"Remember when your crazy sister was chasing us in those pods?" Rocket asks. "They were better than this."
"Sorry this car isn't up to your standards," Wanda retorts, gripping the wheel of the minivan she borrowed. Well, borrowed, but without permission. She has a pretty good idea that Vision would label it stealing. Oh well. Their other options are limited, because Wanda knows that the government is watching Tony. They can't land a spaceship at Avengers tower—if they didn't have to convince Tony to help first, maybe they could fight their way out, but given how much Tony hates Steve…
"And why do Groot and me have to go in the way back? Groot doesn't like the dark," Rocket complains.
Keep talking, furry creature, and I'll turn you into mittens, Wanda thinks. "Because if they see you—"
"Yeah, you all are too weird looking," taunts Starlord from the passenger seat. Drax grunts from behind him.
Gamora hits him on the shoulder.
"Hey!" he yelps. Wanda swerves to avoid a breaking car in front of her. The city skyline looms up ahead.
"Does this thing fly?" asks Rocket.
"No. It drives," Wanda answers.
"Boring. You earthlings are so unimaginative," comments Rocket.
"Is that New York City?" asks Starlord, leaning forward. "Man, I always wanted to visit."
Wanda smiles. Vision's there. And Tony, and Rhodey. Her friends. Except she isn't sure if they're still friends at all. Does it even matter?
Maybe all that matters is that they were friends, and because of that, she needs to protect them.
But he didn't try to chase her down last time. He let her go.
"Why doesn't this car have a cassette player?" demands Starlord.
"Because we now only play music from our phones," Wanda replies.
Starlord goggles at her. "From your phones?"
"Sounds imaginative, doesn't it?" Wanda keeps her eyes glued to the road. She doesn't have a driver's license, but she figures she's better off driving than anyone else.
Gamora laughs behind her. Wanda bites back a smile.
"Where will we find the Iron Man?" grunts Drax.
"T'Challa knows his schedule," Wanda answers, reciting what the king told her. "We can find him visiting a high school student. A spider man."
"A spider man?" asks Rocket. "And you think me and Groot are strange?"
"He's not actually part spider. Well, maybe. He can shoot webbing from his hands," Wanda says.
In the rearview mirror, she sees Gamora and Drax exchange a look. "I guess it is pretty strange," Wanda admits.
"Thanos has been thrilled you guys had that fight," Starlord reports.
Great. Her chest aches. "Hopefully Tony will listen."
"Hey, we all fight all the time," Starlord says, gesturing. "Drax tried to kill Gamora at one point."
"I tried to kill the Avengers," Wanda admits.
"See? Families try to kill each other. It all works out." Starlord leans back in his seat.
"Put your seatbelt on!" Wanda hisses. 'There's a cop up ahead—if they see you slouched like that, they'll pull us over!"
"You humans are pathetic," Drax declares as Wanda slows.
Dammit. Traffic clogs the roads. "Pretty much," she agrees.
"Hey, are you Iron Man?" calls a man in a reddish jacket as he climbs out of his minivan parked along an otherwise quiet street, lined with brick apartment buildings sprayed with graffiti. The sidewalks are cracked and weeds sprout from the cement.
"I don't even know what the latest disaster is, so I have no comment," Tony says blandly. "Go away."
"No. See, I can't really. I've got to talk to you—"
Is this stooge for real? Tony whirls around, his jaw tight and aching. It cracks when he starts to talk. "I'm visiting a—someone I care about, okay? Please leave me alone. If you want an interview call my secretary."
"Now see here—" starts a second voice. "You've got no idea how many light years we traveled to be able to—"
A raccoon.
Oh my God. Tony rubs his eyes, blinks once, twice. Am I crazy?
This is it. I've finally gone insane. Either that or Wanda's back.
"Hey, Mr. Stark!" calls out Peter's chipper voice as he jogs down the sidewalk. "You'll never believe what I—"
"Is this your spawn?" asks the raccoon.
It's talking. To me.
Peter yelps and shoots a string of web at the animal. And chaos erupts. The minivan's doors fly open, and a green woman—what the hell?—and a man bigger than Thor and more colorful than the witch leap out.
"Holy shit!" Tony's hand flies up to shoot at the mountain of a man barreling at him, while the green woman roundhouse kicks Peter to the ground. "Leave the kid alone!"
"Leave our friend alone!" bellows the journalist—or not-journalist.
"Stop, Tony!" cries Wanda, jumping onto the sidewalk.
"I knew you were back!" Tony shouts. "Make your trippy visions go away?" Am I afraid of raccoons? He can't remember.
