Chapter 6: The Execution Will Be Televised

For a couple days after K had killed the Kree interrogator, the three prisoners had a bit of a reprieve — and on top of that, it seemed some of the guards were outright nervous to be anywhere near K after seeing what she was capable of. Except for the occasional gloating over another Earth ship shot down, another failed rescue attempt, or something along those lines, the three heroes of Earth heard very little from their captors.

The rest was short-lived, however — though Noh somehow wasn't surprised that the next time he was taken out of his cell, he arrived alone. The last time all three had been in one place hadn't gone well for the Kree.

He wasn't expecting the man who joined him to be the guard captain, however, or for the captain to casually take a seat and regard Noh for a moment — and strike up a conversation. "You know, the flight from Hala all the way out here is a long one," he said. "Half the soldiers who make it are antsy and ready to fight by the time they arrive."

"I've traveled longer distances with better control of my own facilities. But my homeworld was more disciplined than this one," Noh said coolly.

"Doubtful." The captain tipped his head Noh's way for a second. "We just had some replacements come in — after the mess your Terran friend made of things for us."

"That mess was entirely your own doing."

"Perhaps." The captain shrugged. "Perhaps it was our mistake to use the lieutenant we did. I assure you his replacement has plans already. We expect results within the Terran day cycle."

"Then you have not learned from your mistakes at all. Your pride continues — you have learned nothing of the strength of the Terrans. They will not betray their homes."

"Your faith in them is admirable, if not misplaced," the captain replied. "I certainly have no desire to be around when Zarek begins with them."

Noh's eyes flashed at that one. "You call me traitor — but you let that heretic and renegade lose in your ranks?"

"He's been pardoned by the emperor, and as I understand it, his forced exile has left him… itching to get to work," the captain said with heat in his own gaze. "Of course, if you find him so distasteful, we can always find other subjects for him. You only have to say the word, and I'll have the interrogation halted — after I've confirmed any information you give me, of course."

Noh gaped at him for a moment. "You cannot expect me to betray my friends on Earth to save the two that are here."

The captain shrugged lightly. "I thought I might extend the hand of mercy to a fellow Kree — even one from a different universe. But if you'd rather allow Zarek free hand, you can join the other two." He didn't give Noh much leeway to answer as he got up and headed for the door. "They're just next door," the captain added. "If I'm not mistaken, those genetic enhancements of yours affect your sense of hearing. I think Zarek wanted to get to work in, oh, five of your Terran minutes."

With that, the captain left Noh alone, the silence somehow more oppressive than the conversation had been as he simply waited with baited breath. Four minutes and forty seconds — by his count — later, the first of the screams started.

In the next room over, it hadn't taken either K or Clint very long to decide that this new guy had bumped himself right to the top of their list of people to kill as soon as they got out — when they got out. Especially because, for a substantial period of time, the guy didn't even ask them anything. He simply decided to amuse himself trying to get them to scream.

"Look, if you're shy about talking out loud in front of the lady, just sign it out," Clint spit out at last, tired of the silence from the Kree. "I can translate."

"He seems the type doesn't he?" K said quietly, flat out ignoring Zarek where he stood.

"Probably plays with himself. Too shy for anybody else," Clint agreed with a wicked grin that earned him a solid hit that knocked the wind out of him again.

She let out a bit of a chuckle at Clint's words, though she was frowning at the beating he was taking, and nodded slowly. "All these creeps trying to take over one place or another. Same problem. Compensating for something."

"Didn't get much past grade school, but I did learn about those complexes."

"As I understand it, it's harder to sympathize when you don't have the same problem … and word on the street is you're perfectly fine, Hawkeye. Don't stoop for him. Let him take his bruised ego back to his princess with the big hammer."

"Not my type anyway," Clint said breezily. "And 'word on the street'? You been talking with Nat, haven't you?" He grinned almost obscenely.

"Maybe a little," she said with a lopsided smile his way. "She brags on you when you can't hear her."

"Oh, so all the time."

