Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A child is laid down to sleep. He is young, no more than a few years old he lays peacefully secure in the knowledge that all is right in the world and that his mother will never allow anything bad to happen to him.

This is not true, for the woman whom he calls Mother is not the woman that gave birth to him but a handmaiden to his birth mother and he is not the simple human child that she is endeavoring to raise him as.

I am The Watcher. For uncounted eons my task has been to watch the history of your world. To observe and record the twisting skeins of reality. But reality is not simple, it is not a single pathway stretching straight from past unto future. It is a twisting road with a near infinite number of courses it may take. Consider, in one reality this child will grow under the care of his adopted mother, become a hero much like the father he will never know and experience love, and loss, and do many great things as the Young Avenger known as Hulkling. That is in your reality. Let us trace one of realities divergences, to see the shape of your world had another path been chosen. What if Dorrek the 8th had not been raised a human, instead of his people the Kree and the Skrull finding him already a teenager and a hero but as a child...

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Dorrek-Vell did not have a childhood. While other children were given time to play, to be young, he was born into a life of obligation and duty. He was the only living direct descendent of the Skrull Emperor despite the fact that his Grandfather could not bring himself to so much as look upon him. He was the child of the greatest of all Kree war heroes. He was a living symbol of the tissue thin peace treaty that existed between two peoples who had known only hatred for one another for millions of years. As long as he walked the delicate balance between the two people, and did not show favoritism between either an uneasy peace existed. Every death that happened in conflicts early on because he could not keep that balance weighed heavily on his heart.

Neither the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree nor the Emperor of the Skrull trusted or even liked young Dorrek-Vell. They both saw him as an abomination, half Kree half Skrull, and both saw him as a threat to their power as a symbol of hope to the lower classes and the masses of both Empires that had little or no connection to their rulers. To deal with the child, and ensure that the other did not gain undue influence, both assigned the most trusted of their generals to represent them as his caretaker. That both were enemies defeated numerous times by his father gave them both a dark enjoyment of the child’s fate.

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Kl'rt and Ronan had faced each other in battle many times. They knew each other to be canny opponents with vast amounts of raw power backed up by years of tactical experience. This battle though, was proving to be the worst that they had ever fought. With tempers running high and the fate of the cosmos in the balance they gave no quarter and used every low blow and dirty move that they could muster to ensure to try and overcome each other.

"ENOUGH!"

The voice cut through the room like a burning sword. A slightly shrill edge could be heard in the normally calm and unflappable woman's voice. Having no stake in the fight at all Lillandra had been called to mediate and had come to the decision that enough was enough.

"After this display I would think that you two were the ones soon to be entering into a basic educational facility! You bicker and snipe like...like...like the lead characters in a Human romantic comedy! I am sure both of you have invaded the world often enough to have had a chance to be exposed to their fictions yes? Well, if you will not find compromise on your own then as the arbiter of this negotiation I shall impose one. For the child's primary education he shall have tutors. For Science and maths they shall be provided by the Kree. For history and languages by the Skrull. And lastly the arts and cultural purposes I shall provide them from several races amongst the Shi-ar Empire so that at least he will have a chance to see that there is more than you two pig headed blustering Dire Wraiths!"

A stunned silence met the Empresses decision on the matter. Both Ronen and Kl'rt began to turn to her planning on finding fault in her compromise and arguing against it.

"Hold your tongues. I also will decree that his secondary schooling shall be split evenly between Skrull and Kree training schools. Half of a Earth year in each till he passes, with both schools allowing time to study whatever materials the other has given to ensure that he will meet the standards of exit that the other requires based on what he will miss."

Kl'rts only reaction to the second part of her decision was to narrow his eyes. A suspicion began to form in his mind, one he did not like in the least. As Ronen began to bluster and stood to pull himself to his fullest intent on verbally laying waste to the Shi-ar Empress for her impertinence he was stopped only by the hand on his shoulder and a quite, "Do shut up." From the Super Skrull. "Empress, I must wonder why..."

"Why I have chosen to measure the time that the child will be with each of your people in Earth years?" She interrupts knowing she is quite likely one of only a dozen beings in the universe that could do so without worrying that he would kill them for it. "I suppose you would. Skrulls like to think that they are the masters of spy craft, and I will not deny that you are amongst the greatest, but there are always those that are better or at least more motivated. I know what you did, both of you. I know also of the wishes of the child's Mother before her death and how his father would feel should he find out that the boy exists. No, he will not learn it from me or any of my agents but know this. Should that boy come to harm or be used as a puppet before he reaches the age of majority for both your peoples I will ensure his father knows along with the rest of the universe. Think well how others will react, and how your own people will view it."

Both Skrull and Kree alike had faced down countless warriors in the past, had looked death face unnumbered times. Neither of them could manage to meet the eyes of this one woman.

"Beyond such levels of education I think should be his choice. Don't you? Now, for the good of all three of our Empires I think that all recordings of this negotiation should be destroyed. Claim a fault in trying to have the technologies of all three of our people working together and no one bringing a real engineer. Or make up whatever other story you wish. We can tell the universe that you two worked out a deal both fair and fitting with ease and politeness and my presence was hardly needed save that I offered my own people to ensure that the child would have a broad spectrum of learning that would be befitting a future leader. And next time such difference arises in how you two wish to raise the boy I suggest you call upon a more patient arbiter. Perhaps Phalanx or the Brood."

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Dorrek-Vell grew. Though they often did not get along he never saw his appointed guardians fight with bitterness, or even show open contempt for each other's people. He had tutors that were Kree, and Skrull, and of the (to him at least it seemed) countless species of the Shi-ar empire and he bloomed.

He received affection, of a sort, from many in his life but never saw love. Not like the love he felt in his dreams. In his sleep he saw her. A woman that looked Kree, but spoke to him in Skrullios. Always there were in a place he had never been, one that was strange and alien and yet somehow felt like home.

