DEDICATION

For Carrie,
Queen of the Stars,
Who Now Lives Among Them.

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Music is "Mako" by Ramin Djawadi (A/N: This is Elaine's Theme.)

Picture is Tuppence Middleton as Elaine Maximoff.

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"We come into the world alone and we leave it the same way. The time we spend in between--time spent alive, sharing, learning together--is all that makes life worth living."

- Jean Grey, Phoenix

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CHAPTER TWENTY

{Three Months Later}

I drive the car up to the elementary school, lining up along with the other parents that wait to pick up their kids. As soon as Ksenia and Steven spot the little blue Sudan driving up to the curb, their faces break into huge grins and they scurry over to hop in the car, just as they always do on regular ole Mondays.

As the car door shuts and they buckle up, I look at them over my shoulder, asking, "How was school?"

"Great!" Steven says. "My teacher wants to talk to you and Daddy."

"Oh, really? About what?"

"My grades. She wants to talk to you--"

There's a sharp knock on the car window, and outside stands Steven's mathematics teacher and the school principal.

"--right now."

I roll down the window with a smile. "What can I do for you, Mrs. Tukova and Miss Lovoski?"

They ask us to pull around to the parking lot of the school and if the women might borrow me for a couple minutes about the twins. Of course, I said yes, and did what they asked. Now, Steven and Ksenia are sitting outside the principle's office with a sweet in each of their mouths as I talk with the principle and teacher.

"Are they in trouble?" is the first thing that comes out of my mouth in native Sokovian. After all, look at their parents, and this wouldn't be the first time that Ksenia has been at the center of a scuffle.

Principle Tukova chuckles and shakes her head. "Thankfully not this time." She folds her hands on her desk. "Mrs. Simonova, do you have any idea how special your son is?"

A smile crosses my face as I think of the little dark haired boy sitting on the other side of the large window in her office. "Of course I do. I am his mother, after all."

She smiles with me. "More than usual, I mean. Did you know your son is passing every class he has with flying colors? His academics are off the charts. Our teachers can't teach him. He is practically running the class."

"Well, I've always known Steven was smart and quick, much like his father is, but how far off the charts are we talking? A grade up? Two? Middle school age?"

Principle Tukova looks to Miss Lovoski, Steven's mathematics teacher. "Mrs. Simonova, your son is doing high algebra."

I shake my head, brows pulling together. "What do you mean high algebra? He's not even six yet. He just started first grade. How can he be learning algebra? That's middle and high school age learning."

Miss Lovoski shakes her head with a smile plastered on her face. "We have no idea! He came to me the other day asking for more advanced math than what he was learning. Thinking he must've meant multiplication or word problems, I took him to the library and showed him the elementary mathematics sections. I found him the next afternoon working on problems that I've never even taught. He was working with pi and square roots. You don't learn that for seven or eight grades."

To my perplexed and amazed reaction, the principle says, "What we're trying to say is that Steven is incredibly intelligent. He is far above what he can learn here. Math, science, he's flying through assignments so quickly then acting as if they were easy and he is bored. What we were thinking of doing is having him take a test tomorrow to see what his IQ is, then seeing what grade level he might learn best at."

"You want him to change grades?"

"Maybe not just grades, Mrs. Simonova. If he is as clever as I think--no, know--he is, he could possibly change schools."

My brows pull even tighter together. "Change schools? What about Ksenia? They're so close... I'd hate to separate them."

"They would be separated, yes, but if Steven is at three times the level Ksenia is, no offense to her, I don't think you should deprive him of the opportunity to learn alongside kids three times his age. Gloria, you might be the mother of a child prodigy. The next Newton or Mozart. He might be someone who invents time travel or the next space craft. He might save the world one day. It's up to you and your husband, but those are things to think about."

I gnaw on my lower lip. "I'll talk to Pietro. Let's do the test tomorrow... see what it says... Then we will decide."

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

"Holy shit, something smells amazing," my sister cries as she enters the home, not bothering to say a "hello" or "hi, how're you, Sis?"

I laugh and hear her light footsteps behind me as I place take-out dishes on the table. "Bon appetite! Cooked it myself."

Bex takes a deep breath in through her nose, eyes crossing as she opens them again. "Merlin's beard, you know what I love!"