"Yep," she agreed. "As soon as your back is turned. Gushing. All over the place."

Zarek had seemed annoyed by their back and forth exchange for a moment, but now — there was a strange almost-smile lurking at the corner of his mouth. "And I suppose this is the woman who is mother to the delightful curly-haired little boy of yours," he said mildly to Clint, who stopped his obscene grin pretty darn quickly at that.

K narrowed her eyes at Zarek and tipped her head to the side as she watched him move toward Clint. "He's just screwing with you Hawkeye." Her expression was dead serious as she unblinkingly glared Zarek's way.

"It's a compliment," Zarek said in that same mild tone. "For a Terran child, the boy really is delightful. The pattern of spots across his nose is distinctive, too."

"How would you know?" K asked.

"I haven't been to Earth yet," Zarek said, waving his hand as Clint looked positively livid. "But I've seen the images of him."

"Which images?" K said with her head tipped slightly.

"I couldn't tell you their origin — just that there were quite a few," Zarek said, and there was no mistaking the look on his face as he had his sights fixed on the uncharacteristically quiet Hawkeye.

"Ah," K said, nodding her head. "So you went through his wallet then. Or his phone."

"I did no such thing; I received the images from the staff here," Zarek said, sounding supremely insulted. "I am no common thief."

"Your whole species are nothing but common thieves. Genetically stagnant thieves."

"Strong words, considering the company you keep," Zarek replied shortly.

"Just means I'm intimately familiar with Kree shortcomings," she replied. "Well... not entirely intimate. No."

He waved his hand dismissively at her. "You know nothing then, Terran. Only that which you fail to comprehend from a genetic anomaly of another dimension."

"I know that they're scraping the bottom of the barrel if they have you here," she said easily.

Zarek's eyes flashed. "You have it entirely backwards, Terran," he hissed out. "It is I who is stooping low to come to this… backwater moon."

"Then you should tuck your tiny tail between your legs … and leave before you die." She half grinned up at him. "Because I promise you — you will. Die."

"A shame for you I cannot make the same promise," he shot back. "Not in your case, at any rate — though perhaps I can help end the suffering of your two companions before this is all said and done."

"You have it wrong," K all but purred back to him. "It's my companions that will kill you. I wouldn't dirty my claws on you."

"Good thing I make most of my shots from far out so I don't have to get dirty either," Clint half-whispered. "But I might make an exception in this case, all things considered," he added in a slightly louder tone.

"I doubt you'll have the strength to do any such thing," Zarek sneered Clint's way before he turned his attention to K. "You've served your purpose this morning — I don't need you anymore," he told her frankly as he moved to call in some guards to take her back to her cell.

"I know that one. That's Kree for you can't handle me yourself. Come on — you look strong enough to move one little Terran on your own." K smirked a bit. "Or are you afraid I might hurt you?"

"Hurt me? No," he said with a little laugh. "But I'm not finished here. You are a distraction — now run along back where you belong."

"Hard to find any woods up here in space to get her back where she belongs," Clint pointed out. "At least on this moon. Maybe other moons... "

K nodded and waved her hand to get his attention before she very carefully signed out 'he's lying'. Clint met her gaze for a second before he nodded almost imperceptibly as Zarek's guards arrived to take K back to her cell — and to leave Clint alone with Zarek.

The borrowed SHIELD jet was leaking fuel and barely got Scott, Logan, and Natasha to the ground before it would have fallen out of the sky — but it was a near thing. They'd have to patch that and refuel before they could go back for another assault on the moon base — which was pretty much all those three had been doing for days now.

"They had more warbirds there than last time," Natasha said to Scott with a deep frown.

"They're tying up their forces just trying to keep us out," Scott agreed. He let out a sigh. "Something's going on there. I saw more imperial ships than have any right to be at a prison complex."

Natasha had a smirk just at the edge of her mouth. "Well," she said softly. "Maybe they figured out that they bit off more than they could chew with those three."

