius. He spoke like one of those valley boys that spent their days during the summer surfing and riding the waves. Never a care in the world, just enjoying the ride of life. "She actually traveled back and across time from her own timeline to yours."
Everyone turned to look at me again as though for confirmation, but I had none to offer. My voice cracked as I realized how dry my throat was, "I don't know. When dad sent me away he didn't give me any details other than I had to leave right at that moment or I wouldn't survive."
The agent glared at me as though silently telling me to watch my words. I knew the basic rules of time travel. Everyone in my time did, so I felt thoroughly rebuked when he prompted me to stop talking by laying his hand on the table.
This move was apparently seen as aggressive because Bucky's metal arm moved from around me, to in front of me on the table matching the agent's actions. Either way, I stopped speaking.
Filed with excitement at this new revelation of multiple universes, Tony popped up from his seat throwing a holographic screen over the table for everyone to see.
Line after colorful line flooded the screen, all carefully laid out, not touching one another. "So you're saying that we are on one of these lines and Madison is on another line and somehow the two have now intersected," Tony asked skeptically.
"Not intersected, exactly," Mobius offered, rising slowly from his seat to walk to where Tony stood. He reached out and touched one timeline, erasing the remaining portion to the edge of the screen. "Madison's timeline ended. Somehow, her father figured out a way to transport her from their own timeline before that happened," he drew a line from my ended line to the nearest Earth line, "to yours."
"Wait," Nat asked, her brow creased in confusion, "why did her timeline end?"
A hush fell over the room as one-by-one they all seemed to understand.
"Because," Mobius explained, "that universe was erased."