I raise an eyebrow as the door bell jingles once again, signalling another entrance. "You wanna eat all this by yourself?"

She narrows her blue eyes at me. "Don't test me, Sis."

Pietro rounds the corner with a huge smile on his face, dimples at the sides of his mouth making me grin. "Hi, Mr. Maximoff."

He sets his bag down, walking over to give me a welcoming kiss. "Hello, Mrs. Maximoff. How was the day at the shelter?"

I sigh, giving him another kiss as Bex fake gags in the background. "Very good. Helped a lot of people. How was work locking people up?"

He smirks. "Way too much fun, if I'm honest." He walks over in the direction of the food. "I am starving."

"Surprise, surprise," I mutter to myself, and Pietro throws me a playfully sharp look. "I mean, dinner's ready whenever the others get here." I turn to my sister as Pietro rummages through the take-out boxes. "Where's Steve? I thought you two were coming together."

She rolls her eyes. "He'll be right along. I told him it was no big deal, but he's a baby sometimes."

"What was no big deal?"

"His hair. I temporarily dyed it red and blue."

I hold my stomach in laughter. "You did what?"

She crosses her arms, smirking, clearly pleased with herself. "I dyed it. He hid all of my Harry Potter contraband in his car for a week as a practical joke, piece by piece until I went crazy. So I put hair dye in his shampoo bottle. Payback's a bitch." The door jingles again, and a wicked smile crosses her face. "Oh, Darlinggg! Is that you?"

A very cross and pout-y Steve comes around the corner, Bex's Captain America beanie on his head to hide his hair. "I hate you."

She waltz over to him with a cheeky grin, wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her chin on his chest. "Now, are you ever gonna hide my Queenie Goldstein pop ever again?"

He shakes his head, closing his eyes with a small grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Absolutely not. I've learned my lesson."

"Good!"

"Can you guys get the food out while everyone arrives?" Pietro requests. "I need to talk to Glory for a moment."

With mild concern, I follow him into the next room. He shuts the door for privacy. "What's wrong, Pietro?"

He pauses. "You still have not been able to remember anything about the comics?"

Over the past few months, after the events of Asgard and the Guardians and Doctor Strange, Wanda and I have been trying to recall my memories of any comics I might've read that had to do with the Infinity Stones and their origins. Since my actual copies have been long destroyed, we've been hoping that Wanda's mental powers will be able to pull something out to help us. So far, nothing has helped.

I shake my head. "Not yet, but we try multiple times every day. Any news from Stephen or the West Coast Avengers?"

He nods, but looks too solemn for it to be good news. "After finding out everything we did about what we might be able to do to stop Thanos--everything you and Stephen discovered about another Infinity Gauntlet and another set of Infinity Stones--we still cannot find a way to get to another universe. It is not like we can just pop open a wormhole and hop through."

"Has Stephen had any progress?"

He shakes his head. "He is still looking for a way to find this other Gauntlet. So far, nothing much. He's asked the Odinsons to relay a message to Queen Sigyn to ask her to search her vaults. Odin kept many treasures that we may not be aware of. Stephen cannot penetrate their security."

I nod. "Alright. Well, what about Thanos? Any news on where he might be? Have the Guardians said something?"

He shakes his head. "Last they saw of him was on Xandar. From what Elaine has told us, between Xandar and Earth, we have no idea where he might be or what he might be after. We are in the dark."

I sigh. "Again."

There's a moment of silence, then Pietro suggests, "I have a really terrible idea."

"Can't be any worse than what we're doing now, which is nothing."

"Promise you will not throw something at me?"

I raise an eyebrow conspicuously. "How bad are we talking?"

Pietro bites his lip, sighing. "We know that the only world we can get to from this one is your old one, Origin Earth..."

"Yes?"

"And we have the Soul Gem to get there, just as we did last time. With a little help from Stark, we might be able to get back."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Who do we know of that's been through countless worlds?"

He pauses, and his words set of alarms in my head. My face turns completely stern, almost enraged. "Absolutely not."

"Glory--"

"--Don't 'Glory' me! You're suggesting we go back to Origin Earth and ask that psycho for help? Do you not remember how he killed my best friend and almost killed us? How he bragged about killing you in his past parallel universes?"

"We would only need him to give us what we need!" Pietro defends, walking over to me and attempting to place his gentle hands on my shoulders.

