➢𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗𝗡'𝗧  𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘➢

『 Girl, are you a cancer?
'Cause you make me cry
When we kiss or dance in the sky
We're dancing in the sky 』
—𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘴 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 5: 𝑶𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒂 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅⟵

-𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟹𝟷𝚂𝚃, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟾-

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚀-𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙿,

𝚂 𝙿 𝙰 𝙲 𝙴

Boy is Caitlyn Elizabeth Strange absolutely not okay right now, her head fricken hurts!

The fifteen-year-old lays on her back while all her limbs extend out, her pale blue eyes finally crackling open to life. 

To life, as the katana-wielding blondie has appeared to have previously been knocked unconscious. She must have passed out from the incredibly forceful turbulence and momentum that was exiting the barrier of Earth and entering the one of . . . wherever the Q-Ship was heading now.

Space. Caitlyn was in Space.

Oh, nards. This is not good.

Definitely not the best circumstances, sure, however her reasoning for doing so still stands tall in her mind palace of decision-making as it was for a prominent cause—to save her Uncle Stephen. 

Who along with the Time Stone they'd sworn to protect, is now being held captive on this soccer-ball-shaped alien spaceship with an even uglier alien holding him hostage.

Interrogating him, her eyes fling back open. Hurting him!

"Easy there, Goldilocks."

"Ow," Caitlyn winces while sitting up, someone's metal hand holding the back of her curly head as slowly but gratingly, she moves to a sitting position.

Her neck despite the whiplash directs itself upwards so that she can make out the goatee and light-haired face of someone who no doubt is not Stephen Strange, but Tony Stark.

The billionaire, playboy, philanthropist . . . and also an egocentric jerk.

Man, Caitlyn internalizes a groan, she hates the parallels between him and who Stephen used to be. He is nowhere near that man now, he's been humbled a lot. 

His niece has changed, too, formed meaningful relationships with people—turns out talking things through and repairing bonds is actually pretty great, the troubled youth would have never thought that before.

Caitlyn has overcome a lot.

What she hasn't overcome is the fact that her head throbs in pain, and her flight-induced migraine contributes into a normally straight tone of voice—though now a distorted one, "I . . . Uh, shit. I'm in Space."

"You are." Tony confirms, still in his Iron Man suit, and his hands though awkwardly despite more interactions with kids lately, hover around the fifteen-year-old as he then relays, "Pretty sure where your uncle does not want you to be."

"Agh—oh, please!" Caitlyn grunts while getting up, staggering before hands instinctively go to her sword belt, as it was a gift from a close friend—and she ensures it is still there before replying satirically, "I've died over 1,000 times before, this is nothing!"

"Well," the man does not follow up on her claim, rather makes a weird face in reaction to it, before snapping back to reality, "Don't wanna make it 1,001, I assume?"

The teen waves him off, "Eh."

Before picking up on the murmurs of someone talking and Caitlyn walks by Tony in order to take a look at the action occurring just below them at the center of the ship.

There are a multitude of see-through needles, ones that look similar to the one that impaled her uncle last year and the teen winces—gross, that makes her uneasy, and then Stephen's floating body horizontally. The two-footers are inches away from his form. And then there's Ebony Maw.

"Asshole . . . " Caitlyn mutters under her breath.

Maw speaks to a now conscious Strange, "In all the time I've served Thanos . . . I have never failed him."

"If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan, with the Time Stone still attached to your vaguely irritating person, there would be . . . judgment."

The teenager's eyebrows knit, and the needles slowly start to ignite in Stephen's skin.

He grimaces briefly as the tip touches his skin, and the Child of Thanos tells Stephen Strange, no, demands him to, "Give me the Stone."

This leads the Doctor to make more sounds of pain as the Eye of Agamotto necklace worn by him does not budge, instead an orange barrier forms around it. Caitlyn knows her uncle well, how far he would go to protect that stone with his life—and God knows the niece sincerely hopes that it doesn't have to come to that.