"That would imply that they might admit a pair of Terrans and a turncoat could do them damage," Scott said with a ghost of a laugh as he watched Logan, who didn't look the slightest bit amused as he went over the freshest intel from Fury. Logan was beyond words at that point anyway, tearing into the Kree with a ferocity that had Scott honestly concerned. He hadn't seen Logan get like this in a long time, and he knew if it kept up that Logan wasn't going to be able to pull it back. At all.

"Well, they'd never admit it out loud," Natasha agreed. She was already trading out her used Widow's Bites for some with more of a charge as she spoke — in addition to the bracelets she'd "borrowed" from K's room. She glanced over at Logan as well and let out a breath. She had noticed the change in him too — and that was only the only reason she wasn't beyond speaking herself. Someone had to be okay between the two of them, and she'd had years and years of practice pretending not to care. "How long will those repairs take?"

Scott shrugged up one shoulder. "Should be an easy fix — we'll be ready to go as soon as we fill back up."

"Good. I don't want to give them too much time to regroup. We were closer than ever this last time — I know it," she said with a determined sort of frown.

"Yeah, and they were closer than ever at blowing us up," Scott muttered to himself. Every time they went back, it seemed like the Kree had learned that much more about their maneuvers, and Scott was having to pull some of his best piloting tricks just to keep them honest.

While Scott got started on repairs, Natasha headed for the door to get them supplies — even if she didn't feel like eating, she was aware it was necessary, and she could force herself — when a shrill and piercing alarm cut through the air.

"That's not your perimeter alert," she shouted over at Scott with her brow scrunched. "I've heard what that sounds like — so what's this?"

"I have no idea," Scott shouted back, though he didn't have time to consider it before a bamf appeared on his shoulder — and one right next to Natasha. Both of the little blue imps looked like stressed out Halloween cats — eyes wide, hackles raised. When the pair of bamfs latched onto them and teleported them out — almost all the way to the gates and under cover of the trees — Natasha and Scott looked more than a little confused, particularly when the remaining members of the X-Men all showed up the same way, with Kurt looking completely nervous as he rushed over to Scott to ask what was going on.

"Where is the attack coming from — and can we meet it?" Kurt asked quickly as he released his hold on Logan's arm — he'd been the one to teleport Logan out rather than any of the bamfs.

"I don't know," Scott admitted as the rest of the group teleported out — even Laura and Gabby, who had volunteered to try to help with things while Logan was out with the group trying to break out the three prisoners.

Almost in answer, three Kree warships all but screamed to a stop out of the clouds and simply started to open fire on the mansion, completely undeterred by any of the shields or security systems that had been stopping them from doing that very thing before now.

The X-Men had been teleported far enough out that they didn't have to worry about getting caught up in the blast, but that didn't change the looks of devastation and shock as they watched the Kree lay waste to their home.

By the time the Kree were finished, there was hardly anything left of the mansion, and the ships zoomed off again, leaving fires still burning in their wake but no other sign that the X-Men had been living there only moments before.

"Well, I guess it was time to redecorate anyhow," Bobby joked at an attempt to lighten the situation a bit, though no one even looked at him, still in shock at the destruction they had just witnessed.

"They got to Noh," Scott said at just over a whisper.

Beside him, Natasha couldn't help it when her eyes widened, even when she was trying to control her response. "We have to get to that prison. Now."

"Where's the blackbird?" Scott asked Bobby — since he was the closest and seemed to have the best control of his facilities, if he was making jokes. "Was it in there?"

"Storm and Forge took it to go harass some Kree," Bobby replied. "Should be in the skies over the Atlantic right now shooting at aliens."

Scott nodded to himself as he looked over the shellshocked remains of his team. "All of the kids were gone, right? No stragglers?"

Bobby nodded. "Everybody's out for the summer — or out fighting. Even Hank's lab was empty today — but that's just luck," he added, gesturing at Hank, who had a bamf on each shoulder and was still holding a tube of something he'd been working on when they got him out.

