Chapter One
Soroya

"How is it?" Sam asks Jade, who's on speaker phone right now in our office. Jade herself is in D.C. helping with clean up, which has been going on everyday for the past week since T'Challa's funeral. We've split the Avengers up, half on Earth helping with the three destroyed cities and the other half in space helping the Nova Empire.

Sam and I had a long talk about where we wanted to focus our attention on the Avengers first extraterrestrial endeavor. We agreed the Nova Empire was a great start. Carol, Thor, and the Guardians have already been trying to sanction peace in that system, but with the Kree threatening a take over, their efforts brought no results. Maybe now that the Kree are scattered, broken from their war with us, the Nova Empire will be able to stop the fighting and come together. Carol, Thor, the Guardians, Bucky, and Alex are on the planet Krylor, where a lot of the debating and fighting is taking place. Naomi and Kieran are there as well, trying to convince the empire to become Earth's ally, though they haven't had any luck yet. First the Nova Empire needs to ally with each other before they can ally with us.

"Things are going a lot smoother without the president breathing down our necks. I'm glad he was one of the leaders that resigned, I hope the next one is better."

I share a smile with Sam. We were both more than glad to see the US president gone, along with several other country's presidents and leaders. Zy promised he'd tell the people that the council didn't want the Skrulls to come, that they have no respect or care for any of them, that they only care about themselves, and he did. Some leaders already have replacements, others are still in office and are in the process of either being removed or resigning, and only a couple still remain. The king of England, for example, though one of the biggest instigators in the conflicts we as a council had faced, has stayed in his position, though he no longer attends the council meetings. Parliament's leader now attends in his place. This is the case with other countries as well. For the US, Daniel Fai has taken the president's place on the council. The president was known in the past for having his secretary's do his job, but he insisted on handling the position on the World Security Council instead of Daniel. This was probably because of his connection with Jo. I'm glad for that connection now, it means he'll listen to us and help us make the lives of the enhanced, the Skrulls, and everybody else better.

That wasn't always the case with him. I'm glad it is now.

"I'll be in D.C. soon to oversee things," Sam tells her, leaning against his desk. "Soroya and I need to go to New Asgard, Valkyrie was kind enough to allow the Skrulls to be housed there until homes are built for them."

"I just hope there's enough room." I add. I doubt there will be, but at least some of the Skrulls will have homes for the time being, it's better than nothing. The council wants to focus on the housing needs of humans before Skrulls, lots of people lost their homes in the war. I tried to argue with them about this, but it was to no avail. At least the council will actually help the Skrulls, and that's only because of the new replacements, the old council members would have let the Skrulls be homeless until the end of their days.

"We'll be fine here for now. Good luck you two."

Sam smiles at the phone. "You, too. Love you."

"Love you." And then she hangs up.

"Suzzie?" I yell, smiling once our assistant makes an appearance. "Do we have any more calls?"

"One from Bruce Banner and one from Stephen Strange."

"Do you know what they want?" Sam asks with a sigh.

"Both want to give updates on the progress they are making in London and Beijing. You also have your meeting with the Wakandan council in an hour and a meeting with Talos and Queen Valkyrie in New Asgard right after."

I nod to her. "Alright, put Bruce through and can you get us some more coffee? I think we'll need it to get through the rest of the day."

She nods back. "Of course."

Once she leaves the office, Sam glances my way. "One hour, that's all I ask. One hour where we don't have a phone call or meeting to deal with."

I move to press on the speaker button on the phone. "I doubt that hour will ever come."

Sam sighs. "Let me have my dreams."

-

Steve

My leg hurts less each day, and each day the vibranium replacement feels less awkward. I can stand and walk on it without gritting my teeth in pain, I can look at it and not feel deep sadness, deep disgust. I can take it on and off with ease, though I haven't tried shifting yet. That will come soon enough and I'm in no rush to get there. Adjusting to using the vibranium leg in human form is the easy part, it's dealing with a missing leg in animal form that will be hard. As stupid as it is, I think I'm procrastinating shifting because I want to keep the illusion alive that I didn't lose my leg. It's been almost two weeks since I lost it, and there have been times when I forget that I did, that the vibranium leg feels no different than my flesh leg. That feeling would be absent in animal form. There would be no more denying what happened to me.

I don't have to think about it right now. I'm in gym class right now doing the five mile run, with Lee panting by my side. Today is our first day back at school, and one would think Uncle Rhodey would be lax about the run since we were all just apart of a war, but no. We still have to do the fucking run. I think he's pissed he wasn't there to fight the Kree, he stayed behind here in Wakanda. I'm glad he didn't though, he's far too old to fight and him being there would have ended badly. I've already lost Uncle John, Uncle T'Challa, Aunt Okoye, and Uncle Scott. I couldn't handle losing him, too.

I made sure to give him a very large hug when I saw him today, and I did the same with Aunt Sharon and Uncle Everett. I'm glad they weren't there either. Aunt Sharon has been made Johnathon's replacement as principle of the institute, it was decided a few days ago. Originally she was supposed to be a teacher, but when Johnathon died she volunteered for the job. Her role of teaching has been filled by a man named Caden Harvey, some man Mom used to know.

"How are you doing?" Lee asks, panting as he tries to keep up with me.