Because she wouldn't know what to do if Stephen was to die. Only if she were to die, too.

Tony Stark's Iron Man suit hovers above the young Sorcerer as he, too, watches the ordeal, and while in contemplation for some sort of plan he is spooked wildly by Stephen's red cloak.

Caitlyn stands up, the Cloak of Levitation preventing the man from blasting it in shock, and Tony promptly remarks, "Wow, you're seriously a loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?"

"Always been." The teen isn't fazed.

"Yeah, and uh, speaking of loyalty . . ." Another young person appears, and it's Spider-Man.

Caitlyn scrunches her lip while Tony's face gawks in an utter amount of bewilderment, "What the . . . "

The boy's face is uncovered as he drops down from a web above, and his hands immediately go up, "I know what you're gonna say,"

"You should NOT be here."

"I was gonna go home,"

The blondie has the luxury of watching this debate.

"I don't wanna hear it."

"But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way . . . "

"And now I gotta hear it." Caitlyn 'hears it', too.

Her Uncle's cloak merely shrugs in sympathy as Peter continues talking, " . . . And I kinda got stuck to the side of the ship."

"And this suit is," he starts to smile, "ridiculously intuitive by the way. So, if anything, it's kind of your fault that I'm here."

Peter points at Tony Stark.

Caitlyn tilts her head, bad move, for the Ironed Man instantly scolds him, "What did you just say?"

The sixteen-year-old stutters, "I-I take that back."

"And now, I'm here in Space."

Same, the fifteen-year-old thinks to herself, though continues to believe that this is not something to be proud of.

"Yeah." Tony emphasizes that memo, "Exactly where I didn't want you to be."

He references wholeheartedly, "I got one of you to stay home but not the other."

"This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me?"

He turns serious, "Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."

Peter interjects while Caitlyn watches, "No. I did think this through. I did think this through!"

"You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood." He takes a brief pause when Tony stares at him in silence.

 He retracts, "Okay, that didn't really make sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

Iron Man pauses as well for a moment, seriously questioning his own sanity right after examining the kid he's been mentoring for two years now . . . They both look at one another once more. 

Undeniably Caitlyn finds them both crazy.

"Uh, hello?" She catches both their attention, greeting again, "Hi. I would hate to interrupt this little, father-son dynamic here, but . . . my uncle is still in danger of dying right now."

Tony cranes his neck as he turns around, "I'd really appreciate it if you could lose the attitude, Smurfette."

 Caitlyn shakes her head and scoffs at the childish nickname, slowly enraptured by the large sigh escaping from the man's mouth upon the current situation at hand—he's on babysitting duty. Again. 

How is he the one who always gets stuck in situations like this? 

"...Uh, hello."

"Hi."

The boy, having come to his senses, politely draws forward to introduce himself, "Hi, I'm Peter Parker."

"Hey. Caitlyn Strange." The girl shakes his hand, smiling ever so softly at the well-natured innocence coming off him, immediately flashing back to someone else who she knew would get along well with.

Though Tony's own attitude strikes again when crossing his arms over his metal chest, staring at the two exchanging, "I hate to break up this little moment of yours, but would you like to do this somewhere else?"

Caitlyn Elizabeth shakes her head, denying, "Never."

Then the three finally circle up, Tony and Caitlyn leading Peter over to where they had previously been spying on Ebony Maw below, and routinely the Cloak of Levitation ever-present but usually undetected because it doesn't speak, leans over the shoulder of the crouched individuals.

"See him down there? He's in trouble." Iron Man points with a metal finger at Stephen, then turns to the Spider-being, "What's your plan?"

"Go."

"Um. Okay, okay . . . uh . . . " Peter rises and the cloak does along with him, "Okay."

"Have you ever seen this really old movie "Aliens"?"

Caitlyn slowly answers him, a smile worth complimenting a genius, ". . . Yes."

Tony looks done.