When he spoke of his dreams Ronen would say that a warrior should not allow himself such softness.

The one time he drew the woman in his dreams he shared the picture with Kl'rt. It did not go well.

He saved the shredded remains of the drawing, and vowed he would not share whatever weakness or treachery that thinking of the woman was to either race that bore him, but likewise vowed not to give up on learning who she was and why she haunted his dreams.

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Dorrek-Vell knew that those who attended the academies that shared responsibility for his secondary education feared his guardians. They were legends, hero and monster respectively, to all he knew. To him though, they were merely Ronen and Kl'rt. This earned him some respect from his school mates, but also was seen at times as bravado.

He was often singled out by his classmates because of his nature. To the Kree he was half Skrull, to the Skrull they saw him as half Kree. He bore the insults and jabs subtle and not alike to himself and his people with a dignity and unflappable quiet.

Only once did a Kree make a comment insulting about his mother. For that he received a broken arm, three cracked ribs, and a scar that he would choose to wear for the rest of his life. Because the offender was in fact an instructor, Dorrek-Vell received a harsh punishment. He was lashed a dozen times with a laser whip. His nature as a shape shifter, and his advanced healing powers, meant he healed by the end of the week and would have no scars. Except he choose to wear scars on his back when he was with his Kree class mates even beneath his clothes. The students in his direct class would still call him names, but they did so with affection now. Anyone beyond them that did so they would fall upon as a unit in order to teach the interloper a lesson. With the Kree he came to understand the meaning of the word brother, and honor.

Amongst the Skrull there were no insults. They were far more subtle. No comments, nothing that could be recoded or in any way shown to have truely happened was ever done but they made sure he knew that they felt he was inferior, and an insult to them by existing. Amongst the worst was his instructor in Espionage. When the class came to its final days a test was set, to retrieve files stored in the instructors computer without getting caught. On the Day of Dorrek's test the instructor was gleeful in how hard he ensured that those tested that day would not pass. And grew giddy with each passing hour that Dorrek did not appear to even start the test. By day’s end the instructor was beside himself that the boy never showed when he left for the day.

Kl'rt was not amused. He knew that the test was made impassable for Dorrek and that there was nothing that could be done about it but to skip the test entirely? He tracked down the guards set to watch the Prince to the library he had been at the full day and growled at them as he passed nearly tearing the doors off their hinges as he barged into the room that the boy had been inside of the entire time according to the cameras. The sight he faced caused him to pause and burst out laughing. On the table was Dorrek's instructor, immobilized by a combination of both Skrull and Kree technologies along with a copy of the files the boy was meant to steal and a note. The note did not plead or ask but simply stated that Kl'rt would not be unduly harsh when he punished Dorrek's guards for letting him slip past them.

The prince had passed by doing what no other cadet had thought to do. He had infiltrated the test in the guise of the instructor. As of that day he earned the respect of his peers, and the friendship of those students that had the misfortune to be scheduled to take the test the same day as him. From the Skrull he learned the use of cunning.

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Graduation had come, and he had passed his schooling with flying colors. Both schools found him not only acceptable, but to be the best of their graduates that year. He was still some years, by the strange calendar of years used for the sake of timing when he would be in what schools care since he was young, away from the age of maturity and had to choose now his final fields of study. He had qualified for acceptance to trainings that only the most elite of either species that he came from had to offer.

That tensions had begun to run especially high between Skrull and Kree complicated matters greatly. Had he been responsible only to himself Dorrek would have picked a small academy of art to finish off his schooling and spend the rest of his days making beautiful things. He was not responsible only to himself though. He had the weight of two races, two great and might empires on his shoulders. He saw only one decision that could be made, and he knew no one would be happy with it.

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The timing of his announcement was planned to perfection. His agents were placed and ready to ensure everything would go as he willed it. Kl'rt and Ronen both had pressured him to reveal to them in private what decision he made often, but he refused every time.

The time came at last. It was a civil function, that required the prince to be there and seen that would be broadcast to the whole of both the Skrull and Kree empires. At the last possible second recently graduated cadets of both species were suddenly making sure the right microphones were in the wrong places and that those in charge of communications could not shut down the transmission.

Once Dorrek had his chance to speak he did so eloquently. He spoke of love for both of his people and a call not to arms but to peace. He told them that whatever path he chose that he asked them only to accept it and know he played no favorites, placed neither side above the other. He said that the most worthy of Kree strove to be Accuser, to meet out justice and order. That the greatest of the Skrulls became Super Skrulls to face enemies no single one of their kind could face. That he had seen the best of both his people and choose to follow in their footsteps. That he would walk the path of an Accuser...and train to be a Super Skrull. Not because they were positions of honor or power, but because walking both paths would be hard and would show he was worthy.

There were no riots, no protests, no dissention in either empire that day. No Kree killed any Skrulls, and no Skrull ended the life of a single Kree. The leaders of both Empires worried that night, far more than if full scale war had broken out once more.

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He was days from being declared a fully trained Super Skrull and an Accuser when he found her. The face that he dreamt of every night of his life. The person that he had always known but never met.

She was found in old files. Lists of traitors and criminals past who had long since faced punishment for their crimes. Dorrek had been given access to the files as part of his training as an Accuser. Now he only flipped through them to review decisions past and to stave off the boredom that came before his official graduation.

He found her on a list of traitors, which he found odd because neither her real name or the one she was listed as using were Kree. Sarah Altman. The name was odd enough to draw him to the file. Her real name was Skrull. Why would the Kree have her listed her amongst those punished but not defeated as a warrior? The file was empty. Only her name, her image, and mentions of the planet Earth.

It took hours of digging to find anything about Earth. The Kree had attempted ti invade it several times, but the rest Dorrek found locked so he could not access it. The mystery of it made him only more determined to find more.