"If another person asks me that I'm going to scream." I reply, not out of breath at all.

"Sorry," he mutters, licking his chapped lips. "You're much faster at running with the vibranium leg. There are silver linings here."

"Having a hard time keeping up, Babe?" I tease.

He glares at me. "Humbleness is not one of your best qualities."

I shrug. "I can't help that I'm better than you."

"You're a cocky bastard, Steve Barnes." Lee says with a low chuckle, one that sets my cheeks aflame.

I try to be cool. "One of my best qualities."

He raises a brow. "Humble yet again."

At this point we have run four of the five miles, and once we enter our final lap around the school, Lee groans. "Shiva help me. I thought after fighting in an alien invasion I would be better at cardio, but I feel like I'm gonna barf up a lung."

I glance over my shoulder at him, offering him a smile. "Will it help if I tell you that you look cute right now?"

"If you did tell me that, I'd call you a liar."

"It's not a lie."

He offers me a brief smile. "Remind me to thank you for that compliment when I can breathe normally again."

I give him a baiting grin. "How will you thank me?"

Still keeping in pace with me, he leans forward and kisses my cheek, winking at me. "In a multitude of ways."

Goodness gracious. As stupid, hormonal, and cliche as it sounds, I really want to ditch school and run off with him. But that wouldn't be smart. We'd be caught and dragged back to school and then I would hear an earful from my parents. We both would. I love my parents, but there's nothing scarier than getting yelled at by them. I remember one time I accidentally scratched up one of the couch pillows in wolf form as a kid, and Dad was so pissed I got the scolding of a lifetime. I cried. Like sobbing, snot dripping crying.

I think I would die of embarrassment if something like that were to happen again in front of my boyfriend.

Lee seems to know what I'm thinking about, because he grins. "It will be worth the wait." He promises.

I huff in frustration. "You're such a tease."

He smirks, pleased with himself. "I know."

"Cocky bastard." I mutter.

He raises a brow. "Pot, kettle."

Not able to think of any witty response, I opt for sticking my tongue out at him. He chuckles.

"Real mature." Is his response.

I grin, picking up speed in my run, leaving him high and dry, glaring at me in annoyance.

-

Analiese

"Is D.C. about as much of a hellscape as it was a week and a half ago?" I ask, holding the phone between my cheek and shoulder, trying to look through the file of my next patient.

"Pretty much," Jade replies. "What are you up to?"

"I have a bit of a break right now, but I'm trying to get an estimate on how much longer I'll have to be at the hospital."

"When was the last time you were at the institute?"

"Days," I admit with a sigh. "None of the scientists working there have, we're slowly trying to transition back. It's hard though, we have a shortage on doctors and doctors is exactly what we need right now, not people to run tests and administer serums."

"Good thing you're there to help out."

"Glad someone sees my help as a positive. My colleagues from the institute have barely glanced my way, though I guess that's better than the sneers I usually get."

There's a pause before Jade says: "I'm sorry, Ana."

I shrug, knowing she can't see that reaction. "No less than I deserve."

Another pause before she speaks again, this time with her voice a little lower. "Do you know how I was able to help defeat the Supreme Intelligence?"

"You blew it up."

"Well, yes, but I couldn't have done that unless I got past the mental block that has been keeping me from truly using my powers. I've always held myself back, but I finally came into myself and my powers and that's how we won. You need to do the same."

"I don't understand."

"My mental block was my past. It's always haunted me, always kept me from my powers, my happiness, my life. Even when I was happy I still felt trapped by the prison that was my guilt. You are in the same prison."

"But unlike you, I deserve to be in that prison. Yes you killed, but against your will. And even when it wasn't, you did it to save others. I killed to save myself. There are families torn apart, children who never saw adulthood, husbands and wives left widowed, all because of my need for vengeance. You deserve to be free from your past, to be happy. I do not."

"But you do. After all these years I finally realized that whatever you've done in the past does not define you. You're actions now do. You can't become what you were meant to become, do the things you were meant to do, if you keep living in the past. You may have been a bad person in the past, but you're different now. You're a good person now. You deserve to be happy."

Finding an empty seat in the hall, I plop down, leaning my head against the wall, shutting my eyes. "I don't know how to let go of the past. My life has been defined by my past, by the pain it's caused me. I don't know how to let it go."

"It won't be easy. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was worth it. I feel...light. I've never felt light before. I always felt like I was being weighted down, like barbels were attached to my hands and feet. But now I feel as if I'm floating."

I know all too well what she's talking about. "I'll think about it."

"And you won't be alone," she assures me, and though I can't see her, I can tell she's smiling. "There will always be people who judge you and hate you, you can't control that, but there will also always be people who love you."

I smile to myself, knowing, yet still not believing, what she says is true. I do have people in my life who love me. She does, Soroya does, the kids do. I have love in my life, friends. That alone already makes me feel lighter.

"That means the world to me, Jade."

"Wouldn't say it if it weren't true."

"I need to get back to my patients," I tell her, glancing at the clock on the wall. "And you need to go back to playing the noble hero."

She chuckles on the other end. "I'll talk to you later. Will you think about what I said? Truly?"

"I promise." I assure her, knowing that no matter what I think or wish, what she said will rattle around my brain for hours.

And it does.