Chapter Text
Yelena stood in a field of gold.
The horizon was a hazy line against a yellow sky, distant mountains giving way to sickly clouds. She looked down at her feet, somehow feeling detached from the rest of her body. They were planted in dirt that crumbled and cracked out from her, disappearing amidst the wheat grass that swayed, muted and otherworldly as it brushed against her pants. She felt herself reaching out to it, vision hazy. Her hand followed after she made the motion. Or had it moved before she thought it should? She frowned at the lack of control, her head swimming as she tried to focus.
Yelena spun round and round looking for any landmark she recognized, any indication of where she’d been dropped. But the world stretched out around her in a desolate, silent wasteland. Alone Alone Alone.
A groan on the ground next to her alerted Yelena to another presence.
“Well, we’re not dead. That’s good.” Clint Barton. Yelena cursed, one hand tangling angrily into her hair. Of course she’d be stranded in some ghostly hellscape with the man who’d been fueling her grief and hatred for months.
And yet…he knew Natasha’s whistle. He knew. And the things he’d said to her about Nat - could all of this been some sort of ploy by Valentina? Yes. Deep down, she had known it was true. She had just wanted something to do. Something to make her chest release and oxygen to return. Something to make the pain stop. She looked at Clint long and hard and he stared right back, unflinching, blood coating his face. Against all of her better judgment, Yelena reached out a hand to him and hauled him to his feet.
“Where the hell are we?” His voice came out gravelly, punctuated by a cough.
She shrugged, trying not to let her distress show. “I do not know Clint Barton. Not New York.”
“We’re not in Kansas anymore,” he chuckled.
Yelena turned to him, eyes narrowed. “Did you hit your head? Why would we be in Kansas?”
His smile dropped and he sighed. “It was a joke from-you know what, nevermind.”
Yelena frowned at this last vestige Natasha. It felt like a cosmic joke or some twist of fate to be stuck with the very man she meant to kill in an alien landscape far from home. Natasha had trusted him. Natasha had met her end with him. Yelena forced her feet to follow as he picked a direction and began to walk.
Her heart twisted as she felt, for the first time since she woke up in that bathroom having missed five years, the presence of her sister.
“Hello, it is Yelena. Fuck off… unless you are wanting to kill me…then, get in line. Or leave a message. If you must.”
“Hey Lena. I know you’re on some top secret mission for Melina. I just…just call me when you get back okay? I want to know you’re safe. I love you.”
Light. Screaming. Pain. Rubble. It was blending together, swirling around and around, roaring. One moment, Wanda was holding her daughter close. “Now let’s go stop the bitch.” They were shooting into the sky. They were heading for the witch. Her girl was frowning, determined.
Amber.
Nothing.
Everything.
America slammed into the ground for what was probably the hundredth time in her life. She felt her teeth sink into her lip as she took the full force of the impact. Her cheek sunk into cold, wet dirt as she lay for a moment.
They’d flown toward Agatha. They’d had her. She’d been floating above everything, light exploding around her from the shattered Soul Stone.
New York City slipping into the void.
They hadn’t been enough to stop her. Too little, too late.
Cold fear slammed into America as her nose began to bleed. Was this a new world? She tried to remember. Had she teleported out of fear? Her mind began to race. Fuck. Fuck. What if she was alone again? What if she never found her way back? What if she was stuck on some new, unforgiving, alternate earth? Air choked her throat as she sucked in a shallow breath.
Just another world. As if these past months of safety and love had been nothing more than another twisted dream. And maybe they had been. Her brain felt like it had been pulled out and stuffed into a blender. Who was to say that she hadn’t just imagined her family? Maybe she’d just been desperate, pathetic, wishing for a mother when hers were already gone. America Chavez, alone in the universe at last.
“Baby? Oh my god, America.”
Soft hands flipped her over carefully and America squinted at the flood of amber light, her head pounding. And yet, it was relief flooding her veins as she coughed roughly. Because, suddenly, blocked out the amber was a familiar shade of red.
“Sh shh it’s okay. You’re okay.” Wanda’s eyes were brimming with worry, dirt still marring her own face, as she carefully brought America into an embrace. “Shhh just breathe with me honey. That’s it. Just breathe. You’re okay.”
