Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
“Tony!”
The yell got lost in the ear-wrecking sound in which the all Tower was immersed. It had been that noise to alert the Avengers, who had ran into Tony’s lab with the weapons in the hands, ready to fight. Between various types of machinery there were Jane, Bruce and Tony himself, and it looked like they were shouting at each other; however, the noise was so loud that neither Steve nor Bucky, both with the enchanted hearing, could listen to them.
“Tony!” Steve tried again and at that moment all the metallic noises that had been so hard to stand stopped, substituted by the ones of waves. Tony turned and smiled, a full I’m-a-crazy-genius-superhero smile that made Steve shiver, and the sound increased.
But it was something else that got the Avengers’ attention.
At the very center of the lab there was a big water-like circle mid-air, with little lightings all around.
“May the Allfather protect us all,” Thor muttered taking a step forward. Jane, his beloved, was in danger and he would not have stayed back.
The electric field around the strange thing, however, wouldn’t let anyone pass; it was so strong that when Clint - being Clint - shot an arrow to it, it made him fly against the wall.
“Блядь,” Natasha murmured and Bucky, next to her, nodded. Steve didn’t know Russian, but he was pretty sure he agreed too.
The waves sound increased even more and an image started forming on the thing - Steve had no idea how to call that freaking circle. “Is that...” he started saying, just when Natasha spoke.
“We have to take Bruce away. We do not need him to let The Hulk out!” she shouted, trying to overhang the noise.
And then, in a second, everything stopped. The air wasn’t electrostatic anymore, the machines weren’t moving and the electric field that didn’t let anyone approach fell.
And in the middle of the lab, looking as shocked as the Avengers were, there was a young man. He was almost as big as Steve was, but with a definitely younger face. His hair was black and the eyes were brown - he sort of reminded Steve of Tony, or of how Tony would have looked with an innocent expression and a super-soldier body.
The kid - he was young, for God’s sake! - looked at Steve and paled; he then noticed the rest of the Avengers; he took a step back and smiled, a sad, heart-breaking smile that disappeared when he lowered the head. “Am I dead?” he asked in a breath.
“No,” Tony laughed. “No, better! We,” and he moved his hand to indicate Bruce and Jane, “we made you travel from another universe!”
“We have so many questions!” Jane added with a smile. Just at that moment Steve noticed that, hidden under a desk, there was her lab assistant, Darcy Lewis. He felt compassion for her for a second, before he got the attention back to the stranger.
“We have also some tests to take. But first...” Bruce smirked trying to sound as relaxed as possible. However, he didn’t get to finish to talk because the kid threw himself against the circle - Steve really had to find out the name of that thing.
“Don’t let him touch it!” Tony shouted and in a second Thor had his big arms on the boy’s chest, wrapping him against his torso.
“No! No! Let me go!” he yelled and fought. “Rey! Rey! I’d rather be dead than live without her!”
He had just the time to say that, when a new wave of energy and electricity made everyone in the lab shiver and take a step back. It only lasted a minute or so, before at the center of the lab a girl appeared. She looked younger than the boy and almost the opposite, physically talking. Little, with a long braid of blonde hair - with a part of the left side of the head shaved - and blue eyes.
She stared at the Avengers and she opened her mouth as to speak, when she saw Tony and stopped. She took a step back too and Steve wondered for a second what kind of universe they’ve had to be in, for looking at them in that way.
“Could you let me go now?” the boy requested with a deep breath; Thor immediately left him and the stranger did not lose time. He ran to the girl and hugged her as his life depended on that.
“What a beautiful young love,” Thor beamed - which means almost shout, because he was Thor - and Clint snorted, biting back a joke or two.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” the boy murmured and he kissed the girl’s forehead. He then turned to face the Avengers. “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
“Oh, that’s sad,” Tony grinned, “but you’re both covered in dust and you’re in my lab so... In the showers. Now.”
“Don’t talk as you’re not the one who brought them here in the first place,” Steve sneered ignoring Natasha’s thoughtful look and Bucky’s focused expression. He would have dealt with them later.
“You’re breaking my heart, love,” Tony smiled and Steve had the urge to punch him - or kiss him, it depended.
“You two... Together?” the boy inquired while the girl stared at the floor.
“Yeah, ah ah. And the hell is freezing,” Clint snorted. Tony and almost everyone in the room smiled or laughed a little at that, but Steve - and he was sure Natasha and Bucky noticed too - saw the strangers exchanging a look and biting back a smile.
What on earth did we do in their universe?, Steve thought once more.
He did not have an answer.
“What the hell did you three had in mind?!”
Steve tried not to sound too pissed, but he really couldn’t understand how someone as smart as they were could have done something so stupid.
“Steve,” Jane Foster said with a calm tone that made him even angrier, “we’re scientists! And this is science. We saw a chance and we took it, nothing more.”
“We looked for a world with the same conditions as ours, so that the risk of new viruses or infections was low,” Bruce tried not to smile, still euphoric for the success of the experiment. “And Tony created an algorithm that allowed us to pick the most destroyed and dangerous world.”
“Yeah,” Tony agreed while taking a cup and the coffee, “calm down, Stars and Stripes. We also picked the people who needed it most. As we’re all aware of, I’m a genius. You don’t call someone a genius if they don’t do genius things.”
Steve moved to the couch and sat down with a worried expression. They knew nothing about those kids, not even if they had a family back in their world. If they needed medications or if they were human at all. Maybe they had powers. Maybe they were dangerous.
“It was a risk you shouldn’t have taken,” Natasha snapped, looking out of the window as to find an answer.
“Yeah, above all after the Ultron thing,” Clint murmured. Bucky, that at the time wasn’t with them, shot him a look.