"Then we'll find a different jet. I'll check out one of the Quinjets from the Avengers' stash or borrow one from SHIELD…" Natasha was already back in motion and clearly ready to go as she called up the Avengers to get a ride — but the response was clearly not what she expected.

"Widow! You're alive? Where are you?" came the very frantic-sounding answer from Miles as he picked up the other line.

"I'm at the institute," Natasha said, her eyebrows up to her hairline as she listened to the youngest spider-hero losing his cool on the other end. "Or what's left of it."

"What's that supposed to — oh CRUD." Miles' voice was shaking. "Oh man, oh — this — this is really very not good. This is very bad. We were just gonna call you guys for help, but if you got hit too—"

"Miles," Natasha said in a patient tone that didn't match her expression. "Slow down. Tell me what happened."

"The Tower blew up!" he half shouted back at her. "It blew up! Things like this are not supposed to happen. Right? I mean, this place gets overrun but — they blew it up! Right out of the sky! Some kind of alert went off, and the whole security system was screaming at us to book it, and I'm literally swinging to the next building when this heat wave hits, and if we'd been a few minutes later… It blew up!"

Natasha's eyes were wide, but it was the only indication that she was shaken by the news as she nodded along to Miles' description of events. "Get yourself somewhere safe, and call Steve — tell him where you are, and he'll get everyone regrouping." She put a hand to her forehead to massage the space between her eyebrows. "Get somewhere safe. It looks like the Kree have broken our security codes, so for the moment, stay out of sight until we know how bad the breach is."

"Get Stark," Logan said suddenly. "Gotta move the little ones. If they got into the flight plans just before this mess started up — the Kree will know where to find them."

Natasha nodded as she called Tony up. "I'm sure he's got a hidey hole he can share," she agreed. "Or three."

As soon as Tony picked up — sounding a bit frazzled himself over the loss of the tower — Natasha filled him in, and of course, he agreed in a heartbeat. "I know a few places. Just patch the coordinates to my private account and I'll have them outta there in the time it takes you to say 'thanks, Tony,'" he promised quickly.

"I'll send you a few more when you're there," Scott said. "My wife's family is too close to this too."

"I'll probably add a few to the mix, too — Gerry and Dani… Jess is freaking out on me, barely got the kids out in time…."

"Sending coordinates to you now," Natasha replied, cutting Tony off from his rambling freakout. "And Tony — fly fast." She pocketed the comm and turned toward Scott with the most open look he'd ever seen from her. "They got to Noh — and they got to Clint. If we don't move now… they don't have a reason to keep them alive anymore," she said frankly.

Scott nodded, though he looked pale, knowing she was absolutely right. "Ready when you are," he said before he looked over at Kurt and Logan. "Can you get up to the helicarrier if we get the coordinates?"

"As long as the coordinates are correct, it shouldn't be a problem," Kurt said, looking to the bamfs for a moment, who nodded their agreement and looked ready to go, little tails switching behind them. Clearly, they wanted to pound whoever had destroyed their home. "But as long as it's close enough to see where I'm going …" He shrugged. "It might take two ports."

As before, the bamfs attached themselves to their cargo, and Kurt took a hold of Logan's shoulder once he had the coordinates. The first teleport got them close — and also falling a few hundred feet as Kurt reoriented himself and saw where he was supposed to be.

When the now-homeless X-Men all arrived on the helicarrier on the second teleport, it was in one of the side hallways, though Logan knew exactly where to go from there to get them to the bridge just a few turns down. It was enough that Fury likely knew they were coming before they arrived — though he didn't turn to even acknowledge them when they did get there, his attention on several screens in front of him.

"We've got a situation," Fury said solemnly. "You … should probably take a seat. All of you."

"We have just come from the rubble of our home — and Avengers Tower has been demolished as well," Kurt said with a deep frown and a look over his shoulder at Logan. "What now?"

Fury fixed him with a look before he switched the main screen to what he'd been watching before the little group had walked in. The Kree were making their announcement publicly, and it was obvious even through the lofty speech that they intended to make an example out of "the traitor, the Avenger, and the Accuser's murderer."