Amongst the Skrull he found more information but not much. Their databases were locked to Dorrek as well. He could find references to prophecies and a religious faction that had been banished for trying to replace his grandfather the Emperor.

Every tactic he tried, every path he followed met a dead end. Dorrek had begun to suspect a conspiracy of some sort existed about this small blue world called Earth. If there was no one within the Empire he could go to gain the information he wished he would go outside of it. He had time enough to reach one place. The home of his exiled great aunt. He could make it there, and return before it was noticed he was missing. She was dangerous, but he had the powers of a Super Skrull the Armor of an Accuser and a 'Universal Weapon' of his own. He vowed he would get to the bottom of this mystery.
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Dorrek was hours from orbit around the planet that housed the exile Veranke when his communications equipment picked up the signal.

The news hit Dorrek harder than a punch from Galactus himself. Hala was gone. The Skrull Thrown World was gone. Everyone he knew was most likely dead.

The attack came from nowhere, and everywhere at once. The Thrown World, rebuilt after the last was eaten by the devourer of worlds and Hala were attacked at the same time. They were called the Annihilation wave, and their mission was the destruction of everything.

His mission forgotten. The face in his dreams set aside. Dorrek-Vell the living Heir to the now dead Emperor of the Skrull turned his ship around and went to help his people. With the Emperor and the Supreme Intelligence dead they would need a leader, a position he had been trained to take all of his life.
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The battle was not going well. The armadas of the Kree and Skrull alike had withdrawn to their own spaces for the most part. The Nova Corps had all but been destroyed. The Supreme Accuser and the Super Skrull Kl'rt had disappeared on a mission to stop the Harvester of Sorrows. Those forces left were mostly new recruits facing their first battle and old soldiers who did not listen to one another. The task force was being overrun by the well coordinated ships of the Annihilation Wave.

That is when he came. The communications signals came as a surpise, using codes belonging to the rulers of both Skrull and Kree Empires that could only have been gifted to an envoy or representative or the Emperor and the Supreme Intelligence respectively. Though both were dead, loyalty to them lived on. The voice was young, but confident. He directed the battle in ways not thought of by any before. He used both Kree and Skrull ships in combined task groups letting the weaknesses of one be shored up by the strengths of the other.

The task force had been lost, their only duty to delay the enemy as long as possible. They had known that they were a sacrifice while others prepared to save the rest of their peoples. This voice, the small ship that had become the flagship and was protected fiercely by all involved had survived. They had done the impossible, and won the battle.

There was still a war to fight, but from that battle a rumor began to grow. It spread to all ends of both Skrull and Kree Empires. Dorrek the 8th. Mar-Vell's son. The savior. He had come, and the enemy would face his wrath.
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The tide of the war is slow to turn. Whole worlds are destroyed but with each battle the Annihilation wave grows weaker and the United Front grows more determined.

The Front was create by the last surviving Nova, but is lead now by another. He relays orders, and makes plans, and is said never to leave his war room. There are only rumors of who he is. They say he is a giant, with fearsome claws, great leathery wings, and green skin. They say he is a genius from a world on the far fringes of the galaxy raised on a world even the Xanderians barley knew of. They say he is the only survivor of the surprise attack on both the Kree and Skrull capital worlds.

They do not say that he is a teenager, not even old enough to be counted as an adult.

The Harvester of Sorrows is destroyed. It was nearly crippled by the united front and finished off by the army raised in the Negative Zone by Kl'rt and Ronan the Accuser. Its husk is abandoned in the outskirts of the solar system where Kl'rts own son is being raised.

The tides of war are slow to change, but they do. The Annihilation wave breaks upon the United Front.
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At the last battle Annihilus himself is felled by a general that none who see him can believe. A Super Skrull clothed in the armor of a Kree Accuser. There is only one being that it could be, but he was thought dead in the opening shots of the war.

The universe hung in the balance and the forces of life won. Many died, worlds were destroyed, fates where changed.

Nova Prime left the scene of the battle before he could be thanked.

The former heralds of Galactus that survived went their separate ways.

Adam Warlock and the Guardians of the Galaxy are missing.

It is a day for sorrows, but also a day for Joys.

Dorrek-Vell is crowned Emperor of the Skrull, and chosen to replace the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree. He accepts and vows to make his two separate peoples one.
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He is Emperor now. Dorrek's time is filled with helping his peoples but his mind now turns to the mystery he has long put off. A command is made, a briefing on all information held about Earth by both the Kree and Skrull will be prepared for him.
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"My lord?" R'Kin was hesitant to interrupt his Emperor, but did not have the overwhelming reverence for him that many in the Imperial court had. Unlike them he knew Dorrek before the war. The young man had been an Engineer but through service had become a valued advisor and a friend to the Emperor.

"There is no one here my friend. You can use my name."

"I-I know sire but this is more an official matter and...I think familiarity will not serve me well."

Dorrek gave the man his full attention now. He was afraid, and afraid that whatever news he held Dorrek would take it out on him despite how much he knew of the Emperor's character.

"This does not bode well. Tell me old friend, do not worry I will not harm the messenger no matter how bad the news."

"I...very well sire. I have the report on the planet you wished looked into. You were right, there was a conspiracy to restrict knowledge of the world...but it was not aimed at the Empires but by them to hide the truth...from you."

Dorrek only lifted an eyebrow ridge. "Go on."

"Your Father, he...he was a great hero to the Kree and had even defeated Ronen the Accuser on more than one occasion but it seems he had betrayed the Kree and his oaths as a Captain in the Armada...for this world. He had been sent there to scout it for invasion and came to love it and its peoples. He became their protector, sir."

"I see." His tone was kept flat. He would not give away his thoughts or his feelings on this matter, not until he had heard all there is to know.