“Mama.” It came out as a choked whisper, a plea. America felt overwhelming relief almost collapsing her chest as she pulled back and put her hands on either side of Wanda’s face. Alive and here. She wasn’t alone again.
Wanda smiled, blinking rapidly, before her face crumbled. “Yeah milaya. I’m here.”
America wiped a tear from her mother’s cheek with her thumb.“We have to stop landing like this.”
Wanda let out a shocked chuckle and turned her face to press a gentle kiss to her palm. “Landing is definitely not our strong suit.”
America sank back into the hug, burying her head in Wanda’s shoulder and breathing deeply as her laugh turned into a sob. “I’m sorry. I…shit. I-I was scared and I guess I jumped cause I don’t know where we are and it definitely isn’t New York and-”
“Hey Milaya hey stop. This isn’t your fault.” Wanda pulled America out of her shoulder and lifted the girl’s chin. “I know where we are. I’ve been here before.”
“You have?” Wanda hummed a yes, nodding as she carefully wiped blood from America’s nose and chin with her sleeve.
“Yeah I…remember at the Lake House? When Agatha came and I almost lost you?”
America nodded, realization slowly dawning on her as she really took in her surroundings for the first time.
“She kept me here. She…showed me things I wanted to forget.”
America groaned. “She brought me here too. In…in my dreams...the one’s where I was…talking to her.”
“What did she show you?”
“She..she brought me to the top of cliff. Said we could rule together. And then…she threw me off. Wanda, I never told you. Everything happened so fast. But…it was Vision that saved me. And..he misses you too.”
Wanda clutched her tighter and America just barely heard as she whispered. “I know.”
“Mama?”
Wanda sniffled, “Yeah honey?”
“We’re in the soul stone…aren’t we…”
Wanda wiped her eyes and looked around. “Yeah..yeah we are.”
Pietro was running like he’d never run before, the ground collapsing beneath him. Spider boy was swinging above and Wanda and Star Girl were flying toward Agatha and then…
And then, nothing.
And then…Pietro was falling. He closed his eyes, flailing against nothing. Thinking of his sisters - both holding a part of his heart.
He couldn’t save either of them. But damn it, he’d tried.
The ground slammed into his back, hard and unforgiving. Pietro opened his eyes as the air left him in a whoosh.
Stars. So so many stars. Not earthly constellations, yet sickeningly familiar in the corner of his memory. Pietro felt his stomach drop as he slowly began to sit up, ribs protesting against the movement.
The terrain was the same - jagged mountain peaks and desolation. It was all the same. The only difference was the sky. It looked sick - muted and brown. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision.
Then a crackling voice he’d hoped to never hear again spoke up behind him.
“ Welcome back. Son of Olek.”
“Hey it’s Nat. If you have this number that means I know you and I probably don’t have to kill you. If this is Clint, just text me you idiot.”
“ Natalia. I um. I don’t know who has your phone now. I uh. I guess one of your fancy Avenger friends….I guess I…w-wanted to tell you. I am ok-kay. I know you were wondering before and…..Actually, that is lie. I am not okay. I do not think I ever will be again. Okay. Love you.”
Yelena guessed they had been walking for days but time was fuzzy.
Bird man surely had not run out of topics to talk about as they walked. And yet, Yelena had the distinct feeling that she was only half present. Maybe she was losing it. Maybe she was dead.
“Yelena. We gotta stop for the night.”
“Oh yeah? And why is that?”
She rounded on the man. “We do not even have a destination.”
“Yelena, we’re going to figure it out. But we have to be smart about this. Strategize.…No one is coming to save us okay?”
She felt anger burn up her spine and fester inside of her swimming head. How dare he talk to her like she didn’t understand the situation. She was stuck with him - the last person she wanted to be with.
“Oh yeah? And why is that?” Yelena felt her voice raising as she strode forward and jabbed at his chest. “Why is it, Clint Barton, that no one is coming to get us? Is it because the mighty Avengers have finally failed? Because you all left or died? You just gave up? Decided she wasn’t worth it? She was all alone! How could you?”
At some point Yelena had switched to Russian as she pounded at his chest with her fists. Even in her weakened state, she felt him stumble back just a bit.
