Chapter 18: The Beginning of the End
Tower of London, London
Kate Stewart filled away the paperwork for the day. It had been a peaceful day for UNIT. There had been no aliens sighted anywhere near the major cities of the UK or the rest of the world. This was a blessing in itself as Kate did not need to hunt for the Doctor or Nightshade. The two of them had just vanished without a trace after the whole Dalek fiasco, now that had a lot of paperwork to fill in. She had to do more paperwork than both Nightshade or the Doctor and even more paperwork about Dalek Sec joining UNIT. Many of the soldiers of UNIT did not trust the Dalek, even after he had shown that they were ready to fight alongside them to save their world from their own race and a mad monster that even they were afraid off. Even she, Kate Stewart who had been around Nightshade and Edward all her life had been terrified of Dalek Sec when he had made it clear that he wanted to join UNIT. That had given her a new headache, but nothing compared to the headache that was growing from Nightshade disappearing to her return followed by three children.
Running a hand through her long blonde hair she sat back down on her chair. She could not help but sigh. It was at times like this that she wished her father was still alive to give her his guidance. Right now all she had was Nightshade, who at the moment was deep into something that was only the start. Nightshade was doing very limited paperwork, but then at the moment there was no need for paperwork to be filled out. There would be paperwork thrown at her when she and Galvatron could find a minute, but at the moment they were still making sure that Unicron was secured in his prison that was designed to keep ghosts and other sprits at bay. With mercury added there was no escaping for the Chaos Bringer. She just wished that it was Seth that was locked away. Seth had been a problem for UNIT every since the Second World War with mounting pressure going on Nightshade. There was many times when she was growing up and she was being looked after by Nightshade in the Estate that she could tell there was something wrong with the shapeshifter she had come to see as a part of her family.
Looking at the portrait of her father that was on the wall of her office she pleaded for guidance. Guidance for herself and Nightshade. Seth had gone quietly recently after getting a fleet of insane Daleks lead by Dalek Caan. Looking back down at her table. She needed a break, she knew that. All of UNIT needed a break. That was a well known fact. For seventy years Seth had vanished and they had been able to relax as they dealt with aliens and supernatural forces that were too dangerous to be left unwatched. Now he suddenly he returned around about the same time that Captain America had returned along with Leatherback, much to Edward's disgust.
Now Seth was all over the place. He had tried to get an ancient weapon that can destroy suns like they were nothing. He had also got the Dalek fleet that had disappeared without a trace that not even the Moonray or the Doctor could locate them. She did not know if he was up to anything else elsewhere. Julian was still in Blithe Hallow and had yet to report back in, something that the Werewolf was good at reporting in when he felt like it. Edward was in Japan and the Ghoul was still reporting in on a regular basis. He was with an old ally of UNIT in Japan keeping their son safe from Leatherback. He had reported as he trailed after Leatherback to Japan before he figured what the scaly ape was after. The amount of times that he had shouted at her because of Hunters shooting at her.
Nightshade however did not report in. Kate trusted the Dragonoid shapeshifter to keep her skull down when things went the wrong way. The only way she knew that Nightshade was fine was when she returned to the Tower after a mission. Kate had to trust that Nightshade would always come back. Much like a large cat with metal claws.
Kate looked back up to see Osgood walking into her office with more paperwork. Sighing deeper she looked out of the window and out to the city of London. Morning was coming as the red highlights that coloured the sky told her. Having worked all night doing her paperwork she was surprised to see that morning was coming. The city that had been busy during the night was starting to get even more busier as people started to get ready for work and school.
"Sorry!" Osgood said as she placed the paperwork on Kate's desk. "This the bills that have been paid off and need to be signed showing that you have seen them!" Osgood said as Kate flipped through the pages of the file that she had just been given.
Kate closed the file that was keeping all the paperwork for the bills for the month together and then placed her hand on top of it. She looked back up at Osgood as the lights flicker for a brief second.
"Kate?" Osgood asked shifting on her feet. Kate looked up to see that the Doctor's biggest fan was shifting on her feet acwardly. Raising an eyebtow she allowed the scientist to continue. "When do you think Julian will be back? " she asked Kate.