I push him away. "I almost killed him! I swore that if he ever got out of the Origin Earth prison, I would come back and kill him myself! Now you want me to go back and ask him for help? What the hell, Pietro?" At the slight hurt on his face, I take a deep breath through my nose, calming myself. "I'm sorry. That wasn't called for."

He shakes his head. "No, it was a bad idea. I should not have brought it up."

I reach over to lay my hand over his. "i hate to admit it, I really hate to, but maybe not as bad as we think. He might be able to help." I make a low, displeased sound in my throat. "Gregory Killbane. I never thought I would see him again. Never wanted to, but we're running out of options. We don't know when Thanos is going to appear. With the time tables changing, he could show up any day now and we'd be hilariously outgunned."

"We can find another way," Pietro suggests, knowing full well we've been looking for three months and have yet to find anything at all.

I shake my head, flashing him a soft smile. "You're the smart one out of the two of us. What are the odds we'll find another way?"

After a moment of calculation, Pietro kisses my cheek slowly, as if showing how sorry he is for his answer. "Next to none. Maybe if we had more time..."

"But we don't, and that's the reality. We have to get back to Origin Earth."

His lips leave my cheek and wander to my shoulder as his arms wrap around me. "I missed you today."

I chuckle and hold him close, hands pulling at the ends of his dark hair. "You say that every day."

"And every day I mean it." He pulls back, still close to me. "How were the kids? Steven said something about an after school meeting?"

I nod. "Yes. The Principle and his teacher want us to consider having him tested for his IQ. They say he's been doing algebra in his spare time. He's flying through classes." I can't help but smile. "He's so smart, Pietro. So smart. Just like you. They're asking for us to consider, depending on the test results, to move him to a higher grade."

"Middle school?"

"Maybe even high school." I shrug. "I don't know how I feel about it yet. The twins just started first grade together. I feel terrible about separating them. They've never spent a day apart in their life, not from birth."

"They would still have each other at home," he adds, a hopeful tone in his Sokovian accent. "I understand your fears, but is it truly fair to hold him back just because his sister is--while very smart--not a genius?"

I bite my lip. "That's what the teacher said. I don't know. I told her we'd allow the test, just to see what it says, and then we'd decide."

He nods, placing a kiss on my forehead. "Sounds wonderful."

The door bell rings again, signaling another entrance into the home. Bex shouts, "Hi, Mom! Hi, Vis!"

"Hi, Bex Bear! Don't worry about Wanda; she's right behind me in their car. I picked up Elaine as well from school. She wanted to drive her Aunt's car for them, so they're a little slow." We hear a car horn go off outside the house. "That's them!"

"Glory! Pietro! The fam's arrived! Time to eat!"

Pietro and I depart from each other's embraces and head back out into the kitchen. All of our immediate family has arrived with Wanda, Vision, and Elaine stumbling through the door as we enter. A huge smile is on Elaine's face; fortunately, it's something we see often these past few months.

After everything she'd been through, after we returned to Sokovia and explained everything that had happened and who Elaine was, the family has completely taken her in as one of our own. It was a bit confusing and awkward at first, especially when explaining to two five year olds, but everyone adjusted. We've come to love Elaine as our family, and she reciprocates that love.

After a week of adjusting, we even forced her her own identity, with the help of Vision. She's known as Elaine Simonova, younger sister to Pietro Simonov. Since she never had a normal life, we've tried to make everything in Sokovia as normal as possible, despite her reasons for being here in the first place. She's in school, she has friends there that she hangs out with after school, she's put blue streaks in her white hair, she's learning how to drive a car, she's reading books from the library and writing poetry again, the Internet was something she's been delving into. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought she was just a normal Tumblr Millenial.

Most of her time is spent with us, talking, listening, learning, laughing. We love spending time with her, and she's become more of a kid than a soldier in the past few months. Even now she's making fun of her own driving, using her hands and facial expressions to pretend to be Wanda when she turned too hard on the icy bridge. "You should've seen her face!" she jokes, much like her father when she smiles and laughs.

"I saw her from the rear-view mirror," Mom laughs, rolling her wheelchair over to the table. "I'm just glad she wasn't driving my car."

