145
Earth
The Nation of Wakanda
Mount Bashenga, Vibranium Mines
Year: 2014
The mines of Wakanda were lined with the glowing blue alien rock. It was like a maze that went deeper and deeper into the heart of the world. Amidst the flying trains and Wakandan drones scavenging and mining the precious vibranium rock, the towering laboratory overlooked the work unfolding below. The young princess of Wakanda, Shuri, smiled as she worked, various Wakandan scientists bringing forth their data to her to give the final call on their work.
Their focus, their ingenuity, and their lives rested solely on the upper mines they had harvested. What rested below, however, was untapped, unheard of, unforeseen and unknown even to the greatest minds of Wakanda and the rest of the world. Winding tunnels beneath the current dig site weaved and curled deeper and deeper into the world. The vibranium meteor pulsated like a beating heart the deeper the shadows grew, veins of bright blue against the endless black. Caverns uninhabited and undiscovered by the Wakandans towered and fell for miles. The nearly bottomless expanse traveled for as far as any eye could see, yet at the end of the great cavern, miles and miles beyond the shadows where the veins of the meteor pulsated greatest of all… was a light in the darkness.
It called to them.
It was their only destination.
They only place they could hope to find an answer in the labyrinth of dark and light.
Hawkeye, Black Widow, Elektra, and Tempest Shadow scoured the mountain-like walls of the vibranium meteor. One wrong step earned them a one-way ticket to oblivion, to the seemingly bottomless pit to their left. Fog and shadow clouded the descent below, no Avenger able to know how far or deep the fall truly was. Tempest led them, with Elektra shortly behind her. Clint and Natasha hung further back, keeping mostly to themselves while eyeing their environment. They wanted to say it was to check for any threats, and that wasn’t far from the truth. Mostly, it was to reconvene with one another.
Clint strode along the cavern wall in his black attire, a quiver of arrows attached to his back alongside his arrow. Despite having abandoned the idea of Ronin, Clint still had his katana by his side. A trusty weapon. Natasha also wore an enhanced version of her Black Widow jumpsuit, red and silver veins decorated across the black. Her natural red hair had nearly overcome the blonde, the end of her ponytail still a faint white amongst the red. Clint took the front while Natasha walked in the back, the two of them gazing to the towering ceiling walls and the pulses of blue energy leading them forward.
At times, their eyes lingered back to Elektra. Ever since Murdock introduced them, it was undeniable who she was and what she had done. What she was still capable of doing. She had previously run an underground drug trade and assassin coalition known as the Hand. She was their leader, the famous Black Sky. Natasha had heard horror stories in New York about the Black Sky prior to their meeting. Clint was intending to hunt the Black Sky down once he returned to the states. Now, since everything changed and they were forced to work together to save the universe, a part of each Avenger couldn’t help but cast Elektra an uncertain and distrusting glance every now and again. They kept their distance for that reason, but remained at the ready for absolutely anything. Be that an attack from the outside… or even within.
Elektra felt indifferent about their journey, especially the distrusting gazes she managed to catch every now and again. They tried to hide it, but Elektra was subtle in her movements, calculating in her observations. She saw the way they looked at her. She saw all she needed to keep a permanent scowl on her face, her emotions towards them and how they might have felt about her utterly empty. She didn’t care. She just wanted to finish the mission and get back home.
“Gotta say… not how I expected to spend my weekend,” Clint said, breaking the nearly minute-long silence with a weak attempt at a joke. Natasha made a sound that was between an exhale and a chuckle. Elektra smirked at that. Tempest said and did nothing other than lead them along the wall. Clint looked up from his feet. “Hey… uh… Tempest, right?”
Tempest nodded at the mentioning of her name, clarifying Clint’s confusion. He nodded back. “You got a hit on the Stone?” he asked. His voice echoed across the walls of vibranium, spreading for several yards and hitting the unicorn again and again.
“If you’re asking if I can sense it with my magic, then no,” Tempest replied, sliding down a steep path and stumbling forward onto stable ground once more. “But as long as we keep to the light… I’m sure we’ll find something eventually.”
“Eventually. Watch your step. Gonna get steep here,” Elektra called back, sliding down right after Tempest. She raised her eyes once the path ahead led them directly towards the light source. Her pupils shrunk to it, the woman breathless as she followed behind the unicorn. The light seemingly called out to her, clutched her heart and soul and begged for more.
Clint slid down and halted, holding out his hand as Natasha came seconds later. She gripped his palm for safety, sending a thankful smile his way before quickly falling away and pushing forward. “Long way from Budapest, aren’t we?” Clint smiled to Natasha.
She smiled back, unable to hide the familiar but welcome memories of her and Clint’s rather unforgettable mission in Budapest a lifetime ago. She waited for him, the two Avengers side by side once more as they approached the light together. Natasha said, “Sometimes I just can’t forget when you’re with me.”