“My sister should be here! She would…she would come! She would save me. Nattie would..she would land in her stupid pose and and she would-she”
Yelena slid to the ground with a guttural sob and Clint went with her. “I know Yelena. God. I know.”
“ Nattie.” It was plaintive and choked out in a thick accent and Yelena suddenly felt six again as Clint wrapped around her and pulled her into a crushing hug.
“ I needed her. I needed her back. How could she?”
And despite herself, Yelena cried on Hawkeye’s shoulder.
Wanda didn’t know how she knew where to go. Just that, she’d thought of a location and suddenly she knew the way. They’d needed to walk for an hour or two before they found it, still perfectly intact. She vaguely wondered why, out of every place she’d ever lived, it was the orchard house that she’d thought of first.
America whooped and began to run for the place and Wanda felt her lips turn up in a grin.
She didn’t know when the fake dream of Westview had been replaced by the real vision of seeing America grow up amongst the apple trees but she guessed it had been right around the first day of having the teenager by her side.
“America, hey wait a second.”
The house looked like she’d only just stepped out. It was set up exactly as she’d left it, the day she’d left with Strange. Wanda assumed this was some fucked up byproduct of the Soul Realm’s ability to produce singularly painful replicas of one’s dreams. America collapsed on the couch as soon as they were inside, stifling more blood on her sleeve. “So..what do we do?”
Wanda sat next to her daughter, gripping her hand between two of hers. “Well first, we deal with that nosebleed.” Her tone was light as the woman tried to conceal her overwhelming worry. This wasn’t a normal nosebleed and they both knew it.
“Yeah...I think I know how to fix it. For real I mean. Mama…I think I have to find something here.”
Wanda leaned back and pulled America back into her chest, brushing her hair out of her face. “What is it?”
“I think…if I really tried, this place would let me see the facility. See…my moms. I think all this-” Wanda gestured vaguely to her head and face, “will stop if I…if I face it all.”
Wanda kissed the side of her head. “You are the bravest person I know.”
America grinned as she leaned back. “No, you.”
They sat in silence for a minute, both deep in thought before America broke it again. “I hope Peter and Pietro are okay.”
Wanda sighed. “Me too baby. Me too.”
Peter swung away from the cloud of amber as fast as possible, aiming away from the spread and further out of the city. He didn’t think he had taken a single deep breath in the entire time he’d been running. Now, laying on his back, fairly far away from the slow and steady crawl of yellow light, Peter shuddered out a sigh. Alone. He was alone. He hadn’t been fast enough to save any of them. If Mr. Stark had been here…he could have fixed it. He would have fixed it - pulled off some crazy hero stunt that brought down Agatha and Strange. But New York City was stuck with their friendly neighborhood Spiderman and apparently all he could ever do was run.
Peter felt something sting his chest and he looked down, noticing something growing hot as it rested on a loop around his neck. America’s amulet...beacon..whatever. When had she given it to him - when he’d launched her towards Agatha? He turned it around and around.
It looked like…Stark tech. No, it couldn’t be. But Wanda had talked about meeting another Tony Stark and here his tech was...something that had been built specifically for America.
She’d given it to him for a reason...She had to have. Peter took it off of his neck, carefully holding it up by the strap.
The whole thing was smooth and metallic except for a blue-lit button on the bottom. He turned the object around to get a closer look. Inscribed around the button, in Tony’s handwriting, was a seemingly random phrase. Any Universe. Peter rubbed his thumb over the words, biting back tears. Any universe. That could mean...well...anything. And it was so tiny, the phrase could easily be overlooked. But Tony had written this for America on something he'd built just for her. And Peter knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Tony Stark, no matter what world he was on, left nothing to chance.
“Here goes nothing.” He braced himself for some Tony-like dramatic explosion, and clicked the button.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, it rose from his hand and began to spin. Faster and faster it spun in midair and Peter’s eyes widened as he began to recognize the blue outline of what looked like a twin to one of America’s portals. It rippled and fought against the air around it as it pushed outward more and more, before bursting out into a stationary star punching through reality and into something new.
Peter blinked as the other side of the portal clarified.
There, in the living room of the Lakehouse, stood Tony Stark.