Sadly, while Elaine has gotten better, Mom is getting worse. The doctor's said that over the next year, she's going to go downhill fast, but seeing it is different than hearing it. After the accident while Pietro and I were in Paris, she's been restricted to help or crutches. It wasn't until her collapse in the grocery store two weeks ago that they recommended we get her a wheelchair. Of course, she wasn't happy about it, but it's better than being bed-ridden for the rest of... well...

She's still smiling, though. Despite her more than usual pale-ness, her hair greying and falling out, scars along her arms from the chemotherapy, she's still smiling. I don't think she'll ever stop. She's making up for lost time, trying to be brave for all of us, but whenever Ksenia or Steven ask me, "Mommy, why is Nana always so tired?" or, "Mommy, why is Nana in a wheelchair?" I break all over again.

Now, I've looked for something to help her. My first thought was of Eir, the healing goddess in Asgard. I asked Thor about it after we left, and he said that they might be able to put off the inevitable, but they wouldn't be able to cure her. Cancer isn't something that Asgard has ever had to deal with; they wouldn't know how to treat it besides using magic. Magic can only change what is, not destroy it completely.

But it would give her several more years. When I told Mom about it, she just shook her head. "I've been fighting this for a long, long time, Ladybug," she sighed. "It's been years now. If what they're going to do to me would only push off the inevitable, give me, what, a few more years of this? Pain and confinement to a wheelchair? I love you. I love you for trying, and thank you, but I've made my peace with this for a while now and I'm ready to go." Then she smiled. "I'll be able to see my sister again. I'll be able to see Marie."

That doesn't mean I've given up. Not in the slightest. I've tried to remember other things that might help. I've even considered coming out of hiding to ask Tony for help. If anyone can be as scientifically advanced, it's the Starks. It's a real shame that Bruce isn't still around.

"All right, all right, settle down," Wanda laughs. "I am hungry."

As everyone swarms the table for food, Elaine walks over to me and pulls me into a hug. "Hi, Glory."

I hug her back with a grin on my face. "Hi, sweetheart. How was school? Bio test go well?"

She pulls away rolling her eyes. "Odin's beard, I hate bio. Makes me gag every time the professor pulls out a lab assignment."

We both chuckle. "Bio labs were never my favorite either," I agree.

"But I got a B, so I'm happy. How was your day?"

"Pretty good, actually. Helped a family find a home of their own after they'd been living at the shelter for three months. Feels good to help someone get back on their feet, especially when they have three kids."

She agrees with a nod. "Speaking of kids, where are Nia and Steven?"

I point up the stairs. "Supposedly, upstairs doing their homework."

Elaine laughs. "Which means Steve's already done and reading some Stephen Hawking book and Nia has given up and is pestering him to go downstairs and get some food."

I burst into laugher, nodding my head in agreement. "Why don't you go get them? It's dinner time anyways."

She nods and hurries up the stairs, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek as she passes. "Love you!"

I shake my head as the quick little blonde girl runs up the stairs, two-by-two, mumbling, "Love you, too."

· ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ ·

After dinner, after Steven and Ksenia are watching cartoons in Pietro and my room upstairs, the rest of the adults gather in the living room for our weekly talks. It's our tradition to have a home-cooked meal at one of our houses every Sunday night and a take-out meal every Friday night. After these, we usually sit around the fire and talk about our days, our weeks, jobs, friends, news, gossip, the usual. It brings us closer together than any of us have ever been to most of our biological families.

After an hour or two of joking around, having a little fun with old, embarrassing stories, Pietro and I decide this is the time to tell everyone our idea about how to get to another universe. We don't keep anything from these six people; Wanda, Vision, Steve, Mom, Bex, and Elaine are our family, and sometimes they can give advice or guidance that we might've not thought of.

After telling our plan, how we might be able to get the information we need from Gregory Killbane on Origin Earth, Steve groans and lays his head back on the sofa. Bex places a hand on his knee, concerned. "You okay, Babe?"

He huffs again. "I hate that guy."

I rest my elbows on my knees. "Get in line."

Bex  laughs in unbelief. "So, you just wanna go back to your home world, waltz into the Maryland Penitentiary, and say, 'Hey! Nice to see you again! Remember me? Your ex that you tried to kill? Oh, by the way, remember him, too? My husband whom you've tried to kill a couple thousand times? You might recall how we threw you in this dump, but now we want your help to defeat an enemy that could kill us all, as if that's not what you already want. Care to help?'"