Kate sighed again. It seemed to be something that she done a lot now. "Osgood, Julian is a Werewolf to top it off he's a ghost! And he's always on missions for UNIT!" Kate said like Osgood was a young child.
Odgood nodded her head in defeat. She knew that to go out with someone that was dead was a bad move, but Julian was one of the liveliest members of UNIT that it was easy to forget that he was a ghost since the end of the First World War. He out of the Big Three was always the one to put his name down for missions when it involved a party or something that would have a man die from. But his mission to Blithe Hallow was one that he had chosen to stay out of the way of both Nightshade and Edward. Osgood had to wonder how he could remain relaxed even if he was being attacked from all fronts. She had seen him being captured and then return with his hair a mess and him worrying more about his hair than anything else.
"I guess your right!" Osgood sighed as the lights flickered once again. This time the darkness was longer than last time.
Kate looked up at the ceiling and back to Osgood. "Osgood, find Nightshade! Something is wrong here!" Kate ordered as another flicker of the lights happened. Kate reached for her gun when the lights turned off on their own. Osgood could not help but get startled at the lose of power. Kate kept her gun at the ready as the door to her office cracked open. Narrowing her eyes with her gun still aimed at the door she nodded for Osgood to move. There was no point in the young scientist getting in the way of being shot. She could see Osgood's shape move across the room and to stand beside her.
"Show yourself!" Kate shouted into the shadows. She could see a new shape walking into the room. Two yellow eyes glowed in the darkness as the shape stared at her. "I will not ask another time! Show yourself and state your identity!" she shouted again at the shape that was getting closer to them. The yellow eyes did not move away from the two women in the office.
"You know who I am Kate Stewart! After all your old man and the Doctor worked hard to try and find me at the same time as Nightshade and Edward!" the shape spoke out.
Kate could not help but take a step back as Osgood gasped behind her. She kept her gun aimed at the two yellow eyes that glowed with evil intentions. "Not another step, Seth!" she shouted in seeing that Seth was still walking towards them. She kept her gun aimed at the two yellow eyes, the only way to tell that he was in the room. She knew her gun would do little damage to Seth but it would allow her and Osgood enough time to get out and to get to weapons that were designed to kill gods or other supernatural beings.
Seth stopped as he was ordered. A chuckle could not help but escape from Seth. His yellow eyes moved from Kate to Osgood and back to Kate. "Did you like that scare that I had managed with Unicron? It was enough to cause Nightshade to disappear and the Avengers to begin assembling!" Seth said as he began to walk towards Kate again. "I must say it has been fun! Watching all of Earth's heroes coming together in thinking that Unicron is going to be the main threat that they are going to have to fight but they are all wrong!" Seth snarled at Kate as he began to walk closer towards Kate.
Kate turned the safety off on her gun and aimed it once again in-between the two yellow eyes that glowed in the darkness of her office. "Why are you telling us all this?" Kate asked. She was keeping her gun levelled at the Ancient Egyptian God. She made sure to keep the gun between her and Seth. She kept making sure that Osgood was behind her. The young scientist had no weapons training like she had when she was growing up and returned to the Estate where Nightshade had trained her with weapons. She was beginning to consider have Osgood trained in weapon use.
Seth began to chuckle at her. He once again started to walk towards them once again. He stopped dead just in front of her desk and snickered in the darkness again as Kate pushed herself and Osgood away from him. "Just thought to give you the sneak peak of what is to happen!" Seth replied as he turned back around on Kate. "My spy has located the Book of the Dead and is closing in on! Soon I will have all of my powers back!" Seth replied.
Kate had opened her mouth but a energy forced her and Osgood into the wall behind where they were standing. Kate could not help but drop her gun. It was the first thing that Nightshade had taught her: Do not drop your only weapon! She had a feeling that if Nightshade was in the same room she would be coming up with a new lesson to keep her gun in hand. She looked up as her vision started to get blurry and Seth's face loomed over her. "I do wish I could continue this conversation with you Kate Stewart, but I have a world to plunge into chaos!" he said as he fixed his suit. Kate watched as Seth walked out of her line of sight and into the darkness. Her eyes closed and then she heard a lot of screams.