As they turned their attention to the screens, Laura made her way over to stand closer to Logan, particularly when she saw what kind of shape the captives were in.

The three prisoners were beaten up pretty severely, though the Kree had been sure to keep their faces in good enough condition for identification. Logan and Natasha were both clearly in shock when they saw it, though it seemed to transition into rage faster for Natasha, and when Laura tried to rest her hand on Logan's shoulder, he shrugged it off and took a few steps closer to watch.

"Where are they broadcasting from?" she demanded. "I need a jet and coordinates, and I'll break up this… zhemanstvo."

"You won't get there fast enough," Scott said in a resigned tone. He'd seen how quickly Kree trials went down. This just wasn't good, no matter how you looked at it.

"My ne mozhem stoyat' bez dela," she half growled out Scott's way.

"This will be over before you hit the flight deck," Logan agreed quietly, looking like all the fight had drained from him at once.

She whirled to face Kurt, her gaze hard. "You can get us there. You and the besy. We just need to know where to go, da?"

Kurt looked torn as he glanced between her hopeful desperation and Logan's increasingly numb acceptance. "It … depends on where they are."

"All indications point to it being Ronan's personal vessel," Quartermain supplied for them. "We can't pin down coordinates with their new shielding tech ... not when it's in motion, anyway."

"And if I misjudge, we're both dead," Kurt said quietly. "Even if it's orbiting, it's moving too fast."

She turned to him with the unmistakable look of desperation only growing. "Then we just watch?" She let out a long breath as it was clear she was fighting for control before she let out a string of Russian swear words and simply sank into the seat beside Logan. "Oni uzhe vyigrali," she muttered just low enough for him to hear.

"Da," he replied just as quietly.

On the screen, Ronan was going on about the "superiority of the Kree Empire" and the "inevitability" of Earth coming under their control, along with several ridiculous claims about how "easily the rest will fall" and something about being "disappointed" that Earth's heroes were so lacking — that sort of thing.

The entire bridge was silent, watching the poorly disguised gloating, until Kamala — who had come up with the rest of the displaced Avengers — poked her head in the room, watched the feeds for a moment, and asked, "Is that… feedback?"

Logan cleared his throat a bit and shook his head. "No, that's my wife. Growling."

"Oh." Kamala looked surprised as she glanced his way. "It's … constant."

"I'd guess she's awful damn pissed off right about now," he said wearily, raising his hand to half cover his face. "She knows what's coming."

"I think everyone does," Scott said with a hard frown as Ronan approached K first, though all three of their friends were stuck fast and looked to be just ... waiting.

The growling on the screen got louder as he approached, but the three of them stood their ground, though K seemed to shift her shoulder just a bit when Ronan was nearly next to her.

"Do the accused have any final words?" Ronan asked with a smug smile on his face.

No one on the helicarrier was surprised when it was Clint who spoke up with, "You're televising this, right? Gotta be safe for all ages? My kid and my five-year-old partner might be watching? So ... guess I'm stuck with 'screw you'? Can't go too much stronger."

Ronan barely glanced his way at that commentary to turn his gaze on Noh. "And from the traitor? I wouldn't want any of you to miss what the others might say."

Noh settled his shoulders and had his chin in the air. "You speak of betrayals, but I have only ever done as I said I would. The same cannot be said of you," he all but snarled. "Or have you forgotten that a promise was made that these my friends would be safe?" With that, he spit at Ronan, the sticky, hallucinogenic substance hitting the Accuser helmet with a splat. It was thick and stayed glued to where it was — marring the regal look entirely — but it was only on the helmet, not enough to give Noh a shot at controlling him. And Noh paid dearly for the insult, shuddering as one of the Kree holding him pressed a device into his side that was clearly hurting him, even if he didn't say anything further or scream about it.