"It's not a vision! We just want to talk!" Wanda yells as she rushes to wave her red magic around and remove the webbing from the raccoon, who promptly hurls a few choice words at Peter.
"Get the wicked witch of the west to let the kid go?" Tony suggests. She has Peter in a headlock.
"Gamora, it's okay," Wanda tells the woman, who lets Peter go and is rewarded with webbing tying her hands together.
"Can't trust these humans!" growls the beastly man, inches from Tony's face. Wanda quickly removes the green woman's web ties.
He's not wearing a costume. That's his skin. "Did you join the circus?" Tony gasps.
"No!" Wanda glares at him. "We're here to talk. They're from space."
"Like outer space?" asks Peter, picking himself up from the sidewalk. "Like, you're an alien?" He gapes at the green woman like she's suddenly an emerald instead of an attacker.
"Last time we had to deal with aliens, it didn't go over to well," Tony responds.
"Yeah, we're the least of your problems," snaps the red-jacketed guy. "But hey, you should be impressed. Aliens have heard of Iron Man's exploits."
That is pretty impressive. Tony nods.
"Maybe you've heard of me? Starlord?" He winces. "Probably not, right?"
"Not," Tony confirms. Starlord? What kind of shit name is that?
"Anyways, we're kind of like the space Avengers. And we've got to warn you. And talk to you. Your purple friend—"
"Vision," supplies Wanda.
"—is in danger. Which kinda means your whole city's in danger. Whole planet?"
"I am Groot," says a tree. A tree.
"Can we go back to your place and talk?" Wanda glances around her as if being in an open place unnerves her.
Tony hesitates, but Wanda's eyes are pleading with him even without her using any magic. He remembers Vision moping around the tower and shudders. "Only if your alien buddies promise to stop hurting everyone," he says. "Then, yeah."
"We attack when attacked," says the green woman, brushing dirt off her leather uniform.
"Yeah, well, you and Natasha would get along," Tony grumbles. "Looks like I'll have to stop by later, kid."
"But I just heard that our city might be in danger," protests Peter, jaw hanging slack. "I've got to—"
"Be home in time for Aunt May's dinner," Tony answers. "You're not coming."
"But Mr. Stark—"
"No buts."
"You had me help when you needed me to fight your friends! This sounds a lot more serious! And besides, you've got to know I can—"
"Nope kid, sorry. Say hi to your aunt for me." Tony strides away.
"If he's strong enough, he might as well come," says the green woman. "He could be needed."
"He's a goddamn kid, Elphaba," Tony retorts.
She frowns. "My name is Gamora."
"Hell, I did lots of dangerous things when I was a kid, floating through space with the Ravagers," says Starlord.
Tony pauses. Okay, if he were in Peter's shoes, he'd be desperate to come. And if what Wanda says is true… damn. "What if the rodent chews his face off?"
The mini-hulk lunges at Tony and clamps a hand around his throat. "Don't ever call our friend that again."
"Okay," Tony squeaks. The moment the beast lets him go and Tony can suck in air, he scowls. "Don't ever threaten me again."
"Let's just go," Wanda says, exhausted.
"Long missions are my thing," Natasha assures Bucky as they hide under an outcropping. "There's no reason to worry."
There's never a reason to lose your cool.
Do not let your emotions sway you.
What kind of monster lives without feeling? That's what they asked her. SHIELD. When she joined them and they interrogated her. Natasha never worried that she would be able to convince them she truly wanted to help them, instead of the people who raised her to be a monster.
And they still saw her that way.
You can't change what people think of you. This, Natasha knows. She sees Bucky surveying the dark rocks surrounding them and knows he's wondering if Steve will understand. He's a child, still hoping for a second chance, to prove to be anything other than what he is. Natasha gave that up long ago.
"Thanos will be keeping the gauntlet close to him," Bucky says. "I know his type. He'll be obsessive."
"He might also be arrogant," Natasha says. But if he's anywhere near as powerful as Loki described… she hears the screams of the tortured echoing in her mind, hurtling down her spine. She shudders.
"How do we get close?" Bucky asks.
"It'd have helped if we got more of an idea from Loki," Natasha says with a scowl.
Bucky groans. Evidently her message stung. "I know it's a bit of a fool's errand. But I don't have another choice. I didn't have one."
Natasha's head snaps up to meet his eyes. "Yes you did. You could have—"
"Stayed in that glass case? Let T'Challa work?" Bucky shakes his head. "That's no—that's not—you know, maybe it's selfish, but I want to live. I want to have a chance to be someone other than—other than what they made me, okay? Can't you understand that? Sleeping while they work on a cure they might never find isn't really living."
