Miranda here.

We were, of course, introduced to the Fortune Seller.

Ariel had told us about everything about meeting her months before. We had talked about whether she might know Ivy or have the same abilities, but Ariel didn't know enough, and none of us could find out anything else about her – Google could only provide rumors and speculations. Google doesn't know everything after all, apparently. We're not Ivy – we only have so many people who could help us with that. We did try talking to the Guardians – not Peter Quill and co, Jack Frost and co – but they don't know anything about that sort of thing. We did talk to a few conspiracy theorists, though. One of them said she was a fraud meant to distract from the government's attempts to contact telepathic extraterrestrials, and another said she was a medium from the third inner ring of Mars.

Yeah, I wasn't really sold on either idea.

When we were told we would get to meet her, I though, perhaps we would be able to ask and find out. I never suspected it could be really Ivy in disguise.

I didn't know Ivy even used makeup, let alone that she could use it to make herself look so drastically different. That's something I've added to a long list of things I never knew about Ivy.

The woman I saw was told old to be Ivy. I mean, she didn't look old, but she looked to be in her early twenties at least, and her hair was far too long for it to be Ivy's. Besides, Ivy had once told me that nothing could ever persuade her to go blond. She thought the color made me look ridiculous.

"Hello... Miranda Pond, right?" She shook my hand and gave me a warm smile.

I nodded. "Hello."

Ariel stepped forward. "Remember me?"

"Of course I remember you, Ariel."

"Where's your son?"

The entire room went silent.

"He's at home. I left him with a babysitter this time – it's a bit too dangerous to bring him along."

She introduced herself to Jack and Edward with warm, unrecognizing smiles to both.

Jack eyed her for a moment. "You're the Fortune Seller?"

"That I am." She had a different voice than Ivy's. Sweeter, quieter, with a touch of a British accent.

"You see the future," said Jack.

"True enough."

"How do you see the future?"

"That's for me to know and for everyone else to wonder."

"Are you from England?" I asked.

"No, though I lived there for a while. Just moved back, and it's so very good to be back. You like British stuff?"

"How'd you guess?"

"Your earrings. TARDISes."

"You're a Whovian?"

"I watch it sometimes, yes."

Mr. Stark, Dr. Banner and the Captain had been staring at her ever since her son was mentioned. Agent Romanoff looked slightly curious, but that was all. Thor didn't looked shocked, but certainly puzzled.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Stark?" Her voice had become slightly icy.

He shut his mouth. "Um... no.

"Excellent."

"You're married?" I asked.

"Sadly, no."

Edward made a small choking sound.

"Is there a problem?" asked the Fortune Seller.

"No, no." Edward's voice squeaked a little.

I stifled laughter at the awkward expression on his face. I had a sneaking suspicion that Edward thought her attractive. He certainly had a type – pretty, big blue eyes, a no nonsense personality. Ivy had possessed enormous blue eyes and had been intolerant of nonsense from anyone. And she had been pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. Every guy in school had wanted to go out with her – and the fact she always refused made it just that much more tempting to ask. I often suspected she found the persistence of some of them to be amusing. Edward had been no exception, except for that he'd never asked because he was too shy.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment, I have some business to deal with." She gave us all a warm smile and walked over to the team.

"Let's take that as our cue to go," said Edward.

Ivy here.

As far as awkward conversations go, the next one was at the top of my list.

"A son." Tony stared at me. "Since when, why, and how?"

"Since when? Since last fall. Why? Do you seriously think it was my idea? And how? That's my business."

"And who?" asked Cap. He had known about what happened – what had happened – but he didn't know about Phillip. Or who was responsible.

I could not tell him the truth. "That's my business as well. It's better for everyone if that stays a secret."

"We really don't trust your opinion on that right now," said Tony.

"You trusted me before. Trust me now, or I'll leave you to your own devices, stumbling around blindly in the dark. Believe me, of all the secrets I've kept, this is the one I most definitely know should not get out."

"Was it Edward?" asked Tony. "Your friend? You two spend a lot of time together before you faked your death?"

Seriously? "No. Edward has behaved like an absolute gentleman towards me for every single moment that we've known each other. Do you really think it was my idea?"

The implication was obvious.

Tony's face went white.

"It's been dealt with. He's suffered enough – the situation is complicated. Revenge would be... misguided." And besides, I could hardly tell Cap that Bucky had added another crime to his extremely long list. It was under HYDRA's orders. I'm not going to blame the gun, I'm going to blame the person who pulled the trigger. "Now, back to our discussion. You want to know where to find Ultron? I need a promise."

"And what would that be?"

I couldn't tell them about the twins. Not now. "HYDRA's information on me. Everything you can get. And information about someone named Natalia Skye."

Natasha gave me a strange look at the mention of the name.

"And about my family – about Ryan, to more precise – and my friends. You know who all that is. Does that sound reasonable?

They glanced around at each other.

"We have a deal," said Cap.

We shook hands on it.

"You could have just asked us if you wanted it."

"I could hardly have done that when you thought I was dead. That was the point of offering the deal."

"How long was it supposed to be a secret?"

"I didn't have plans. I rely on Jack and Miranda for those, and we hadn't spoken."

"Edward knows," Natasha pointed out.

"I never wanted to stay dead forever. His knowing was my insurance, so that I would have proof when I came back. It apparently worked a little better than I planned."

"You didn't exactly do the greatest job keeping it a secret yourself. I've suspected for months that you were alive."

"What?"

"I first started wondering when I met you at the house with Ariel. Your wig was askew and I know when I've trained someone. Your powers tipped us off. When Edward started talking about you being alive, he just confirmed it. I never mentioned it before, though, because I didn't have any proof."

I supposed I should be thankful that everything was out in the open now. It was better, wasn't it? "If you want to find Ultron, go to Wakanda. They're after vibranium."

At that moment, my cell phone rang, playing that song from Pinocchio. I can no longer hear that song without nightmares.

"Excuse me a moment." I walked away and answered it. "Hello, Rebecca Brown speaking."

"Hello, Ivy."

I recognized James Spader's voice. "I... what do you want?"

"I have something that might interest you."

"A lot of people have told me that. What is it this time?"

"Does the name Carmen sound familiar? She's sitting opposite me. You two have quite a history, don't you?"

"Lay a finger on her, Ultron, and I will ensure that you regret it for eternity." Robots don't get eternity, as far as I know, but there must be a way to make something feel like eternity. "I can do that, you know."

"I don't think you'd risk it, though."

"Probably not. What do you want from me?"

"I want a public confession to the world. Everything you are, what you've done. Your name, your address, everything. You come to a location I say and broadcast it."

"And you'll kill Carmen if I don't? How cliché. What would this do for you? Confuse the world so you can carry out your evil plan? No, don't tell me, I don't care. I'm assuming that you've got mind control on her? Nothing I can do? Of course."

"You have five minutes to call this number back. If you don't, I'll kill her."

"Very well then." I hung up.

"What was that?" asked Cap.

"No, please don't talk to me, I have to think, and think hard."

Hello, everyone.

Nanowrimo approaches. As I will be participating this year, don't expect too much in the way of updates for a while. Sorry. To be honest, losing all my work has demotivated me in a big way and I've kind of lost a lot of my interest in this story. I will finish it, though, because I have other stories I want to move onto afterwards and I don't like it when people abandon their stories.