"Your mother, she...sire at your birth you had been sent in secret to be raised there by her nursemaid. The woman you wished looked into, she was to have raised you as your mother. It was for your protection because your grandfather had ordered your death. When the Thrown World was eaten by Galactus your mother and Grandmother were lost... and your Grandfather retracted your death sentence." R'kin stopped to catch his breath and watch Dorrek for a moment.

"He sent a task force to retrieve you, because of this the Kree learned of your existence. A small battle took place in one of the Major cities of Earth killing the nurse maid and ending in a straw when many of the very powerful heroes of the world intervened. It was they that forced the peace, they showed power enough that both your Grandfather and the Supreme Intelligence acquiesced."

"So I owe how I was raised, the whole of my life to these Earthlings?"

"In part sir, but there is more. Those that took part in your retrieval, who felled the nurse maid, they knew you would learn this in time. Once the war was one they disappeared not because they wished to rest but...to make amends to you in their way."

"You mean Kl'rt and Ronen?"

"Yes sire, they stand outside this room now awaiting punishment or forgiveness. The expect the first in full measure, even with the gifts they bring."

"Gifts?"

"Yes, you see sire. The world Earth is...it is in a backwater galactic spiral and appears nothing at first it is special. It is where the war between Skrull and Kree first started. It is the only world to stave off an attack by Glactus, a feat they have preformed no less than three times. They have fought off countless invasions by both Kree and Skrull. Even the existence to the Super Skrull program is due to them. You should know this sire because, because in your name they have conquered that world. Together they did what no one race before could. They have given you the world you spent the first years of your life on but do not remember."

"I remember them R'kin. Not well, not wholly, but I remember them. As well as the face of the nurse maid that was supposed to raise me. And now, now I understand those memories much more. Was there something else, before I send for them?"

"Yes sire, they bring slaves as tribute. Exotic, powerful, and attractive ones. Chi...young people of the world that are bound to the heroes of that world to keep those that survived the conquest in line."

"I wish to see them."
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The slaves offered were as promised. Though they had the look and shape of Kree they were exotic in so many ways.

Kree came in only two forms. Pink skinned and blond haired, and blue skinned with dark hair.

Of the prisoners only one was female, even in chains she walked with a confidence that spoke of royal bloodlines. Her skin was pink as Dorrek's natural skin but her hair black.

With her walked a male, the hair on his head was shaved smooth and his skin dark but not like the blue Kree. Darker and in shades of brown.

Dorrek was told that the female was a fierce fighter, and had aim as deadly as the greatest of sharp shooters. The male was stronger than most normal Kree, and had skin that was tough enough to withstand most weapons that did not vaporize.

The next two that were brought in were just as exotic, but more than that they took Dorrek's breath away.

Twins, a rarity in the extreme amongst Kree and a thing that never happened amongst the Skrull. They were physically identical he was told in all but color. One was pale skinned with hair white as snow and eyes cold and grey. He the keepers said without his power inhibitor could run faster than the fastest ships not meant for interstellar travel and destabilize the molecules of anything he touches. The other, tanned but still pink skinned with hair as dark as his brother's was white. He could shape reality to his whims.

Dorrek was entranced. He had ruled over his desires all his life so as not to stand out more than he had too but in their presence he could not deny that while he would always consider himself male he had desires for other males. Especially these two lean and to his eyes incredibly beautiful males.

On a whim he spoke to them, a short question all but whispered so that even his guards in the thrown room could not hear what he asked. "If I could offer you whatever you wished to stay with me, by your choice, free of shackles would you take it?"

The white haired boy only glared. His brother spoke without pause, without thinking. "If it would guarantee my world was freed and safe for all time...I would do anything."

Chapter Text

I am Uatu the Watcher. For countless eons it has been my task to watch and to record history. History though is not a simple thing. History is not a strict progression from cause to effect. Instead effect can come before cause, and a single event may change the pathway that history takes. And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when the Earth's mightiest of heroes The Avengers had been torn asunder. No longer there to fight the foes that no single Hero could withstand others would heed the call. On that day the Young Avengers were born, united against a common threat. Iron Lad, Patriot, Asgardian, and Hulkling were the founding four. But, what if things had been different. What if Hulkling, the half Kree half Skrull hybrid son of Captain Mar-Vell and a Skrull Princess, had not been raised on Earth? History would have taken another path.

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The devastation was striking. Several blocks of the Bronx were in ruins, buildings and vehicles destroyed. It was luck alone that the human casualties of the fight had been so few. Luck, and the quick intervention of the Avengers that is. The area had become a war zone when large groups of both the Kree and Skrull had appeared out of the sky without warning at the same time.

Wanda Maximoff felt herself shiver. It had been nearly two years before that she had been taken captive by the Skrull along with her brother and the recently deceased Captain Mar-Vell. While the big names amongst the Avengers, Captain America Thor and Iron Man, were keeping the remaining Kree and Skrull from killing each other and working to find out why they had chosen to bring their war to Earth once more she and many others were working to find and rescue those survivors that they could.

She was near the epicenter of the disaster when she first heard the sound. Wanda's first thoughts were of her only recently born sons. If it were not for the size and closeness of the fight, and its potential to reach where she and Vision had built their home, she would never have left her sons. Hearing a child, a baby cry in the midst of the ruins of an apartment building wrenched a sob from the woman's mouth before she started scrambling towards the sound.

What Wanda found shocked her to her core. There, amongst the rubble and devastation she found a body of a woman curled protectively around a child that was no more than a few months older than her own twin sons. What shocked her was not the woman's death, or the child’s near miraculous survival but that the woman was not human. She was dressed in human clothes, as was the child, but on death had reverted to her true form as a Skrull. She did what any mother would do, took the child into her arms and tried to comfort it as much as she could. All the while she took in more details from the devastation, and began to put together the puzzle of what had happened there. The broken bones, the burns from laser weapons, the signs of the struggle that erupted around the poor dead woman's body and the child. It was clear to her what had happened, who had killed this woman.