Seth had begun his attack on UNIT.
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Red flashing lights was the only warning that they got that the Black Archives was going into lockdown. Galvatron jumped as the massive reinforced doors slammed shut. That was followed clamping of locks that were keeping the doors in place. Galvatron looked over at Nightshade who was also looking towards the doors. Her red optics jumped from one door to another. They were trapped. They were trapped in a prison that was holding the Chaos Bringer when a God of Chaos was still roaming free causing chaos without anyone being able to stand up against him. Moving his attention away from Nightshade he looked at the UNIT soldiers stationed in the Black Achieves. They had gotten over their surprised reactions to have their guns at the ready.
Galvatron powered his plasma canon. The faint red glow joined the pulsing red lights that flooded the Black Archives. His red optics narrowed as he allowed his sensors to start searching for anything that came into the Archives. Shifting on his pedes he prepared for an attack that he knew would be coming his way. He knew, after years of fighting to be ready for anything. The sound of clicking caused Galvatron to spin around to the area he thought the origin of the noise came from. There was nothing that he could see.
Galvatron turned away from the source of the noise to see that Nightshade had dropped into a battle ready stance. Her wings were spread wide open as black lightning sparked around the young Dragonoid as she stared behind him. "What?" he asked her as a growing sense of dread began to drill in at his Spark. Slowly he turned around to come faceplates with Unicron. Galvatron took a step backwards away from Unicron who had a wicked smile on his faceplates. "How did you get out of the Pit?" he asked as his optics trailed over to the pit that had a moment ago held Unicron.
"We gods of Chaos have to stick together when big plans are being put together! But for now I am finished with seeing you Galvatron! I have more important work than having to see to a little Mech who has nightmares every time he closes his optics!" Unicron snarled as he prepared to take a step away only to have Galvatron grab his arm. "You will release me, Galvatron!" he snarled looking at the clawed servo that was holding his arm.
Galvatron growled at Unicron. He could not help it as his afterburners rumbled with anger towards Unicron. It was in this moment of anger that years of anger come back to him and for a brief second he thought he was still the Warlord Leader of the Decepticons who killed everyone who got in his way, but then everything came back to him. He was no longer Megatron. He was know Galvatron. He did not take a life for his own pleasure, he fought to defend all life in the universe. "It's taken all this time for you to call me by my correct name, Unicron. What work has Seth given to you that you take his orders?" Galvatron snarled at the Chaos Bringer of Cybertron.
Unicron was able to pry Galvatron's claws from his arm. His purple optics never left his former puppet and the Dragonoid who had taken to the air. "Like I will tell you Galvatron!" Unicron said with a wicked smile on his faceplates.
That was when the world went black. Galvatron did not know what was happening. One moment he knew he was standing up and then the next thing he was lying on his back. Dragging air in through his intakes he instantly began to online all of his systems. His optics onlined and he found himself still in the Black Archives under the Tower of London. The red lights were still flashing as a warning sound of a fight above them altered him that UNIT was under attack. Moving his optics to the side he saw Nightshade beside him. Her horned head was tilted to the side as her bright red optics were the only sign that she was there in the red pulsing light that had engulfed the Black Archives. Getting up off the ground caused Nightshade to take a step back to allow him room to stand up on his two pedes.
"Unicron, he got out!" he shouted at her causing her to tilt her head even more and look towards a UNIT soldier who shrugged his shoulders before going back to work. "Come on Nightshade! We have to go after him!" he roared at her. The feeling that he was being watched grew and his optics turned over to the humans who were stationed looking over the Black Archives. The humans shifted on their feet as they looked from him to Nightshade.
"Galvatron, Unicron is still held up in the Pit! There is no way that he can get out of it without authority from the highest order!" Nightshade replied as the humans got back to doing their work.
Galvatron stepped away from Nightshade and brought up a clawed servo to his helm. He was sure that Unicron was out of the Pit that they had placed him in. He had felt his presence before him, and he would know Unicron was before him even if he had possessed an unsuspecting Mech. "But he was right there!" he said looking back at Nightshade who was keeping the humans calm and kept them working, "He was standing where you were standing not a moment ago!" he said to her.
