Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine. Any lines from the books are hers too. I also don't own Marvel or any their storylines or characters, I don't even know most of their storylines or characters. I'm just a sad little fan here.
AN: This is a sad attempt at an Avenger's/MCU crossover story. I've wanted to do this for a while but just finally had the plot form. The title is a reference to the Marvel multiverses, if that confuses anyone. Also, I've only watched the movies, I have very little working knowledge of the television half of the MCU, other than 'Daredevil' and even less of the actual comics. I basically just ran with the idea that no one could possibly know everything going on in that universe/world/organization to get to this story, so if there are glaring dives from canon to here, that's why. Sorry if it's confusing, it makes sense in my head.
Earth-7475 Universe
"Damn!"
Gale puts his thumb to his mouth, sucks on the cut he's just given himself as icy rain trickles down his back.
He glares at the lock for a minute more before glancing around.
No one is around, which isn't surprising. An alley in a rundown neighborhood at midnight is hardly the place he expects anyone to be lurking.
At least not anyone stupid enough to be easily spotted.
Squinting into the dark, he focuses, listens for even the softest exhale, and tries to catch the scent of something other than rotting garbage wafting from the overflowing bin only a few feet from him.
There's nothing there though. He's alone.
Popping his knuckles, he grabs the lock and twists it.
It snaps off with little effort and Gale wishes he'd just done that first instead of trying to pick it. He's never cared much for delicate work like that, even before he'd lost the need for it.
Besides, it doesn't matter if anyone knows the old building has been broken into. He'd been summoned here, they know he's coming.
With a groan, the door opens, scraping noisily on the filthy floor and scaring a rat away from its treasure of a decaying package of lunchmeat pilfered from the trash.
Inside it's dark, pitch black except for a single naked bulb hanging over an old table, it's flickering light spilling over the table and forming a halo on the dusty floor.
Silently, Gale edges around ancient machinery, rusted and useless, inhaling the odor of oil still lingering around them even after years of inactivity.
Then he catches the scent of something much softer than old equipment, fresh and bright. Something that doesn't belong in an abandoned warehouse.
Stepping to the edge of the light, Gale crosses his arms over his chest, feeling for the gun hidden under his jacket. He isn't taking chances.
"Madge?"
For a moment there's no response, just the lonely sound of the rain picking up outside and rattling the windows.
Then a girl steps from the shadows and into the light. Gale's heart stops dead in his chest at the sight of her, alone and alive.
She's not dressed as Gale expects. Normally, before everything had gone so wrong, before Shield fell to pieces and the many heads of Hydra rose from the wreckage, Madge's clothing was picture perfect.
"You walk out of a J. Crew catalogue or something, princess?" He'd asked her, only minutes after their introduction meeting.
Pale eyebrows had arched and she'd given him the most condescending smile he's ever been on the receiving end of.
"Some of us just like to look like we've washed our clothes in the last month."
Abernathy, the dirt bag ranking agent who'd somehow been given charge of their little group, had wheezed with laughter.
"Lady has a point."
Gale had wasted no time in pointing out that Abernathy was twice the slob he was, and he smelled like an ashtray on top of that, but the old bastard had waved a lazy hand at him.
"I'm too old to give a damn what anyone thinks of me."
Their team had their first meeting that night, in a cramped back room of one of Shield's less prestigious front operations, a dingy Baskin-Robbins in west Texas.
It had been intended to be temporary, dissolved once their mission was over, but someone liked their work.
Gale and Katniss, with their military training, provided the muscle, Mellark was the undercover agent, and Madge made sense of everything.
Abernathy was mostly just useless, other than to give them missions and make jokes at their expense.
They'd been a well-oiled machine, turning out results and keeping below the radar, just like they were trained. Like all Shield agents were trained to be.
It had never even crossed their minds to question any of their operations, that maybe what they were being asked to do wasn't for the greater good of all humanity.
Not even when Gale and Katniss were approached for a new 'Super Soldier' project.
In fact, Gale had jumped at the chance to be like Steve Rogers. His whole life he'd read about the amazing Captain America, and to be given the opportunity to be like him...it was a gift, and not one Gale wanted to turn down.
"Are they sure it's safe?" Madge asked, voice low as they'd sat in a little diner outside Amarillo. "Gale, you shouldn't do this. All previous attempts at recreating the serum have been catastrophes."