The growing glow from where the Scarlet Witch had last been quickly drew the Avengers not actively dealing with the alien invaders, and then quickly drew them as well. The Vision and Quicksilver both were struggling to reach Wanda, standing amidst the devastation with a small child in her arms and tears flowing from her eyes. Two words fell from her lips, they were the only thing that everyone present heard before the bright light and everything changed.

"No more..."
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The news would report that the Avengers stopped yet another alien invasion that day. The only casualties reported would be the destruction of a single building and the death of a Sarah Altman and her young son Theodore.

Everyone remembered the same thing, the Kree and Skrull had come a fight had broken out and the Avengers had intervened. They remembered Captain America brokering a treaty backed by the threat of the full might of all Earth's heroes joining against either side should one or the other break it. The problem was, that sometimes when their minds were calm or they saw things that reminded them of that day many of the Avengers would remember that things had happened differently. They never remembered what had really happened, just that it was something different, and for some reason they were often worried about the Scarlet Witch.

There were two Avengers though that did remember what had happened. They spoke of it to each other only once. Equally worried both about what Wanda had done and for her safety should anyone ever figure it out both her husband and her brother swore to never say a word of it again, but to always watch her and protect her.
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The evidence that Dr. Strange had presented to her had to be fake. There was no way it could be true. Wanda knew, she knew in her heart, that there is no way that her sons could be anything but real.

"Stephen, listen to yourself. Agatha, tell him he is wrong. You know as well as I do there is no way that I could have created my sons whole cloth from nothing. I do not have the power, there is no living mutant that has that much power on Earth."

"Child, a few years ago I would have agreed with you but I have seen your power grow by leaps and bounds since then. I have seen the world change and change again. If the Sorcerer Supreme says a thing is possible who am I to say he is wrong?"

"But..it can't be true. There must be other reasons for all that has happened. Vision, we know Ultron made you to be as near to perfect as he could make you. Is it not just as likely that he made it so that you could have children as part of his plans to one day replace all mankind with synthoids? Vision, Pietro tell me you do not believe this as well..."

"Wanda, I.."

Whatever Pietro was about to say was lost, covered by the wails of Thomas and William Maximoff and the sounds of Iron Man's repulsar blasts.
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Tony Stark had not been comfortable being part of the Avenger's little intervention for the Scarlet Witch. That’s why he volunteered to keep an eye on her children while everyone was in the other room discussing them. He did not feel particularly comfortable with the boys either, but they were both asleep and not actively discussing magic. He knew magic existed, one of his best friends was after all a God, but it still bothered him on a fundamental level. He was an engineer and a scientist, his existence and how he thought were rooted in the fundamentals rules of the universe. Discussing things that violated those rules, and then hand waving it all away by calling it magic and saying it does not have to follow the same rules or any just rankled.

He used his newest hand held toy to scan the twin boys he was keeping an eye on to see if they were going to fade from reality like they had supposedly done a few times while Wanda was away on missions. Breathing normal, heart beat a little fast for the one but still normal, neutrino emissions increased.

That got Tony's attention. With a quick refocus on the device he picked up the energy emissions in the middle of the room. The tale tell signature of a portal like the ones that Reed Richards is always playing with about to open had him backing away and about to call out to his friends in the other room when it was suddenly too late. There was a mad man with horns and horrible fashion sense standing between the beds of Wanda's children blathering on about reclaiming pieces of his soul. It is never a good sign when a crazy guy with powers starts talking about souls when reaching for a small red haired child. It was a good thing that Tony had brought his new briefcase power suit and left it by the door.
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Master Pandemonium had already begun to absorb the children when he was hit by the Scarlet Witch's first hex bolt. Suddenly things were different. It was like there was a flaw in the powers he had an it caused massive unbearable pain to try and absorb back the pieces of his own soul.

While he was studded by the pain racing through him he was struck by Captain America's shield throwing him against the far wall of the room. He was sure that he could fight his way through the Avengers quickly filling the room until he heard a deep intoning voice and felt chains cold as the fires Mephisto used to alter his body were hot.

"By the Demons of Denak and by Hoggoth's grim clan, let my foe be ensnared by the Chains of Krakkan!" Dr Strange was already starting his spell to banish the demon when his pleas brought him up short.

"No! They are a part of my stolen soul! I will be whole again!"
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The interrogation had gone on for hours. In the end the only member of the Avengers still doubting Martin Preston's tale was Wanda. She did not disbelieve that the man had been tricked by Mephisto, or even that he had been told that her sons were somehow parts of his soul, just that it was possible at all her sons could be any part of it.

When the spell of revelation Dr Strange cast revealed that Martin Preston had in fact not lost his soul Wanda took it as vindication. Until the very same spell revealed that her son's souls were in fact once part of Mephisto himself. What had happened had made a sick form of sense. Mephisto damaged and parts of himself broken and spread across time and space thanks to trying to possess Franklin Richards had created Master Pandemonium in order to retrieve what was lost, and the last missing pieces had combined with Wanda's desires and unconscious use of her powers to become her children. The news had broken Wanda.

"No, it can't be, it can't be. My boys, they are real. My sons are real, my sons are real!" She railed against the facts and reality, her loss awakening the very emotions she felt the day she found that poor child in the arms of its dead care taker thanks to the actions of the Kree and Skrull armies.

The Vision was the first to realize what was happening, but Pietro was the first to be able to respond. They remembered the light, they knew what Wanda could do that no one else had realized she was capable of. The effect was far more localized, but more powerful than before. Pietro had tried to pull her too him, to comfort her and try to stop her before the magic could be complete. Vision however, had despite his love for his wife, acted on the cold logic that showed that now she had become a danger to everyone and phased his hand into her back to grab her heart. They were both too late.
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The divorce was bigger news than even the marriage. Tabloids would claim that a deal with the devil for children was behind the separation. Legitimate papers would only say that the couple had developed irreconcilable differences. One small paper in England would claim that the Vision had tried to stop his wife from going too far with her powers and that she had stripped him of his human emotions for it.