✧✧✧

Stephen is about to be done. He groans loudly.

Ebony Maw motions to the glassless needles penetrating the Sorcerer's skin, "Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery."

"And any one of them . . . " Maw stops when he senses a presence. 

More than one. The first is Iron Man.

"-Could end your friend's life in an instant."

"I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend." Tony Stark has blasters aimed at Maw, clarifying from within his suit, "Saving his life is more of a professional courtesy."

That feasibly was true, though for another it was different. Their blood tie. 

A black-cloaked and combat boot-wearing blonde teenager steps down on the spawned Boots of Valtorr.

Caitlyn Elizabeth Strange treks down, "Hey, Asshole,"

Ebony Maw spins around, features irritated at the number of Earthlings on his ship, and especially the mouth of this one girl.

"Get your dirty, no-good alien palms off my uncle." Caitlyn stays on the last orange step, still in the air, and her metal belt-sword is activated when adding, "And also go to hell while you're at it."

Big metal objects fly toward them by the levitation abilities of Thanos' child, and he sneers, "You've saved nothing. Neither of you."

"Both your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

Tony nods, "Yeah," before declaring, "but these kids have seen more movies."

BAM! Iron Man fires a rocket from his shoulder specifically not in the direction of Ebony Maw, but rather to the other side of the ship. And everything is sucked out into space.

Including that Squid-ward looking bastard . . .

 Doctor Strange is pulled loose of his pinnings, loses the needles, but also helplessly heads straight for the hole as he is unable to resist. 

Caitlyn yells out loud, "Uncle Stephen!" and meanwhile the cloak wraps around her uncle's arm for an anchor point. 

That arm slips loose and he keeps going. Out into Space.

"Shit." The fifteen-year-old is ticked, though a step forward nearly causes her to lose her balance and be less help than ever if she needed to hold onto her uncle for dear life in order to not fall into the void. 

So Spider-Man shoots a web strand at Doctor Strange with one hand and holds onto a piece of the ship with the other, saving him. Caitlyn's sigh of relief is regurgitated. 

It breaks, sending them both towards space when the boy's Iron-Spider suit's metal arms brace him to keep him from being sucked out. Fortunately, Stephen is still surrounded by the ship's atmosphere and is kept safe.

Unlike Maw, who fades away as his death was unchangeable.

"Yes!" Peter exclaims in excitement at the spider-legs surrounding his back, still excited, "Wait, what are those?!"

Bending with his new legs, the boy leaps to pull him and Caitlyn's uncle back inside, the teenager quickly conjuring a Tao Mandalas to catch Stephen so that he lands on the floor of the ship with little to no turbulence. She is successful. He is safe.

Tony sprays nanites on the big hole they intentionally created and it closes immediately.

The Cloak of Levitation flies by Spider-Man, who addresses, "Hey, we haven't officially met yet."

The cloak ignores him.

"Cool."

Stephen's lasting groans are soon met by the spell ceasing and being replaced with the steady hands of his niece, who helps him to his feet.

Caitlyn scopes him out for serious injuries, asking, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." The Sorcerer answers, catching his breath before the red Cloak settles itself back around his shoulders, though first, he turns to her, "You shouldn't have come here, Lynn. It's too dangerous."

"A little late for that convo, now," She reminds him while both hands hold onto him as support, and then Caitlyn leans in closer whilst breathing, "Besides, we've only got each other, right?"

Reminding him of this, their saying, Stephen decides not to take the time to lecture her, he doesn't need to. Because his niece is right.

He was just glad to have her by his side.

The uncle squeezes the fifteen year old's hand comfortingly, his shakier one only like that because of the car accident though Caitlyn wouldn't blame him if it was for more . . . Because what they just went through was crazy.

And they are still in Space at this point . . . with these . . . Avengers.

Well, one Avenger, as Tony's suit retracts when passing the duo and Stephen expresses urgency, "We gotta turn this ship around."