There was no reason to tell her, and he actually shouldn't have. The project was top secret.
He hadn't been able to keep it to himself though, not around her.
"They wouldn't use it if they weren't sure it would work," Gale countered, wanting, needing her approval.
She'd looked doubtful, her nose wrinkling up and her lips puckering.
It had taking all the strength Gale had not to lean across the cracked tabletop and kiss her, tell her he'd fallen head over heels for her.
The time hadn't been right though. The time was never right it seemed.
"At least let me dig into it a bit, before you agree."
Despite her best efforts though, Madge hadn't found a single thing about the new serum or the new project. It was so deeply covered not even one of Shield's best detectives could uncover it. That alone should've sent up red flags.
Gale had shrugged it off. Madge's clearance might not have been high enough.
Even with Madge's misgivings, Gale had gone along with the project.
If he'd known then what he knows now, that Hydra was using Shield and all its loyal agents as their own personal lab rats and informants, he might not have been so certain or eager. Looking back, things could've gone badly quickly, and no one but Madge would've known what might've happened to them.
Both he and Katniss are lucky they'd come through the injections and enhancements alive.
It had worked. Superhuman strength, speed, and durability, enhanced senses, rapid healing factor…
They weren't like Captain America, they were better, an advancement on his design.
The only difference was, the good captain was created by people trying to do good, whatever Gale was now was made by their antithesis.
He never would've known it though, if Fury hadn't died, if Shield hadn't imploded.
Gale would still be happily working for Hydra and not even know it.
Someone had warned him, sent him and Katniss an encoded message within minutes of Shield's-Hydra's secrets being spilled to the world. It's the only way they'd been able to save their families.
Whoever sent them that message saved their life, saved their families.
And now Gale knows just who their savior is. Somehow he thinks he always knew.
Madge's hair is drenched, clinging to her face and neck. Her skin is even paler than it had been the last time he'd seen her, only hours before their lives crumbled at their feet.
She's small and fragile, beaten by the last few months.
"Gale."
Her voice is weaker than he remembers, cracks in the air like she isn't used to using it.
Silence stretches between them, not quite awkward, but still anything but comfortable, before Gale can't stop himself breaking it.
"I thought you were dead."
When Mellark had caught up to him and Katniss, he hadn't known where Madge was, what happened to her.
"There's no one to ask," he'd frantically told them. "No one to trust."
They were alone in a strange new world, and Madge was nowhere to be found.
When they'd heard about Wiress' death, Gale lost all hope she'd escaped.
If the sneakiness beast in Shield's arsenal couldn't outrun Hydra, what chance did Madge have?
Still, he'd tried to look for her.
Gale went to every dive bar and drifters hole he knew of, listened as patiently as he could.
Undercover work wasn't really his strong point, but he'd done it for her. She never turned up though, no one talked about a pretty blonde, a ghost hiding in the shadows, a girl who could see past all the bullshit and read between the lines. Madge was either dead or worse.
For his family's sake, Gale had put her, and his fruitless search, to rest.
So Gale pushed her face and her memory from his conscious, only letting her haunt him in his nightmares, accusing him of abandoning her, letting them murder her.
Lips quirking up, she shrugs. "Sorry to disappoint you."
Her mouth opens to add something, but Gale doesn't let her.
He's run across the pool of light and scooped her up, fighting off tears as he feels the warmth of her breath in his hair and the chill of her hands through his rain soaked shirt.
"I thought you were dead," he chokes. "Goddamn, Madge, where the hell have you been?"
A little squeak makes him pull back, and she gasps.
"Sorry," he mutters as she tries to catch her breath. He still forgets sometimes how strong the serum has made him.
Breathing still ragged, she smiles. "It's okay. There are worse ways to die."
Reaching out, Gale pushes wet strands of hair from her face before cupping it in his hands, tilting it up so he can better see her.
There are gray shadows under her eyes, cheeks too hollow, and the blue is too faded from her irises. Her clothing is sloppy, faded jeans and a ratty shirt, a jacket that isn't nearly warm enough for the rain, but she's alive.
"Gale, I-I'm sorry-it's just-there's just been so much confusion. Everything went south and I had to go off the grid."
"You warned us," he says softly. "That was you, right? You warned me and Katniss?"