The truth was, like it often is, somewhere in between. This time all of the Avengers remembered what had happened. This time they could be there for their friend. No one knew why when the dust had settled, and the Visions body could be reactivated now bleached white and lacking the memory patterns and emotions that had been implanted in him that once belonged to Wonder Man, they found the twins hidden in another part of the house. Or why they had been changed. They no longer had their mother's fiery red hair, but now had white and black hair respectively and seemed to have features more like those of Wonder Man and Quicksilver than they had before.
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When Doctor Doom captured Wanda and intended to use her to channel the Life Force he did not know of her therapy sessions with Charles Xavier, only that she had power no one realized and that she might be a fitting channel for the power of creation its self.

By the time the Avengers had arrived to rescue Wanda it was too late. She had already saved herself. Unsure about what had happened they left Dr Doom where he was found, shivering in the fetal position, as Wanda thanked her friends.

"I saw everything, pasts that did not happen and futures I hope never will. I know what would have happened had I not been well enough to control the power he wanted to use me to channel. If it were not for my friends staying by me and helping me through everything I would not have had the strength. You don't have to worry. I gave up the power, put it back where it belongs. And..those time in the past where I lost control I know now were just echoes of today. We don't have to worry about it ever happening again."
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Something was not right. The files he had found said that this was the address where he would find the first of the people he was looking for but the images did not match what was there. The building was too tall, too new, and the scanners showed no signs of alien life anywhere in the area.

"Hey kid, that’s a nice looking toy you got there. You wanna talk about why what it's telling you is making you look so upset? Or maybe where you got it from because I am telling you that thing is defiantly not local."

Damn. He was right, something was not right. Not only had he missed the sound of Iron Man's repulsars but also the arrival of Wasp, Yellow Jacket and Flacon.

"The Avengers? But...that’s not right. History says you are not supposed to exist anymore!"
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He was angry. That was nothing new. He was always angry. The world was not a fair place and that made him mad. Bullies got away with beating up weaker kids because teachers either could not or would not see it. Drug dealers peddled to kids because the cops either did not care about the poor black neighborhoods or were too understaffed to patrol thanks to the repeated attacks on New York by super criminals. And no one cared that between the creation of the Red Skull and Captain America there were five men that were made into super soldiers that four of them died on the battle field and the fifth was branded a traitor and locked up because he would not be quiet about what was done to him. No one cared that the fifth man was beaten so often in Leavenworth that when he was finally released with not so much as an apology that the brain damage had left him a shell of a man. No one cared about them at all because they were black. Except for Eli that is, he cared. He cared because that man was his hero, and his grandfather.

Eli was angry now because he was in the hospital, and chained to a bed. He was angry at the banger that got the drop on him. He as angry at the cops that had questioned him after he woke up not because he had taken out a group of drug dealers pushing coke on the kids in his neighborhood, but because they found the MGH in his belt. Worst of all he was angry at himself. His Grandmother had been in the room when he woke up, and the look on her face broke him. She could not look him in the eye when the doctor came in to explain what happened, when he found out that to save his life he had needed a blood transfusion and thanks to the most recent disaster in the area the hospital was out of his blood type and that the only donors they could find that matched his blood type included his grandfather.

He was also angry at the All American type model perfect white man that had come in and asked his Grandmother to leave as if he had all the right and kept calling him son.

"You're not even old enough to be my father so stop calling me son! You stand there telling me about what I have done and you don't know anything. You don't live in a neighborhood where refusing to join a gang is close to a death sentence. You don't live where there are a half a dozen crack dens in walking distance of an elementary school. You do not know what I am going through, and you can stop patronizing me."

Eli got a certain amount of joy shutting the man up, and putting that look of surprise on his face. That is, until he started talking again.

"Your right that I don't live where you do, but I grew up in a neighborhood just as steeped in crime as you did. But you're wrong about knowing how you feel and what you’re going through. I felt the same way, only in my day there was a war to focus my anger on. You’re wrong about my age as well. I may not look it, but truth be told I am only a couple of years younger than Isaiah. You should see the way pride fills his eyes when I visit and he tells me about the things you have done."

The confusion was plain on Eli's face, and the surprise that anyone actually came to visit his grandfather was enough to kill the sharp comment he was about to give the man.

"You've always been at school when I stopped by so we never got to meet. So, I should introduce myself. My name is Steven Rogers, the other Captain America." Steve offered his hand to the boy to shake, forgetting he had been handcuffed to the bed because he had been found in possession of a controlled substance. It did not matter, the handcuffs snapped when the boy reached for his hand without thinking about it. He made a note to explain it to the police in the hallway when he left so that they did not get the wrong idea before he handed the mask he had carried into the room to Eli.

"Jeff Mace once said in private that no one would ever wear the identity as Patriot again. That was a long time after I was lost, while he was Captain America, but if he were alive today I think he might approve of the name being revived. I've already learned a lesson from the sons of a friend of mine, if you're going to keep risking your life as a hero nothing I or anyone else says is going to stop you. So what is going to happen is this, the DA is going to offer you a deal. You plead guilty to a lesser charge than what they have you on and the records get sealed so no one ever knows about it. According to the law you get to do community service cleaning up the grounds of the Avengers mansion, and latter are going to get a bottom rung job at Stark Industries. In reality you’re going to learn responsibility and train to be a hero the right way with a few other young people."

"So that's it? I am conscripted, no chance at making my own decision?"

"No son, you can still say no to the deal and try to fight it in court. Hell, if you do I will still be there, in uniform, to plead the case for leniency for you, for your grandparents’ sake. But before you make your decision, before you say no, or yes, take a little time to think about it. Think about what you want to do with your life, with the power you suddenly find thrust on you, and then ask yourself what your decisions will mean for you and for your family."