Nightshade shock her and opened her wings slightly before closing them. "That did not happen Galv'! Seth walked into the room and attacked all of us! He forced us into our own nightmares! From the looks of it, it was just you and me that had been affected by Seth! I just got up a few minutes before yourself! Thankfully the Pit has not been pampered with and Unicron is still locked up in his new home!" Nightshade explained walking away from the large silver and black Mech.
"So it was all a dream?" Galvatron asked looking again at his servos.
"It was! Seth is trying to derail us! At the same time that we were hit so were the Avengers! All of them were forced to live their worst nightmares while they were out on a mission!" Nightshade began to explain as Galvatron calmed himself down. Unicron was secure. There was no way he was getting out of a prison that was designed to keep things like him locked away. "Rogers sent me a location that he wants us to meet him at! He's even problems with something that Stark has created! A creation that sees that Seth is the only way for the human race to evolve!" she continued as Galvatron regained his composure.
"WHY WOULD SETH DO SUCH A THING? HE COULD HAVE SURELY ENDED UNIT WITH A WELL PLACED BATTLE PLAN!" Dalek Sec spoke for the first time causing both Galvatron and Nightshade to look over at the black cased Dalek. His eye stock rotated from the silver and black Mech to the black Dragonoid. "SETH'S LOGIC IS NOT SOUND! NOT UNLESS HE HAS AN END GAME!" he spoke up again.
Nightshade nodded her head before looking back at Galvatron. "I'm going to meet up with Rogers at the location he gave me and give them a hand with their problem! Dalek Sec will remain here in London to help UNIT get back on its feet!" she said nodding her head in the Dalek's direction. A second later the sound of the black chasing being moved away from the Black Archives to the main part of the base above ground. "Are you coming with me or do you want to stay here and make sure Unicron does not crawl out of his hole?" she asked him.
"I'm coming with you Nightshade!" was all he said before he began his transformation process. Firing up his afterburners he shot towards the exit and entrance that was under the River Themes.
Nightshade hissed through clenched teeth as she opened up her wings and leapt into the air. With a flap of her wings she was following Galvatron through the underground tunnel that UNIT had designed for her to get in and out at high speeds along with the Moonray. The water of the River Themes smashed against her plating as she exploded out of the river. Being smaller and lighter than Galvatron she was able to take lead in to where Captain America was stationed at the moment.
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Steve Rogers had seen many strange things since he became Captain America all those years ago during the war against HYDRA. He had learned that there was a whole universe filled with life. He had learned that the stores his mum and dad had told him when he was a child about the things that go bump in the night were true. He had seen an Ancient Egyptian God become flesh. He was best friends, not only with the son of his friend during the war but also an alien shapeshifter. He had thought that he had seen everything, but he was proven wrong. Stark in his pursuit to keep the world save had created a robot that wanted to team up with the God that wanted to destroy humans for the past 3000 years.
Now Stark and Banner had created another robot to fight the first robot. This robot had been planned by Ultron was to be their only hope in fighting Ultron. That and two punks who used to work with Ultron until they found out that he was planning on destroying the earth. Focusing back on the red faced robot that sounded like JARVIS that wore a cape like Thor to see the "new-born" looking at its reflection in the window that overlooked New York City.
The robot that called itself Vision turned around and looked at all the gathered Avengers including the new Avengers. His eyes or optics he was not to sure as to what they would be scanned all of the heroes of earth. He was a confusion robot. He wanted to stop Ultron, and yet he did not want to destroy him as he was as he put it beautiful. Captain America did not know what to expect anymore. The android and Thor walked away. No doubt to plan their part of the upcoming fight that they were to have against Ultron.
Captain America looked at the remaining Avengers. They all looked up to him as he was the leader. He knew how to fight in wars better than any other Avenger. "Gather what you need!" Captain America said to all the Avengers that were gathered in the main meeting room. He looked over at Tony and Bruce to see that Edward was hovering behind them. "We leave in an hours time! And you two better hope that we can rescue Nat and stop Ultron!" he ordered with the last bit being directed at the two scientists that had caused this problem.