Natasha nods. Her heart aches.
"Didn't you ever try to—"
"I use what they made me into for my own purposes now. For SHIELD, and the Avengers." She swallows. "I'm a spy. I'm an assassin, too. If I can use those skills for a decent cause, well, it feels good." At the very last, now, she's making her own decisions. "But they didn't mess with my mind, not exactly." Not so blatantly as they did with him.
"Do you remember all of their faces?" Bucky asks her. His eyes meet hers, and she wishes she could look away.
"Many of them. Not all." I remember yours, though.
"I remember every single one," Bucky says, looking at the dust on the ground.
She had to forget. If she remembered all of them, she'd die. Some nights, the faces she does remember strangle her in her sleep. "Did you have nightmares? When you were in Bucharest?"
He's quiet, and for a moment Natasha thinks he won't answer. Then: "Yes." He doesn't need to ask her, because they both know her question was her answer.
Bucky groans. "Sometimes I have to wonder. Why me? What made them choose me?"
The answer he's afraid of is almost certainly the right one. "They must've seen something in you. Potential."
He snorts. "To be a killer."
"To be a soldier," she corrects. His brow creases in surprise at her vehemence. "Who fights for what he believes in. Which is why they brainwashed you."
Bucky cocks his head.
Do you recognize me yet?
No. Natasha folds her arms. "During those years… after Washington D.C., why didn't you find Steve? Was it because you were afraid of your mind playing a game on you or—"
"No. I didn't even know that the winter soldier was still inside me. I thought—I thought once I made a choice it would be enough." Bucky clenches his fist. The other arm, the illusion, hangs unmoving.
"That's the one thing I can't do without anymore," Natasha admits. I need to be able to choose for myself.
And she sees something unspoken in Bucky's eyes, in the way he lowers his head so that his hair hangs over his face. You were too ashamed to find Steve.
The brace friend Steve so looked up to, who protected him, who encouraged him, now a murderer and a man unmade from the inside.
Did you think he'd reject you? Even after you saved him from the river?
You wanted to pretend it wasn't real, that this wasn't really you. But it was, and Natasha wonders what it would have been like, if she'd chosen to leave and hidden. What would it have been like to have a metal arm reminding you every day of what you were? What was it like for you?
He's scared, and Natasha knows the feeling well. "You'll be okay."
He snorts. "I will?"
At least he wants to come back, Natasha thinks. Bruce… God knows where he is.
"Natasha?" he asks.
A low snarl echoes behind her. Natasha whirls around to see a Chitauri flying at her. She points her arm, ready to sting, when she hears Bucky shout.
"Let them."
Take us, she knows. She meets his eyes, her head still echoing with the screams. This is a pretty big risk!
What other options could even work?
"Please explain the street performers and the puppets," Rhodey requests as Tony leads the guardians and Wanda in. "Wanda!"
"Rhodey," she says, folding her hands behind her back. It's the first time she's seen him since his injury. He struggles to stand, but he's smiling at her, and—oh, what the hell. She steps in for a quick hug. The city view sprawls out behind the window, and Wanda remembers all the mornings she would sit and watch. Sometimes Vision joined her, sometimes Natasha.
Vision floats through the wall, his gaze lasering in on her. She glances away, focusing on the pinpricks of people below.
"You got an explanation?" Rhodey asks.
"We do," says Gamora.
"I'm surprised. You actually have kind of a nice place," comments Rocket, stroking the leather chairs with a nod of approval.
Even Vision tears his eyes away from Wanda to gawp at the creature, who smirks.
"This is from Wakanda?" Rhodey asks.
Oh shit. "You know we're there?" Wanda exclaims.
"Call it an educated guess," Vision says. "We didn't know."
Wanda ignores him. She turns to Gamora.
"Well, we're from space. Like other planets. Although I'm originally from earth," announces Starlord. "They called me Peter Quill here. In space, they call me Starlord."
"He calls himself that," Rocket corrects.
"I'm confused," says Rhodey.
"They came to warn us," Wanda says loudly. Warmth filters in through the window, dancing on ehr back. She doesn't like it. It makes her feel safe, and she's not sure she is. False security. Like the night her parents exploded.
"Warn us of what?" Tony asks.
"You're in terrible danger," Gamora says, looking to Vision.
"Vision?" scoffs Tony. "Why?"
"Because Thanos wants the mind gem," says Starlord—Peter. Whatever.
"The what?" Tony demands.
