Chapter 2: Outside Looking In

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction that uses characters, themes, and universe that belong to Marvel Studios, the writers/directors of the MCU, and the brilliant mind of Stan Lee. I do not own nor claim any of the characters as my own creation, other than the original characters R'dawē and Thandiwe. The main character's name is spelled Circe, but pronounced like Saoirse ("sir-sha"). She is based on Jack Kirby's original character, but I have created an original backstory and characterization for her. This is NOT the MCU Circe. Thank you for your attention and enjoy!

A/N: For anyone wondering, the Avengers make an appearance in this chapter and will be MUCH more prominent from here on out!

"Are you sure about this?" R'dawē glanced over at Circe as she drove, speeding down the vacant streets.

Circe nodded, pressing her lips together firmly without taking her eyes from the road. Twenty-three days had passed since the incident. The initial shock had worn off somewhat, but the chaos had not abated. The pair had taken to staying in Circe's office, working round the clock to monitor atmospheric data, designing a plan to move forward, and fielding calls from frantic officials demanding answers. Day in, day out. And still no real solution emerged.

For hours that fateful day, Circe and R'dawē had waited with bated breath to see if they would be next to dissipate. The waiting was tedious and nerve-wracking (after all, what could really be said to lighten the mood or make sense of things?), and so the pair decided to do what they did best: work through the trauma and try to assess the damage. Neither spoke much, but they took comfort in each other's presence. They were a team, and through all of the inexplicable and fantastic things that they had encountered over the past three years, they knew that together they were capable of just about anything.

For a while, they were thoroughly perplexed as to what had happened. Just after Circe had left the office to attend the meeting on the most recent alien attack in New York City, R'dawē had received an alert from one of the departmental researchers that extremely unusual seismic activity was taking place in Wakanda. It intrigued and worried him. He had sent a message to his sister, Thandiwe, the youngest of the Dora Milaje, to see if she knew anything about the cause of the bizarre data. Time passed and no response came. As it became clear that something unnatural was occurring, he pulled up a range of live trackers, looking at atmospheric readings and seismic waves, thinking perhaps that something had happened with the vibranium mines. Suddenly, for the briefest of moments, the graphs went off the charts, lines spiking in all sectors. He had waited to see if it would happen again, or if his eyes had been betraying him, and meanwhile sought to locate the source of the anomaly. Then he had heard Circe's panicked shouts in the vestibule.

As it turned out, neither could have predicted what the real reason for the irregular readings had been. Thandiwe eventually put a message through to R'dawē's cloaked kimoyo-bead communicator and had tearfully explained what had happened. Hordes of violent aliens had descended upon the country and a bloody battle ensued. It had taken every effort, and no small number of lives, to hold off the extraterrestrial invaders.

What struck Circe the most was that Thandiwe had mentioned how the Avengers had been very involved in the battle, taking the front lines alongside King T'Challa and Wakanda's forces. The Avengers had been persistently on Circe's mind since Tony Stark had disappeared, along with Spider-Man and the magically gifted individual she had seen being beamed up by the aliens. There was something large and unsettling at play here. And that something was apparently called Thanos.

Thandiwe hadn't known many details and was frantic even when explaining the battle. But she knew that the reason so many people had disappeared was because of this Thanos. During the invasion, Thandiwe had been guarding Princess Shuri while the young royal attempted to extract a gemstone from the forehead of Vision. Circe had met the synthetic being before, given that he posed so many complications to international law, and had felt a strange, uncanny pull towards him. She never quite knew how to explain it, but she was sure that the gemstone he possessed was immensely powerful, beyond even what the Avengers realized. Apparently, she was not the only one to have drawn that conclusion.

Days later, when some sense of order had been restored, and surviving departmental heads or those acting in their stead, convened for an emergency meeting, attention and accusations quickly had shifted towards Circe. After all, it was the Department of Interplanetary Relations that was responsible for the unfathomable, for things like this. Which meant that it would inevitably fall to her, as the Assistant Director of IPR, to step up and, somehow, set things , there were riots, prayer vigils, mass lootings, and grassroots efforts at humanitarian relief. Chaos and unity in the face of otherworldly catastrophe. Governments were barely holding together, and societies were decimated. Although reluctant to give legitimacy to what sounded like an outrageous fabrication of an explanation, the Secretary General became insistent that a solution to reverse this tragedy be implemented as soon as possible. Circe had done everything in her power not to roll her eyes at that request. She had studied the application of international relations to outer space and the unknown, not miracles.

Then, another spaceship entered Earth's atmosphere. Not quite a miracle, but certainly promising.