I throw my sister a sharp look. "You have a better idea?"

"He's going to want to strike a compromise," Vision states in a monotone voice. "He will not come without recompense."

"Or a threat," Pietro shrugs. "We could just, you know, threaten to kill him right then and there. I would be fine with doing it myself."

I give Pietro a look that says, "Really?" Then sigh. "No. Killing him would be too good for that son of a bitch. He wants to die if his only other option is the rest of his life in that place. Vision is right. He won't come without recompense."

"What can we offer him?" Wanda asks. "I remember what he did. I will not be a part of this if we release him to do what he's done to other worlds. Glory, we can't."

"And we won't. Here's the thing that I've always hated about heroes: We don't lie to the bad guys. Whenever I see heroes trying to keep their word with bad guys, saying that they'll agree with their demands, it makes me sick. When you deal with a person as psycho as Killbane, you lie. You give into his demands for the time being. Then, as soon as you have what you need, you break that promise and you throw him right back into his prison."

"But Glory--" Vision begins.

I look directly at him with a serious expression. "--We lie, Vision. We do whatever is necessary to stop Thanos and keep Killbane away from anyone else, even if that means lying to his face. He lost the right to the truth a long time ago. That doesn't make me any less of a hero. It just makes me strategic."

Vision doesn't reply verbally. Only nods his head in shallow agreement.

"What about offering him his freedom after all this is done?" Wanda asks.

I shake my head, and Pietro agrees, "No, he is too smart for that. He will see what we are planning. We need something clever, just clever enough that he might believe we are honest."

"I have an idea," Elaine pipes up, speaking for the first time since we explained our plan.

All eyes turn to her. "What is that, Elaine?"

She clears her throat. "What about you promise him freedom in a world of his choosing?"

"Explain," Vision prompts her, curious as we all are.

Elaine goes on. "We promise him freedom in a world without magic, without aliens, without superpowers. After he helps us with Thanos, gives us information about him if he knows any and how to get to other worlds, then we allow him to choose a safe world--with our approval, of course. Then we can promise to drop him off on that world and leave him."

"But that world would be in terrible danger," Steve says, his brows pulling together.

Elaine shrugs. "We wouldn't actually go through with it, but we would have to make it convincing in order for him to buy it. No powers, no magic, no Infinity Stones. He would be confined to one world for the rest of his life. He could never leave. In his lifespan, from what you all have told me about him, what's fifty more years to someone who's lived eons?"

We all pause to take in her idea. Quick Pietro is the first to respond. "I think it would work. He would buy it. It is something more than what he has, so he would gain something, and yet it is not complete freedom that which he knows we would never truly offer." He turns to look at me. "It will work."

I nod in agreement, looking at Elaine with a proud, motherly expression. "I agree. Well done, Elaine. I think you just bought us a way out of the future."

"What about getting to Origin Earth in the first place?" Bex asks. "You'll need Stark's tech just like you did last time, but doesn't Tony think you all are retired?" She glances to Steve. "He thinks you're dead."

"And we'd like to keep that last part that way," I reply, looking to Steve. "But as for me, I think it's time I visit Tony again. If we're going to take on Thanos, whether now or in another year, we cannot do it divided."

"'A house divided cannot stand,'" Vision quotes. "A truthful human saying."

I agree. "I think I can get us to New York. Whoever wants to come with me is welcome. Except for you, Steve. You're grounded."

Steve chuckles, and Pietro says, "I'm coming with you."

I smirk. "I suspected as much. You've been itching to get back to the Avenging world for some time."

"I am coming as well, Ms. Glory," Vision says. "It is time I return to New York to meet my old friend."

Wanda takes his hand and squeezes it with a proud smile. "I will come, too."

Steve turns to Mom and Bex. "I'll stay here with Mom, Bex, and the kids."

I stand, walking over to Elaine. "Wanna go visit New York again? Something tells me you'll want to see Ms. Mateese again."

Elaine blushes at the mention of Katie, nodding a yes. "We've been texting, but I haven't seen her since three months ago. It would be nice to see her again."

"Oh, young love." I sigh with a smile. "All right then. We'll leave day after tomorrow. Until then, go about your lives. Things are about to get bumpy."

END CHAPTER TWENTY.