Ronan's eyes flashed as he stepped from Noh to K, but when it was clear she didn't have anything but glares and growls for him as she tipped her chin up defiantly, he addressed the other Kree at the trial with a grandiose gesture. "These three stand accused of crimes against the empire — of treason, murder, rebellion, and conspiracy against our cause," he announced. "The evidence of their guilt is overwhelming — the punishment for their crimes must be justly so." He was looking more and more smug as he reached for a long a ceremonial-looking sword.

K shifted her arms a hair further than she had before and popped her claws — right through her hip and into the cuff that held her other hand, breaking the energy restraints that held her arms down. In a mad rush, she flew at Ronan, and before he could raise the sword, she sunk one hand full of claws right into the center of his face and twisted hard, half attached to his corpse as he hit the ground. She was still growling — though a bit more audibly now that she'd let her lips part the slightest as she stabbed him again for good measure.

Several Kree rushed forward at her attack, but unlike Ronan, they didn't all have the protective and frankly cumbersome helmets, and while Noh was still restrained, he had good aim all the same. He nailed one of the Kree, the sticky spit dripping down the soldier's face. The soldier's eyes unfocused for just a moment — before he turned to attack his fellow soldiers.

K turned from Ronan to look over at her two friends and rushed by the fighting soldiers to wreck the restraints holding Noh and Clint both — neither of whom wasted any time in finding a weapon and starting the fight with her on the surrounding soldiers. Battered as they were, they weren't going to go down without taking as many of the Kree with them as they could. And considering the Kree were shocked by the loss of Ronan — and a few of them were hallucinating under Noh's command — all three looked set to tear the ship to pieces.

On the helicarrier, the entire bridge was silent when the feed suddenly cut entirely. Natasha and Logan both stared at the fuzzed out screen in surprise.

"Are you sure it wasn't her they were trying to copy?" Gabby said out of the corner of her mouth to Laura, who shot the younger girl a look before trying to join what had to be a rescue mission in the making.

"We're going now," Logan said finally as he pushed back from the table. "Before something else goes wrong."

"We're taking the fastest jet you have," Natasha added as she and Logan fell into step together. It wasn't a request.

"I'm going with you," Fury said with a nod.

Neither Natasha nor Logan looked too surprised by that, though most of the others did. "You don't want to coordinate from here?" Scott asked, eyebrows raised the slightest bit as he tried to look less shocked than he sounded.

"I think I've coordinated from behind more than enough," Fury replied over his shoulder as the three of them headed off the bridge. "We have no idea what their next move is — all things considered. Ronan was about as high up as you can get, so I have no reference point as to what the protocol is in this scenario. If they even have one."

"I don't know that they do," Kurt said thoughtfully. "My understanding is that they considered Ronan nigh untouchable."

"Then let's break up their armies while they're still scrambling — after we get our people back," Natasha said through her teeth as she and Logan led the way at a quick pace toward the door.

But before they left the bridge, Logan was sure to turn and catch Kurt's arm. "I want the girls outta here. Send 'em to the safe house with the rest of the families."

"We can help," Laura insisted. "We have been fighting for years without needing to be sidelined."

But Logan wasn't hearing it at all, already shaking his head with his mouth drawn tight. "That's not the point. I don't want you in the middle of it if it goes south." He stopped fully and met her gaze. "And I'm not asking. If you want to help, go to the safehouse and tear apart anyone that tries to get to those kids. If you don't want to help — go anyhow."

Laura and Gabby both looked like they might argue the point, but considering how serious Logan looked, Gabby was the one to let out a little frustrated noise but agree all the same. "Fine, I guess we can go get full up on baby snuggles," she said, throwing her hands up in the air, though that really only earned her a dry look from Laura before she nodded too.

"Alright, but if you need us…"

"See you soon," Logan replied, simply turning to head out with Natasha.

Translations from Russian:

Zhemanstvo - "affectation" or "nonsense"

My ne mozhem stoyat' bez dela - "We cannot stand idle."

Besy - "imps"

Da - "yes"

Oni uzhe vyigrali - "They've already won."