Tony showed no emotion as Edward growled into his and Bruce's ear, but Bruce winched away from the Ghoul in fear. "And next time you decide to play god read Frankenstein!" Edward snorted before he walked away from the two scientist.
Bruce found it hard to swallow the lump that had grown in his throat. "That guy is really scary!" he stammered as he watched Edward pick up his axe before walking away to the Quinjet in the hanger. He found it strange that Wasp followed right after the green skinned Ghoul and was not afraid of him at all.
Captain America nodded his head as he grabbed his shield. He had to agree with Banner there. Edward could be scary if annoyed or woken up too early in the morning like he had found out in 1943 when his Howling Commandos worked with Nightshade and her team. That had been scary that it had taken Nightshade a good few hours to calm him down enough for him to carry out the mission, but even after that he was still in a really bad mood. The mood that he was in at the moment was just like it was the last time he had seen the Ghoul. Edward had been in such a sour mood that not even Nightshade spoke to him. Something had to have happened to Edward recently, something that he needed to ask Nightshade when she got to New York. Because he knew that Edward was blaming himself for something that had happened, again something that he needed to ask Nightshade.
"Steve, FRIDAY is picking up two alien jets baring down on top of us!" Tony shouted as the new AI that he had set up began to work. Tony like Banner was keeping a good distance away from the other Avengers especially Thor and Edward. It was bad that a Norse God had been angered by their actions, but it was made even worse with angry alien Ghoul. Steve was sure that he was not the only one who wanted to see Edward getting any angrier than he already was after seeing how well he can tare a human apart in a fight. Sometimes he thought Edward was very much like the Hulk, but that was where similarities stopped. Edward had an intelligence that allowed him to plan his fights while the Hulk relied upon his brute strength to end a fight.
"Its alright, Stark!" Steve shouted back at the inventor who had put on his latest armour on. The face plate slammed into place and Iron Man stood beside him. "It's Nightshade and Galvatron!" he said with a sigh as Wanda and her brother Pietro walked into the main hanger with all the suited up Avengers. They were now a part of the team. They were all Avengers even Edward who reappeared looking more annoyed than before with a smug looking Wasp sitting on his shoulder. The sound of wheels slamming into the ground at speed was soon heard. Captain America watched in silence as the twins ran to the edge of the hanger to watch both Nightshade and Galvatron transform into forms that allowed more movement.
"That's not possible!" Pietro muttered to his sister as Nightshade in her human form walked up a flight of stairs from the hanger while Galvatron towered above them. Pietro took a step back as Nightshade brushed past them slightly as she walked towards Iron Man and Captain America. "Did you see that? One minute it was a jet and the next it changed its form all together? Tell me I'm not the only one who saw that?" he begged his sister who was trying to read Nightshade but could not get far in to her mind.
Nightshade stopped just before the two leaders of the Avengers with Edward taken his usual place at her side. "Tell me that you where not that stupid but to create something bend on destroying all life on this planet?" she asked instantly and destroying Steve's hope that she could help them calm Edward down before the fight with Ultron. "How could you be so careless with Seth running about out there? What if Seth and Ultron had meet up while we were all busy? They could whip out all life? Did you think of that while you worked on creating an AI with a body, Stark?" Nightshade asked pointing a clawed finger in Stark's direction.
Captain America looked over at Iron Man to see that it was hard to see any emotion on the metal face. He looked back at Nightshade to see that she was beginning to calm down. No doubt Edward had filled her in what had happened when she was heading to New York with Galvatron. "Nightshade we need to take Ultron down before he and Seth plan on making a team of their own like what we have been doing!" Captain America said to Nightshade in knowing that he was not about to lose his head by either her sword that hung at her side or by her claws.
Nightshade sighed while she rubbed her face. Edward stood tensely at her side while Galvatron's optics jumped from Avenger to Avenger as he too waited for Nightshade to either walk away or strike both Captain America and Iron Man.
"Right where is he?" Nightshade asked the super solider.
"Sokovia!"