Steve had nearly made it to the door when Eli spoke up. "Captain? I...I'll do it. I'll take the deal. Just...don't call me son...please?"

"It's a deal sport, and unless I am in uniform it’s Steve."

Eli was angry most of the time. Angry at the injustice of the world. Angry at being 15. Angry just because. But for now he was not angry. Now he was excited. He was going to make the world a better place so no one else had to grow up angry at it the way he had.
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Steve Rogers had five grey hairs. He knew this because he had found them only a week ago and counted them. Even after being thawed form ice the rate he aged was being retarded by something so that little fact had surprised him. Tony had teased him without mercy when he found out, Thor had said only that it was a sign of wisdom and to be proud of them, and Hank Pym had not even paid attention when Tony had announced at great volume that they existed to the team. The one thing that none of them knew about his grey hairs was what Steve had confided to one person over tea only the day before. He told Wanda that he had named them, and had not even minded the way she giggled after pressing him to tell her what he named them. He could tell very soon he was going to have a sixth one.

"Cassie, Miss Bishop, we are going to have to discuss your breaking and entering later, as well as your apparently playing with dangerous materials for years now Miss Lang. For now, boys, we are going to have to talk about why you choose to break through an extremely expensive antique stain glass window to enter that church."

"It was Tommy's idea." Billy knew the instant he said it that it was a mistake. Not because it fell into the range of tattling but because of rule number three.

"Do you see the problem with that excuse?"

"Hey!" Tommy started to speak up but was quickly silenced by a look from Captain America.

"Leaving out the fact that none of you had been cleared to go out in costumes yet, I know we have taught you better ways to enter the building that did not involve raining shards of broken glass onto innocent by standards or setting the place on fire. What is going to happen now is that all four of you boys and you Miss Lang are going home, tomorrow I am going to be having a word with your guardians, and after that we are doubling your training schedule. Now Miss Bishop and I are going to have a talk about injuring Hawkeyes pride. Oh, and Nate. You and I later are going to have a long discussion about hacking JARVIS."

Steven could still see the logic of putting him in charge of the Young Avengers. Hank was too in his head to be effective as a trainer, Wanda and Pietro could never be fully fair when dealing with the twins, Tygra was not patient enough to deal with kids, and no one in their right mind would ever leave Clint or Tony alone with a bunch of teenagers. And then there was Steve. Steve who had experience training young people to fight. Steve who had experience with teenagers thanks to Bucky and Toro. Steve that everyone trusted to be fair and not blow is top.

It was no wonder he named his grey hairs after each and every one of those kids.
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"What did you do with him?!? Bring him back! Bring back my bro...."

The mansion was in ruins, all around him Nate saw his friends the people he had spent months with training learning to fight alongside were fading out of existence as if they never were. IN the distance he could see the City, New York was fading too. Where there were great glass and steel towers earlier now he saw the twisted wreckage of a destroyed metropolis. The world as he knew it was unraveling, but the one thing that stayed consistent, that was not changing was the man in front of him.

"Watch boy, your friends...our friends disappearing as if they never existed. Because of you. It is your fault that they have ceased to exist. You refuse to become me, you refuse to grasp the destiny you have before you and so it will never come to pass. Because of that the only friends we have ever had will never be born."

"But...why...why if they are never going to exist do I still remember them?"

"Your smarter than this, you know why. Because we are immune to paradox. Change the past however you want, we will still remember."

"No, no, no. I can't let this happen, I won't let this happen! There is still a way, I will find a way to stop you and still make sure they exist!"

"I had forgotten I was ever that naive. Even if there was a way, you still don't get what you want. I have seen the lines of history, there is no reality where you stay in this time and keep your friends where they get to exist."

"Fine, if that is the way it has to be..." His voice was sad, almost broken. He knew what he had to do. Nate swore that he would never become Kang, never be the conqueror, but if he had to leave his friends in the here and now, never spend time with them again then he would to make sure that they were born and that they would live.
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"...ther!"

The world had gone white, and for an instant it seemed as if there were nothing that lasted for eons but only seconds later things had returned to how they should be.

The devastation, the destroyed mansion, everything that has slowly changed while they fought off Krang had reversed its self.

When Captain America finally found them the Young Avengers were still in the garden in the middle of the Avengers Mansion. Billy and Tommy were clinging to one another as if they were afraid the other was going to cease to exist. Kate was shaking and holding hands with Cassie speaking in low tones. Eli had the same faraway look in his eyes that Bucky had had after the first time he saw combat. Without having to ask he knew that Nate would be missing, and that very likely they would never see him again. At least, not as Iron Lad.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. The original Young Avengers were growing up, very soon they were going to be too old to go by that name. At the same time the team was filling with more young teens with powers they had no experience using and a need to have things like common sense beaten into them.

Tony had more grey hairs now, but so did Tony Stark so there was far less teasing because of it. He still did not believe it had been five years since he had been talked into taking over the Young Avenger project, or that the kids would have saved the world on their own several times already. He also was not sure he understood the words coming out of Thor's mouth.

"Let’s try this again Thor, you want me to do what?"

"Place my brother Loki on the team." The blond God beamed at Steve as if it were the most simple thing in the world.

"Loki, as in God of mischief Loki? As in the Super villain Loki? As in the guy who has been behind more of our major fights than the Red Skull Loki?"

"Nay! Well, aye he is Loki who we have faced in battle many a time, but he is not the same. Since the most recent start of the God Cycle he hath been incarnated as a child. Most of his memories of wrong doing, and much of the evil that hath filled him from outward places hath been purged. He...friend Steve I know thou must still see him an enemy and a danger but he is not the same. Aye, there is a danger in him still, a chance he may yet return to his dark path but... so too there was a danger of many of those now on the team turning to the ways of Darkness. What of Wanda's sons? Both had that chance and by your hand were lead to righteousness. So too many of the newer youths; Striker, Veil, Hazmat, X-23...."