The other adult scoffs, "Yeah, now he wants to run. Great plan."

Stephen lets go of Caitlyn's hand, affirming, "No, I want to protect the Time Stone."

Tony is further away toward the center console when replying dryly, "And I want you to thank me. Now, go ahead, I'm listening."

"For what?" the uncle contradicts, "Nearly . . . blasting my niece and I to Space?"

The billionaire turns around, insisting, "Who just saved your magical ass? Me."

"Barely." Caitlyn vocalizes, and Stephen adds, "I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet."

"Admit it, you should have ducked out when I told you to."

"I tried to bench you," Tony accuses him, "You refused."

Stephen fires back, "Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you."

Caitlyn inwardly oos, nice one.

Though the sweat-shirted man continues off of the roast, "And due to that fact, we're now in a flying donut, billions of miles away from Earth, with no backup."

That's when Peter raises his hand, "I'm backup."

"No." Tony resides, "You're a stowaway. The adults are talking."

Caitlyn Strange crosses past, "Is that what this is?" 

She is unimpressed, her arms tangled.

Her black hood pulls itself back over her head while Stephen acknowledges Peter's presence, "I-I'm sorry, I'm confused as to the relationship here,"

"Wh--what is he, your ward?"

"No." The boy says, then extends his hand again politely, "I'm Peter by the way."

Caitlyn's uncle is even more professional, "Doctor Strange."

"Oh, you're using our made-up names."

The blondie quirks a brow, turning back around to witness this conversation, "Um . . . I'm Spider-Man, then."

She resists the urge to take her palm and smack it to her forehead, her uncle Stephen actually is a doctor—it's not a made-up name . . . As for hers, it's nonexistent. Just Caitlyn. Troubled Youth if she still identifies as that.

Her uncle shares a similar amount of small bewilderment at Peter's antics before directing his attention back to Tony who has since examined the controls of the Q-Ship, "This ship is self-correcting its course."

"Things on autopilot."

Caitlyn stops her pacing when a good distance away from everyone, taking in the information, "Okay . . . "

"Can we control it?" Stephen follows up, "Fly us home?"

Tony doesn't answer for a minute, seemingly lost in a matter of heinous thoughts until he is snapped out of it by the sorcerer, "Stark?"

"Yeah."

"Can you get us home?"

Tony responds, "Yeah, I heard you."

Though is lost again in a string of bad memories before speaking firmly and with dignity, "I'm thinking I'm not so sure we should."

"Why not?" Caitlyn presses, looming closer to the two men.

Her uncle's tone straightens, asserting, "Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos."

He gets closer to Tony, "I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."

"What? No," Something switches inside the Ironed Man, a mechanism of defense due to fear, and Tony gets in the other man's face, "It's you people who don't understand . . . "

Caitlyn's ears sharpen as he explains, "That Thanos has been inside my head for six years. Since he sent an army to New York and now he's back!"

"And I don't know what to do."

He pulls his hands together, "So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his . . . but you both saw what they did, what they can do."

Stephen is silent, and so is Caitlyn, letting the clearly anxious and slightly traumatized man talk, proposing a suggestion, "At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him."

"Doctor . . . " Tony finishes, "Do you concur?"

More silence before Stephen replies. "Alright, Stark. We go to him,"

 Caitlyn's uncle agrees, before his voice drops lower, "But you have to understand . . . if it comes to saving you, or the kid, or the Time Stone,"

Stephen solidifies, "I will not hesitate to let either of you die."

"I can't." The Sorcerer Supreme of the New York Sanctum stresses, "Because the universe depends on it."

Tony reverts back to his witty ways, "Nice. Good, moral compass."

"What about your niece?"

Caitlyn takes this as an opportunity to make note of her impressive skills as a sorcerer, standing up, "I can take care of myself."

"She . . . " Stephen agrees, proudly, "Can take care of herself."

"Wonderful." Tony offs, before approaching Peter.