Gamora sighs, and she and Starlord explain about the gem, about Thanos's quest to fill this infinity gauntlet, about how he's connected to Loki and the attack on New York.
"So basically this guy is like Satan," observes Rhodey.
"Pretty much," Wanda confirms. Vision just stands there, as stoic as ever, and Wanda wants to scream. Don't you realize your life is in danger? Doesn't that matter to you? Or is that just petty humanness?
"So my life," Vision says slowly, as if he can tell fury's bubbling within her. "Comes from a tool for destruction."
"What can be used as a tool of destruction," Gamora corrects.
"He's going to come for you," Drax says. "Make no mistake about it."
"Well, he's not getting Vision," snaps Tony. "I won't allow it."
Vision glance at Tony, at Gamora, at Wanda. He doesn't respond.
"We're hatching a plan in Wakanda to take down Thanos," says Gamora. "We need help. If he gets all the infinity stones, he'll wipe out the galaxy. Your world will be only the first stop."
"I have no desire to go to Wakanda," Tony says. "If T'Challa wants—"
"Because Steve's there?" Wanda asks.
"Oh, is he? I presume his friend is, too," Tony grumbles. He balls up his fists.
"Tony—" starts Rhodey.
"That bastard killed my mother, Rhodey," Tony says, shaking his head. "I can't—he deserves to—he's a monster—"
"Wait, one of the Avengers killed your mother?" asks Starlord. "Man, I would have ripped his throat out—"
"I understand your need to vengeance," Drax tells Tony, pounding his fist. "Thanos is responsible for slaughtering my wife and daughter. He got a Kree named Ronan to do it, but he's dead now. I almost killed her because of it." He jerks his head to Gamora. "But she was the wrong person to blame, so." He shrugs.
The wrong person to blame, indeed, Wanda thinks. Should I tell him?
"I can't—" Tony starts.
"He's not there," blurts out Wanda.
Silence falls over the room as everyone spins to look at her. "What?" Tony asks, his voice deadly serious.
"We don't know where James Barnes is," Wanda clarifies. She knots her hands up.
"He ran?" Tony's eyes bug.
Wanda wishes she wasn't the one having to explain this. "We're not sure. There was something Asgardian."
"Great, so now Thor's—"
"We don't know that it was Thor either," Wanda cuts in.
"Explain. Now." Tony glares at her. She takes a step back, and his gaze softens. "Please."
"He just—he was asleep, in a chamber, comatose while they worked on trying to fix his mind, so he wouldn't go into flashbacks anymore and act so savage."
"He acts pretty savage even when he's not under their control. He's a monster," Tony spits.
Wanda could cry. Tony looks at her, waiting for the rest. "And then he was just gone. And Natasha is gone, too. They both vanished."
"Natasha's missing?" Vision asks.
"You should have told me this sooner!" Tony yells. "There's no telling what—"
"You'd do?" Wanda shoots back, anger surging. "You locked me in this tower. I haven't forgotten. You fought—"
"He killed my mom!"
"And you killed my mom!" Wanda shouts. "It was indirect, but you still did it! Your weapons!"
Tony's face blanches. Rhodey swallows. Even Rocket is quiet. She can feel Vision's eyes on her, but she won't look at him.
"I'm not asking you to forgive him," Wanda says, her voice shaking. "I'm just asking you to protect Vision. Help us—"
"He doesn't usually need much protecting," jokes Rhodey.
"He will from Thanos," Gamora says, her voice haunted. She meets Wanda's eyes with something of respect. For me?
"No, that ain't all!" shouts Rocket.
"I am Groot," says Groot.
"What the hell?" yelps Rhodey. Vision cocks his head, looking amused.
"We need you guys. All of you guys. Fighting among yourselves can wait. We need the Avengers!" Starlord exclaims.
"Minus the spider boy. He can rot in hell," Rocket puts in.
Tony rolls his eyes.
"Look," Wanda says. "I risked coming back here. I did it because I believe the threat is coming. Because maybe they can help us find Natasha, too," she adds, nodding to the Guardians. "Because I know what it's like to lose someone you love, and I don't want to risk that happening to any of us."
"I can't," Tony tells her, shaking his head. "Not yet."
"We need you," Wanda pleads.
"Not now." Tony hesitates. "Call me. If you are desperate. But right now I can't." He turns to Vision. "You need to go with them, though."
Wanda's jaw drops.
"But—"
"I believe them. I just can't. You should go. You have to go. I don't want your death on my conscience. And Rhodey, you—"
"I'm staying with you," Rhodey declares. "But please," he adds, looking straight at Wanda. "Keep us informed. I won't leave you if you need us."