It landed in upstate New York, in a no-fly zone that was heavily monitored by the IPR department. Circe had even been on the grounds there before, on a tour of the newly opened compound. Why would it land there? Unless… could it be that Iron Man had returned? Or Thanos? Either way, Circe realized that now was as good a time as any to pay a visit to the remaining Avengers. It had been her idea all along to get in contact with them, but officials in the UN Secretariat had deterred the thought, noting that the Avengers had brought enough trouble to Earth already. But something as small as a warning from her superiors wasn't enough to stop Circe from grabbing the keys and announcing to R'dawē that they were going to take a little mid-day road trip.

She took a deep breath. Despite the extraordinary experiences she had had in life, knocking on the Avengers' door was not exactly mundane. These were the heroes of New York. They were gods among men, some quite literally. Her heart thundered in her chest as she raised a hand to press the intercom buzzer. Please don't let them turn us away, please…

A video screen to the side of the door flashed to life. Half of the screen was taken up by her and R'dawē's expectant faces. The other half was occupied by a very tense looking Captain America.

"You've got to be kidding me."

R'dawē nudged her with his elbow. "What did I tell you?" he remarked under his breath.

She put on her best professional smile, "Captain Rogers, I'm Circe Mismyre from the UN Inter…"

"I know who you are. Are you here to arrest me?" Captain Rogers asked, his tone disdainful.

Circe was taken aback by the brusque greeting, "What? No! We're here because…"

Again, Captain Rogers interrupted, "You're the one who wrote the Sokovia Accords." It was a statement rather than a question. He knew as well as anyone that she had chaired the committee that drafted the controversial Accords. It was... complicated, to say the least, and certainly not something she wanted to get into right now.

"I am," she replied, sounding defensive. "And I did everything I could to keep it fair, but…"

"So why are you here?"

"Steve, you know why they're here." Agent Romanoff appeared on the screen behind Captain Rogers's shoulder. She paused, looking into the camera, carefully assessing Circe and R'dawē, before making a silent determination. "Tony's back, he's in rough shape," she said to the pair. "And we…have some new friends."

"We might be able to help," R'dawē insisted.

The door buzzed and then opened with a click. As they crossed the threshold of the Avengers main building, Circe overheard Captain Rogers whisper, "Nat, you better be right about them."

Agent Romanoff inspected them with a weak smile once the pair was inside. Circe had met the Black Widow before, several times actually since Loki's attack on New York City, but so much had happened since then. Her hair was no longer a fiery red, but a softer blonde, and a she looked immensely tired.

"Good to see you again Circe. And you… R'dawē, right?" she asked.

R'dawē nodded, "Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers, we want to help. Things are…going poorly at the UN. Our department is just the two of us now. We thought that if we could combine our findings with yours, maybe we could discover how to reverse Thanos's…"

"You know about Thanos?" Captain Rogers questioned, sounding rather surprised.

"We know he's the one responsible for this," Circe replied resolutely. "That he's the most powerful threat our world has ever faced. And that he's probably still out there."

Captain Rogers folded his arms across his chest. The two Avengers exchanged a quick glance. "We were about to have a debrief in the conference room," Agent Romanoff noted. "You two should probably be in there. Follow me."

Once inside, Circe quickly took note of who was present. And who was not.

Along the back wall, almost unnoticeable, sat Thor, looking uncharacteristically sullen. Circe almost hadn't recognized him without his long hair and extravagant cape, but it was the dejected expression he wore that was most foreign. Her heart went out to him. Thor was the first extraterrestrial being she had ever met, and he had been patient, kind even, in answering her many questions about the wider universe. To see him brought so low was painful to observe.

There was, however, a new face among those gathered. A tall, powerful-looking blonde woman in a black tank top. She had a presence about her that Circe was instantly intrigued by. Was she one of the "new friends" that Agent Romanoff had been referring to? The woman eyed Circe and R'dawē curiously, though without the hesitancy or enmity that had filled Captain Rogers's eyes.

Near her was Colonel Rhodes, who nodded solemnly in acknowledgement when he saw them. It seemed unremarkable that the two UN staffers were there, almost as if they had been expected to show up.

Beside Colonel Rhodes was Tony Stark. Iron Man. He wore tinted glasses and had a robe on that had fallen open to reveal an arc reactor on his chest. More strikingly, he was sitting in a wheelchair, hooked up to a bag of saline. It was a pitiful sight to behold. Whatever had happened in space had clearly taken its toll, as he appeared thinner, sickly, and weak. The complete antithesis of the genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist that Circe had admired since she was young. It was heart-wrenching. Had Thanos done this too? Mr. Stark barely glanced up when Circe and R'dawē entered the room. He seemed lost in thought.

Captain Rogers took his place among the gathered Avengers, "Let's get started."