He karate chops a hand on either shoulder of his, saying for the second time to a young person, "Kid, you're an Avenger now."

Caitlyn guesses this is a big moment, as Peter Parker's face lights up to a brightness she had never seen before—in expression, slowly toning it down however in preparation to do whatever it takes as being, an 'Avenger'.

✧✧✧

There is a considerable amount of time until this ship reaches the destination it originally set out to reach, and instead of messing with it, the four individuals—two Avengers, two Mystic Artists, all take the exceeded moments of lack of action to recuperate and be in their own minds. The katana-wielding blondie has dropped her hard front.

Caitlyn sits on a piece of space metal shaped like a crate, and while her sheer tights cover the short legs she hones, dangling in her precise hands are pieces of the fabric from her cloak.

Not her cape, her black and gold-lined cloak. She smiles a little when remembering who she had to correct for that misidentification.

It also makes her sad.

"Hey," The blonde looks up to meet eyes much bluer than hers.

Stephen is sure to check in with his niece, "Are you all right?"

Caitlyn swallows roughly, nodding, "Other than a mild case of whiplash and fainting from the journey up here, everything is peachy-keen, Uncle Stephen."

The uncle huffs a laugh at her dry voice, saying in one of his own, "Yeah, right."

They exchange warm smiles toward one another, sincerely, defining the vast improvement of their relationship in the last few years—them actually having one now, for improvement. 

Though the subconscious running of Caitlyn's fingertips over a particular engraving on the sewed-up material catches Stephen's attention, and he sees a glimpse of it.

The initials, C+B.

He waits in comfortable silence, seeing if the fifteen-year-old had anything to say on the matter—about being in Space, or just . . . whatever was troubling the youth's mind. Nothing yet.

Caitlyn blinks twice then admits, "I was supposed to see Bexley, today."

"That's . . . right." Stephen recalls the set event, and despite current circumstances still remains supportive of his young niece—who has formed a very meaningful relationship with the other teen sorcerer, "Maybe, you two can reschedule? After we take care of this, of course."

Caitlyn is the one to laugh this time, though it's tight, heightening Stephen's concerns.

The general care he has for her being present at all times and growing ever since they made up at Kamar-Taj, he apologized for not being there, she was sorry for being a bitch . . . It all worked out. Caitlyn Strange is exactly where she wants to be right now as a human being.

She'd like to see Bexley Nightingale again, though, for it had been a while.

The girl explains, "She . . . Well, she means a lot to me, and I'd do anything for her."

"Just like I'd do anything for you." Stephen helps her through expressing emotion, just as he's always done, and Caitlyn nods.

"Yeah, like that." 

She doesn't spend too long on her added line, but it was the truth.

"But also . . . different."

"I-I miss her," a suddenly unsteady Caitlyn admits, before locking those feelings away and getting back on track, "Which is why we need to take this jerk down."

Stephen agrees internally and listens thoughtfully to the next phrase that leaves his niece's mouth. 

Where she stands in this infinity of a war . . . infinite in its possibilities.

"I think as long as we do what we have to, no matter what, we'll win. We've got a chance."

The uncle believes that, too, "Yeah," 

Though has to admit the optimism is slightly weird to hear from someone who hates hugs.

Caitlyn seconds that, she acknowledges it, "And you'd think that'd be a surprising thing to believe in, coming from people like us . . . Our background."

"Tell me about it."

The teen folds her hands when looking up at the interior of the Q-Ship, and insists, "Well, I concur it."

"We can do this."

-𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟑𝟏𝐒𝐓, 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖-

𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃,

𝐔𝐏𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊

Iron Man's new suit flies up into Space after the Q-Ship.

On Bleecker St, Thanos' children interrogate the humans.

A phantom-related pain returns when initially it was felt internally when Thanos broke the Tesseract . . . when he was killing Asgardians.

CRACK!

"Hey!" Danielle Mairead Rockland startles awake from a brief nap, and she checks her surroundings in a rather panicked manner . . . her breathing is very heavy—frightened.