Steve held up his hands to stop Thor in defeat. He knew that many of the newer members of the team were there because they had the chance to go badly, or let the meddling done to them by the enemies of the Avengers turn them into villains. If Loki had really been changed, had ended up in the body of a 13 year old boy then why not.

"Fine, fine. We will put him on the team, but you’re going to be his legal guardian and take full responsibility for him, including punishment if he gets into trouble."

"Aye, aye my friend I would expect no less. And trust, he hath learned his lessons. He will be no trouble at all."

For some reason Steve had the feeling that Thor had just doomed them all.
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The fight had gone on for hours. No one had seen the front line team of Avengers since the third wave of aliens had overwhelmed them. Every super hero...every super powered person in New York was working together to try and fight back the invaders. No one would have ever thought that they would see such a thing. The Kree and The Skrull, enemies longer there had been human life on Earth working together in the name of some new Emperor.

William Maximoff, the Scarlet Sorcerer, wanted to laugh. He was watching Spiderman fighting side by side with Doctor Octopus and Electro while Deadpool and Taskmaster of all people were guarding his back. The insanity of the whole situation was enough to make anyone feel like they were going mad even without a family history of it.

Quickly dragging his attention back to what he was doing he grabbed his staff, a gift from Doctor Strange, and started his part of the spell. The last of the really big mages had one card left to play in the fight. A spell that, if it worked, would protect the Earth from the invaders. At five cardinal points they all began their parts of the spell. Scarlet Witch was the first, he could feel his mothers power coursing along the lines of the pentagram that they would all form. Then came Brother Voodoo. Third was Doctor Doom, and then it would be Billy's turn before Doctor Strange finished it.

He would never get his chance. The God Slayers had come.

Super Skrulls who copied not just the powers of the Fantastic Four, or the X-Men or even random members of the Avengers but by Gods that had acted as heroes on Earth. They tore through the legion of Doombots that were protecting the Doctor and stopped him before he could do his part in the spell.

Billy faced a worse enemy though. The first Super Skrull and Ronen the Supream Accuser of the Kree had chosen his point in the pentagram to attack. He saw Deadpool go down a third time in his fight with the Super Skrull as Taskmaster managed to keep the Accuser busy when he felt his brother's hand on his shoulder. He knew already he was there to get him to someplace else because the spell was impossible now.

Speed had them blocks away already with something shook the ground and then there was nothing.
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When he woke Billy's head felt like it had gotten sat on by the Blob, and everything sounded...weird. He almost panicked when he started to call out to see if anyone else was there and could not hear his own voice.

"Ooh, not so loud man! We can hear you." It was Eli, he never thought he would hear the other boy's beautiful voice again. "You know you said that out loud, right? What is your problem anyway dude and...What did they put on your ears?"

Billy was starting to explain that he could not hear his own voice as he reached up to touch his ears, only to find strange devices filling the insides of them.

"Whoever showed the Skrulls, or Kree, or whoever is in charge a copy of Return of the Jedi is going to get one of Clint's inflatable boxing glove arrows where the sun don't shine...before I trigger it to inflate!"

That got everyone's attention. Eli only stared, and Tommy was just starting to say something he shouldn't before Kate's glare shut him up. Billy's comment about Kate looking better in the Slave Girl Lea get up than Eli lead to another silence while everyone stopped to check out what their costumes had been replaced with.

"Ah, you are awake. Good. You are all prisoners of the Kree-Skrull Empire and slaves taken as tribute to the Emperor Dorrek-Vell. Your world has fallen, but only those amongst its peoples that fought back were injured in any way. You are amongst the children and wards of the most powerful and influential begins on your world, and so have been taken as hostages to ensure that the surrender rested from them will last. If you do not resist you will not be harmed and will, in time, even be given the chance to have fulfilling lives on the new Throne world."

The voice came from a tall white haired man standing by the door to the cell. Billy would have guessed him a mutant, one looking rather surprisingly like all of the other men in his family besides him, if he did not know better.

"I thought Kree only came in blue skinned, or blond haired." Trust Tommy to be the first of them to talk back. "Or are you one of those butt ugly Skrull trying to make us feel better by looking like a cross between Uncle Pietro and Captain Marvel?"

The man standing by the door looked shocked at first, and then annoyed. "I am Kree, just not from this reality. You may call me Noh-Varr. You were picked as the best and the most desirable of those taken to ensure that the super powered peoples of your world do not rebel. My task will be to teach you what you will need to know before you are presented to the Emperor and then you will be used to teach such things to the others. Those of you with powers are fitted with dampeners made for your specific abilities, and..." He all but grinned as he presses a button the band of his left wrist.

The pain was unbearable, but it was thankfully brief. "Now, are we ready to begin?"
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It took time, but eventually Kate had talked their keepers out of the slinky slave girl look. There were still hints of it in their clothes, exposed flesh and cuts meant to accentuate their bodies, but they at least were not wearing anything more revealing than the average super hero costume. They had even been given clothes color coded to match the costumes that they had been wearing when they were each captured.

Billy had not really known what he was expecting from the Emperor, but he was not expecting someone that looked so...hot. It had never exactly been a secret that he was gay, the whole team knew it and if her reaction to his coming out was any measure most of the Avengers knew it before he did. The fact that the big crushes in his life were Thor and Captain America meant he had a type, and the Emperor was definitely his type. Tall, broad shoulders, blond hair and blue eyes that looked like he saw every single thing about Billy inside and out. He was glad that Eli and Kate were not in a position to see him blush when it came time for him and Tommy to be presented.

The Emperor speaking in English threw him at first, but no more than his words. For Earth, for his Mother and everyone he knew to be freed and to ensure they never went through anything like that again he would do anything. As he answered he saw the look that passed over Dorrek's face and for an instant thought that even if the fate of Earth were not in the balance he might have said yes.