She nods, eyes still locked on his.
"Peeta too." She swallows, licks her lips, tears swelling in her eyes. "I dump all the files on you before I ran, so you could have more time, but it made a trail to me. Haymitch and I had to go deep under."
With his thumbs, Gale gently brushes tears from her cheeks.
"Please don't be mad," she whispers. "They've been following us all this time or I'd have contacted you before, I swear."
Gale pulls her into another hug, careful this time not to crush her.
"It's okay." He understands.
She shudders against him, warm tears spilling down her cheeks and soaking his shirt more.
"What's happened?"
Because something has to have changed for her to come out of hiding and contact him, even if she'd dragged him out to the middle of nowhere in the dead of night to do it.
For a second she's quiet, then sniffles and presses her cheek to his chest a little more firmly.
"The-Hydra is looking for you-for all the soldiers they 'enhanced' in their program." He almost feels her cringe against him. "The Soldier-the one they've been using for decades, I don't know how exactly but they have-he got away from them and they can't find him so they're going to track down all their back-ups. You and Katniss and Delly. They want to do whatever awful thing they did to him to control him to you and use you just like they've used him."
They need assassins, precision killers that can do impossible feats, avoid being caught. They need people to do their dirty work.
It was probably the plan all along.
Gale tries to keep the tremor from his voice as the reality of what may be in his own mind hits him.
"Did they already program us?"
Madge's arms tighten around him.
"I don't know." She takes a deep breath. "But I don't want to find out the hard way."
Resting his chin on the top of her head, Gale closes his eyes.
"Do you have a plan?"
Because he sure hopes she does. She always has before.
Her arms loosen and she pulls back, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand and smoothing her tangled hair before nodding.
"We need to check you and Katniss over, make sure there're no physical means of controlling you. If we rule that out, we'll do a bioscan. Rule out anything organic they might've slipped in." Her breathing evens out, as if voicing her plan is calming her nerves. "I doubt they did any psych conditioning. Not in the time frame they had. My guess is they'd save that to when they could have you locked down."
When they had something to hold over them. Like their families.
Gale shakes the thought away. They won't touch his family, not where he's got them hidden.
"Where exactly do you plan on doing all these scans?"
He actually glances around, halfway certain she's got the equipment hidden behind her.
"Stark," she answers. "Director Fury coordinated some of Stark's tech for us. It's out at the Avenger's base."
"Fury?" Gale reaches out, presses the back of his hand to her forehead. She has to have a fever. "Madge, Director Fury is dead."
Taking his hand, a Madge gives it a gentle squeeze, her smile inching up.
"He's alive. He contacted Haymitch. Shield is underground, but is still alive. They haven't beaten us yet."
It sounds too good to be true, and even if it is true Gale isn't sure he's ready to trust Shield again.
Madge looks so hopeful though, so sure this is a good thing, that Gale doesn't voice his worry.
She'd been right about the 'Super Soldier Project'. Maybe she's right about this too.
That doesn't mean he won't hedge, at least a little.
"Do they know you've found me?"
Her head shakes and she chews her lip.
"I may have mislead them on their search for a lot of you. I'm making contact myself. You know, sometimes it's best to play things close to the vest."
Gale feels a smile creep into his own face.
"You don't trust them?"
Her lips quirk up. "I've learned not to trust anyone. Doesn't mean we can't use their help."
A chuckle rumbles in Gale's chest.
"Now that's the suspicious Madge I've been waiting on."
Smile brightening, she holds out her hand.
"Are you in?"
Part of him wants to say no, he's done with fighting and he wants to stay hidden. Spend the rest of his days fishing and hunting in the mountains with his brothers.
Another part of him, the part that wanted to be like Steve Rogers, protect those weaker than him, wants to go. This is his journey and he needs to see it through. He needs to find out what those people did to him, see if he's a danger.
Looking down at his hand, he sees the cut on his thumb has already healed. There's only a smudge of dried blood to even hint there was ever an injury.
He doesn't know what his body is capable of half the time, and the other half is doesn't react like he expects it to.
A car crash doesn't leave a scratch on him but jagged metal on a door cuts his hand without difficulty.
If he wants to have any chance of understanding what's going on with his body, what those people might've programmed into him, there's only one choice.
Reaching out, he wraps her chilled hand in his warm one.
"Lead the way."