A calmer voice and gentle hands reach out and rub her shoulders, "Hey, Dani. It's okay. You're okay."

" . . . Rhodey?"

"Yeah, Honey, you're okay." Colonel James Rhodes, War Machine, is the one calmly reassuring the thirteen-year-old who is tangled in the fuzzy blanket he had put on her when she passed out on the couch—having returned from all that went down in New York.

It had been almost a day since then, and while calls were made and contacts arranged, the girl had been on edge ever since Tony Stark went missing. Not missing, he is up there possibly fighting Thanos right now, and that is completely terrifying.

He is all Dani has left . . . That she trusts, other than Rhodey, who she had gotten to know on a deeper level these last two years and was pretty close to now—he bends down in front of her. 

She notices the robotic-looking prosthetics that cover his paralyzed legs. From when Vision accidentally fired the Mind Stone at him instead of Sam.

The toll keeps on building for what they lost that day, all that was severed, though once again the thirteen-year-old girl refuses to think about it.

Shaky hands are taken into sturdy ones temporarily, and Rhodey asks her, "You've been getting nightmares recently?"

"No." Dani partly lies, partly is downright honest, and that will be explained later, for now, she releases a hefty sigh, "Just because of what happened yesterday."

The man—surrogate uncle—known as War Machine folds his lower lip over his upper, and he moves his sturdy grip to her shoulders as he then stands up, "Okay. Well, maybe eat something, then. When's the last time you ate?"

Dani doesn't answer him. She shrugs.

He sighs before relaying, "There should be one strawberry yogurt left in the fridge."

Her features pick back up, now intrigued and lively, and from behind him Rhodey calls out as a blatant reminder, "And make sure to take care of that."

He brings a hand to his own forehead. Gesturing.

Dani stares in confusion as her dainty fingertips slide over the skin above her left brow to indeed find a graze, one that hadn't healed while she slept.

No problem. She concentrates . . . red skin around there regenerating in a matter of seconds as her green eyes flush to a crystal blue. The wound seals up effortlessly, and Agent Rockland thanks her incredibly fast regeneration abilities, to the pieces of the Tesseract inside her.

Well, the Space Stone.

That Thanos already has, along with the Power . . . and more? God, she doesn't want to think about it. It dreads her.

She ventures forth into the kitchen of the Compound, noticeably containing much less food since there weren't so many people occupying the space, though as Dani makes her way over there—still dressed in her long sleeve-graphic tee and jean shorts, and opens the refrigerator . . . she is astonished to find a significant amount of food gone.

Including the last strawberry yogurt. Hers.

"Did you dye your hair?" Bruce Banner says from behind her, mouth full as he eats from a cup of . . . strawberry yogurt.

Dani blinks in irritation before turning around and putting on a fake smile, sea-foam eyes squinted, "Yes."

"It looks good." The Doctor checks out her honey blonde locks with good intentions.

 "You haven't seen me for . . . three years and the first and only thing you notice about me is my hair?"

Bruce pulls the spoon out of his mouth, having finished the cup in a matter of minutes—he was starving, and he adds observationally, "You're also a lot more negative and pessimistic."

"Really?" Dani pretends to be shocked, before going on to identify, "You're a lot more positive and comedic."

Ouch. She didn't say that in a nice way. And that confuses Bruce because the Dani he knew would never say something like that to anyone . . . she was sweet and kind—so why is she so dark now?

"I was the Hulk for three years." He says out of nowhere, causing the girl to wear a pained expression.

Quietly, the teen tells him, "I'm sorry."

That explains the recent performance issues . . . maybe. He's lost control.

Banner is quick and efficient to jump out of that conversation and into another while Dani is pouring him and herself each a glass of iced water, and is just blunt, "So, what happened while I was gone?"

"Are you sure you actually wanna know?" 