“But it’s done,” Natasha continued. “Friday, are they still in the showers?”
“They are dressing up with the clothes doctor Banner and doctor Foster gave them, Agent Romanoff.”
“I’ll talk with them, try to find out as much as I can.”
“Don’t scare them, Nat,” Tony smiled, then he took a sip of coffee. “They’re just kids, after all.”
“I started killing long before I had their age.”
And with that, she disappeared in the hall.
“So…” Tony spoke after a second, “does anyone want to see how it goes?”
They were the Avengers, but oh, how they were curious.
“Friday, the video, please… Let’s just hope Nat doesn’t kill them. I already like those two.”
“Come in!”
Natasha lowered the hand which she had knocked with and she entered the bathroom the Avengers used after the training sessions. She immediately observed as much as she could: the boy had a big scar on his back, that started under the neck and ended on his right ribs. The girl had a scar almost identical from the center of her back to the lower-right part, just as if she had been partially protected by him from something.
They were both in tension, glazing at the Avenger with unsurprised looks.
“You’re here to interrogate us,” the boy stated, not even bothering to make it a question. The girl said nothing.
“No,” Natasha replied, moving a little her hands to show them she was calm and friendly. “Just to talk. Get to know each other.”
“Then we could do it with the others, in the living room. You prefer working alone on the resources, but this is just a chat, isn’t it?”
Natasha forced herself not to look impressed, but she was. “Of course, as you wish,” she nodded, smiling. “You’re injured… Do you need help?” she asked noticing they both had bandages all over their bodies.
The girl - Rey? - refused moving her head.
“Yours must have been a pretty rough world, am I right?” Natasha said while she made herself look pensive.
“It was. Shall we go?” the boy replied.
“Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers asks to see the foreigners,” Friday interrupted them.
Natasha nodded and led them to the living room. They seemed well aware of how she used to work and on one hand she appreciated it, - it was cool not to have to explain herself and her behavior - but on the other, she didn’t know them. She was vulnerable.
And she hated it.
The kids followed her, holding hands behind her back as to give each other strength. They were really different and yet so similar, with the same lost expression.
“I get that you know all of us,” Natasha murmured.
“You can say that,” the boy nodded. The girl, a lot smaller than him, looked at them without a word.
Natasha already had some theories about it. She was either born mute, or she became it - it didn’t matter if physically or psychologically. The fact that she hadn't signed, not even once, made Natasha almost sure she wasn’t born that way.
“Well, well, well.”
Tony stood up and smiled, and the girl looked about to break apart. The boy, however, seemed to hold it better than her; he took her hand and all the Avengers, with Darcy and Jane too, moved to leave two spots on the couches.
The kids sat down, out of place just as Steve was sure he looked talking about technology.
“Hi,” he decided to start talking. “You both know who we are. Am I right?”
The girl nodded. She was touching the couch in awe, almost surprised that she was really able to do so, and she was cute as hell.
For a second, in a flash, Steve thought about how could have been to have a kid like her. A beautiful, little child with his hair and his eyes (she kind of looked like him) and - no, not her attitude. She was too scared. Too in pain. Too damaged.
She made him think about all those soldiers he had lost in battle and, above all, those who had survived. They’d never been the same.
Steve forced himself to keep talking - and to stop distracting himself.
“Okay. Perfect. Then… Let’s talk about you, would you?”
Bucky shot him a look that meant “kick yourself or I’m gonna do it” and Steve realized that the girl - he was sure her name was Rey or something alike - never spoke in front of them. Her friend, however, seemed easier to talk to… And to obtain an answer from.
“My name is Alexander, but you can call me Alex. She’s my sister, Reyna. Rey is okay though,” the boy smiled.
“Sister!” Thor and Darcy blurted at the same time.
“Not a beautiful young love, then,” Thor continued.
“Siblings love each other,” Clint shrugged. “Or, well, they usually do.”
“I do love my brother,” Thor exclaimed.
“Yeah, we know,” Jane muttered. “Too well, if you ask me.”
“Guys,” Bruce interrupted them. “Let’s give Alex a chance to talk, eh?”
Alex was smiling, tears in his eyes, and Rey was biting her right cheek.
The boy was cute too, Steve thought. It was like he was trying with everything he had to be positive and strong, but was just really, really tired.
“Actually… We would like to know a few things,” Alex requested. “Like… How is this world?”
“What do you mean?” Steve asked while Clint shouted “A mess!”.
“I mean that this world looks far better than ours. It’s, you know… In peace.”
He was looking out of the big window, where New York shined in its armor.
“Yours is in war,” Natasha assumed.
Alex avoided meeting her eyes and held his sister’s hand. They were young, surely not older than twenty years old, and they appeared a little bit scared, but also incredibly strong and close. Even with new, fresh clothes, and clean from the showers, both of the kids looked in distress - and very, very slim.
“What happened?” almost everyone asked. Bruce and Jane were the only ones not to, because they were organizing a plate full of fruit and two bottles of water.
“Don’t drink too fast,” Jane ordered, giving them everything with a smile.
“And go slow with food. Malnutrition has to be treated with attention,” Bruce added.
“I’m-we’re not… We’ve been eating. Just… Not so much. We wanted to be sure the others had food first.”
Now they were both tense. The girl, Rey, was still silent, but looked ready to jump and run away. It was Alex, holding her hand, to keep her on the couch.
They were like frightened animals.
“What happened?” Natasha insisted.
Rey bit her lips and curled her fingers as to use her nails like they were claws.
Frightened animals, Bucky thought, that learned how to fight back.
Alex released the breath he didn’t know he was holding and looked at his feet, naked and full of cuts.
“HYDRA,” he muttered. “That’s what happened. HYDRA.”