Clint turned to her, seeing that beautiful smile grace her rose-red lips once again. Sometimes he had forgotten what her smile was to him, or how five years had taken a lifetime of happiness. He could have had that semblance of happiness if he had just gone back to the Avengers. His eyes fell at that, turning back to the approaching light within the vibranium cavern.
“For what it’s worth… thanks.”
Natasha turned away from the light and onto him. “For what?”
“For pulling me back into this,” Barton told her, still staring into the piercing blue light. “For believing there was something still salvageable in me… even when I didn’t.”
His eyes returned to the Widow, and for once he hadn’t seen the same Natasha that was a part of the Avengers. He hadn’t seen the assassin, or the killer he was sent to silence for good. He had only seen the friend that tore through hell and high water to find him and bring him back to the land of the living. That was enough to earn a sad smile from him. Natasha saw something else in that saddened smile. So small and so soft. The most she could offer was a half-smile when the wetness started to build in her eyes.
“You were never lost, if that’s what you mean. So many of us could have fallen… could have done the same as you if they had lost what you had,” she told her.
Clint smiled at her, wider, brighter, and warmer. They held their smiles to one another before finally turning back to the mission. It was just as they reached the entrance did they acknowledge their fellow Avengers slipping into the light. Clint and Natasha ducked slightly to avoid the vibranium wall of rock over their heads, but as the light enveloped them, they could finally stand back up to full height. The light faded gradually, unveiling to the four what they were seeking.
The cavern was smaller than the previous ones they had stumbled upon. The ceiling was shorter, the various veins from the outside all congregating towards the center of the room. Every pulsating vein led to the heart of the cavern, where a circular hole had been formed and a haunting, orange glow shimmered from it. It was like a well, the light pouring forth from the veins, from the hole, and showering the four Avengers in a wave of alien energy that filled the air.
“Incredible,” Elektra breathed, eyes latched to the well of orange in the heart of the room.
Tempest and Elektra began to examine further of their surroundings, walking closer and closer to the massive well. Meanwhile, Clint and Natasha hung back to simply take it all in. It was almost overwhelming, the two of them unable to contain the quickened rise and fall of their own chests. Seeing as Elektra and Tempest found no trouble in searching the cavern, it allowed Clint to take those first steps forward. Natasha followed him shortly.
“So… talking raccoon, huh?” Barton questioned, smirking to Romanoff.
“Surprised you’re still taken aback by that after we ran into them,” Natasha said, pointing quickly to Tempest. The unicorn raised a brow at their conversation, but merely rolled her eyes and turned to the ceiling, to the veins all centering over the well.
Clint scoffed at that. “Would it surprise you even more to hear that pony land made more sense than any of this right now?”
“Clint, I get emails from said raccoon, so nothing surprises me anymore.”
“Natasha.”
The whisper caught the back of her neck and made her skin coil. Everyone flinched. Everyone turned in attention. It was Clint who drew his katana, Elektra who whipped out her dual sai, Tempest who bent low and charged up her horn, and Natasha who pulled out her pistol. They all faced the same direction. They all turned toward the light… where that chilling whisper of a voice called to them. Together, the four Avengers slowly stood side by side, each of them leading as they approached the well of orange and watched the shadows swirl around it.
Once more, the whisper called to them, to each individual Avenger and reaching them where they did not anticipate.
“Daughter of Ivan.”
Natasha lowered her pistol only slightly, her hardened brow softening. She quickly built herself back up when those shadows started to rise before them, cutting them off from the well.
“Clint… son of Edith.”
Clint tightened his lips, his gloved-fists crying out as his grip around his katana hardened further. The shadow began to take form, wisps of lightness and dark creating two arms, a body, and a face.
“Elektra… daughter of Hugo.”
Elektra’s jaw fell slightly, her sai lowering when she spotted the veil of darkness fall over the shadow.
“Fizzlepop… daughter of Cherrybliss.”
And finally Tempest, having listened to every chilling whisper call out to her team… and finally reaching to her. She tensed slightly, gulping as her vibranium/Uru horn charged up and shimmered brighter than the veins above them. It pulsated and growled with raw energy, intent on seeing their greeter turned to dust in case it tried anything.
But it didn’t. The guardian of the Soul Stone, the otherworldly being, simply dropped its head to them and lowered its snow-white arms. It was if they were trapped in a perpetual state of unforeseen reality, the world around them drowned away and only the being existing within it. They were in the guardian’s world now, unable to escape.
The guardian’s voice returned. “I have waited so long… for all of you to come here. Now.”
“Let me guess…” Clint called back, the tip of his katana centered on the shadow. He never broke away from its stare onto him. “You expected us?”
“From the future?” Natasha finished, pistol still trained right between the shadow’s black eyes.
The cloaked being stepped forth from the shadows that were birthed from the light shining over her body. In that absence of darkness, when that being approached them, they could finally see her with their own eyes. The way the cloak danced beneath her legs, swirled around her and created a storm of light and dark energy unknown to any of the Avengers. Or anyone else.
They saw as Mistress Death nodded to them.