"Nobody else will tell me." Bruce defends, almost pleading as his dark brown eyes meet his surrogate niece's green ones, and goes on, "Why did the Avengers break up? Like . . . the Beatles?"

Dani pauses in her stance, stiffening immensely as this topic she has never even enjoyed thinking about while she lies in bed at night. Not one bit.

Any of it.

Though there is a part of her that feels the need to fill her uncle in as he has been gone all these years, and truly doesn't understand why the Avengers have split in two . . . so she decides to break it down for him.

Her version.

From a nearby shelf, the thirteen-year-old reaches up and grabs a large pamphlet-looking book, and drops it in front of the non-hulked-out Banner.

"What's this?"

Dani answers him flatly, "The Sokovia Accords."

Before retelling past events.

"So . . . We kept making mistakes, causing public casualties as the government would say—even though we do it to save the world, and the next thing known, we were asked to sign a document ensuring that we would only be able to intervene in conflicts unless given permission to do so."

"That's dumb."

"Secretary Ross enforced it, said that we'd be forced to retire if we didn't, so people did."

"Others didn't."

"What happened?"

"There was a disagreement about a former assassin of HYDRA, and we all fought on separate teams at this airport to try and stop them from getting away—it didn't work. Just divided us more."

"Who's team did you fight on?"

Dani looks up, blinking, "Tony's."

"He made me an Avenger, and the rest is history."

Bruce tries to comprehend, eyelids scrunching, "So . . . you and Rhodey, Tony and Vision, are still Avengers, while the others are . . . criminals?"

"Fugitives of the government." The thirteen-year-old corrects, gritting her teeth in displeasure, but holds up, "Yeah."

And she is immediately taken back by the bombard of inquisitions tossed her way. One's that bring back some pain.

Hurtful ones.

"Then . . . Why didn't you go?"

"Why didn't you go with Steve?"

"Why didn't you go with your Dad?"

The skin belonging to Dani Rockland runs entirely cold, anxiety, and a mixture of much irritableness in her demeanor kicking in—and she doesn't hold back in her answer.

She informs bluntly, "Because I would have been in the custody of my mother, if not an Avenger."

Her mother. Deborah Rockland. Bruce's expression suddenly turns sympathetic.

Dani bites her lip, "She came back to try and take me away from my home, to kill me."

"Where is she now?" He asks with importance.

She waves him off, "No idea."

Who cares? They had more important enemies to worry about. An inevitable threat. However, it was known true that somewhere across the sea, Deborah Rockland is still out there, still alive, and still planning to kill Dani Rockland somehow.

Her daughter. Only biologically.

"Hey, do you guys mind keeping it down in here?" Rhodey enters the kitchen area of the compound minutes later, tone serious as from the conference room, aspires, "I'm about to get on a call with the court-martial."

Bruce disappears in order to avoid seeing Thaddeus Ross, with who he had a history, meanwhile Dani puts her empty glass in the sink and then makes eye contact with her Uncle Rhodey—she can tell something is up.

He enlightens her privately, "We've got incoming." 

Instantly she tenses up. Incoming. 

Company. 

People coming to fight. 

Oh, she knows exactly who's coming, and makes an effort to take precautions.

 Precautions for a family reunion . . .

One that will be . . . fragmented.

❀❀❀

Aaaaaaaand a bit of a cliffhanger... not really but maybe, I don't know if I've done any big cliffhangers yet but I guess we'll see what the future holds.

Honestly, I am very very very happy with this chapter, as I feel like I am getting into the real groove of Infinity War and especially the long and awaited impending thing happening next chapter...... Dani and Steve's reunion!

It's very close guys, like the next chapter 😱 OMG

So yeah that's all I really have to say I love writing those uncle-niece moments between Caitlyn & Stephen because their vibe is so so chill and also cute which shows their character development and individual growth as well!!

Vote, comment, plz tell me anything ab your thoughts and/or predictions!!

I'll leave you with that and much to look forward to, so... Peace!

~Alessandra (dreamkept)