Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Age 0

As far back as she could remember, Lily Maywell had always had two soulmarks. This was only significant in the fact that sometimes soulmarks appeared during a person’s life as their soulmate was born. This meant that her soulmates were exact same age or older than her, although it never really mattered; she knew she would love them no matter what age they were or what they looked like.

On her right wrist, in loopy chicken scratch, were the words Come here often, gorgeous?

On her left, in narrow stereotypical doctor’s handwriting, were the words Thanks, I guess.

Lily’s very first memory, before even the sound of her parent’s voices, was the pure, perfect love her soulmates sent her, welcoming her into the world and making sure she new they were there for her. Even when she grew older and the memory faded into a feeling, she never forgot the first moment when the soulmarks made their existence known.

Age 5

Lily and her father, John, had been very close from the beginning, and her most fond memories had been with him. The Maywells lived in upstate New York, where it would get so snowy cars wouldn’t even budge from the driveways, and the snowbanks would even be taller than the five-year-old. It always made travel difficult, but Lily loved living in their little town on the lake.

One day, the temperature had dropped to -25 degrees, freezing the existing snow and icing it over. Lily and her father usually walked to school, especially in the winter, and they had made sure to leave extra time due to the conditions. Deep snow was so common that if the school closed every time it happened, the students would be there all year; so unless there was a power outage, it remained open.

They had great fun slipping and sliding on the icy surface; the young girl pretended to be a professional figure skater, attempting clumsy spins on the ice. However, her house was at the bottom of a hill and the school was at the top. While it wasn’t a steep climb, the ice made it very hard to walk up. In the end, Lily and her father had to crawl up the hill on all fours in order to keep from falling over or sliding down, causing the young girl to laugh with amusement. Her father glanced at her fondly, watching her carefully to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

They arrived at school five minutes late, but the memory was well worth the tardiness.

Age 7

During the summer, the little lake town filled with the people who moved away during the winter. It was always a busy, fun time, especially since there would be more kids Lily’s age. Each year, she always hoped that at least one of her soulmates would be come with the snowbirds, but neither of them ever showed. However, Lily’s best friend, Lydia, would always be there.

The two girls had met when they were three; both of their parents had (separately) decided to use the golf course located nearby and brought their children along. The two families had arrived at the first hole at the same time, and after some debate (“you can use it first.” “No, you can. It’s quite alright.”), they decided to golf together. Lily and Lydia got along very well and played together in the sandpit (even if that wasn’t strictly allowed.) Every summer after, the two families would spend time together.

As they got older, Lydia had had become more intrigued by Lily’s two soulmarks and was always interested in what her soulmates were feeling. Lily, likewise, had asked about Lydia’s. The brunette girl had the traditional single soulmark, which read I’m Nate, what’s your name? in blocky writing. Lily wished the first words her soulmates would say was a traditional introduction so she would at least know their names, but Lydia said it was more fun to imagine how they would meet.

Age 10

Lily’s birthday fell on September 16th, which she considered the best time to have a celebration. Her father usually would have just returned from his travels for work (he was an archaeologist and usually got called away to dig sites during the summer), the weather was cool but not too cold, and all the leaves seemed to change colors just for her. She even got two birthdays, one in the summer so Lydia could be there and one on her actual birthday, so she really couldn’t complain. Even her soulmates seemed to know when it was her special day and made sure to send her extra love through their bonds. Her mother, Catherine, made a cake (chocolate, her favorite) and her favorite food (which usually changed every year; this year, it was grilled cheese.)

Her father would tell her all of his adventures at the dig sites, and they’d play her favorite games. She would always go to bed happy and content, believing the world- or at least her own- was at peace.

Age 12

Rainy days at the lake were the great, if a little dreary. Lily would have to take a break from her normal outside activities, seeing as her mother wouldn’t like it if she got all muddy (or, at least, muddier than usual.) The lake never got TV service, since it was far out from any major city, so that left the day for arts and crafts or reading. Sometimes, Lily even just liked to lie in bed under the covers, listening to the rain pattering on the tin roof of her home.

It was during these times that she thought the most about her soulmates. Of course, they were always on her mind, but she was usually a very active child and filled her days with whatever events were currently happening, which left little time to reflect on the two missing pieces of her soul. However, when she wasn’t playing, she liked to imagine the scenarios in which she would meet her soulmates.

For the first one, Come here often, gorgeous? She, at this age, imagined that her soulmate attended the same school as she did, and he would say this jokingly (because of course she came to school often.) The comment made him seem to be confident and funny, which she liked. Although, right now, he seemed very lonely and sad, no matter how much he tried to cover it up. (The lonely and sad feelings were strongest, with a light warmth over them, like a blanket. Lily had decided this warmth was happiness.)

For her other soulmate, he often felt the same emotions, although he didn’t try to cover his up as much. Thanks, I guess made him seem like he wasn’t as confident as her other soulmate, and she worried that she might say something offensive to have him reply like that.

However, if there was one thing she knew for sure, her soulmates would never feel lonely or sad again once she met them (at least, if she could help it.) She did what she could now, making sure they knew through their bonds how much she couldn’t wait to meet them, and that she would love them no matter what.

Chapter Text

A few years passed without much change, and soon Lily graduated from Middle School. After her celebration, her mother and father had sat her down for a family meeting.

“We have some news we’d like to share with you, Lily,” her mother started.

“As you know, your High School will be farther away than any of the schools you have gone to before. After much consideration, your mother and I have decided to relocate to a more populated city. Your mother has also decided to pick up her nursing practice again and plans on attending school to get her license renewed,” Lily’s father continued, “I know this is probably very hard to hear, since we all love the Lake . But, you don’t have to worry too much, since we plan on returning for the summer.”

Lily listened to her parents quietly, taking in the information. She was upset that she had to move away from the place where she grew up, but she also knew a three-hour round trip ride to High School wasn’t ideal. At least they weren’t planning on selling the house, which made this much better.

“When did you guys decide to move?” Lily asked.

“We’ve been discussing it since you started eighth grade. We haven’t found a house until recently, though. That’s where we went the day we had you sleep over at Margret’s,” John explained.

“Oh. Um, when are we moving, then?” she asked.

“We have a planned date of June 1^st, that way we can get settled before your birthday,” her mother answered.

Lily, knowing that it was useless to argue, nodded in acceptance. In her habit on looking at the bright side of things, she decided at least it would give her a better opportunity to find her soulmates.

“I do have some good news, though,” her father spoke up suddenly, “I have been invited to an excavation site in Argentina in July, once they uncover the base a little more. Since you’ve done so well in school, your mother and I thought it would be a nice treat for you to come with me.”

Lily looked up, surprised, “really? I can come with you?”

She had always wanted to be a part of her father’s travels, his excitement over the past fueling her interest in history, which was definitely her best subject.

“Of course, this isn’t something I would joke about. I take it you would like to come?”

“Definitely!”

Lily’s family settled without much problem in their new town of Silver Springs, New York. The town was several times larger than what they were used to, but it was by no means big. Not like New York City, anyway. Her 15^th birthday came and went, and then July arrived.

John woke his daughter up early in the morning while the sky dark, and she followed him sleepily to car. They had packed their luggage the previous night, so all they had to do was make some breakfast before starting the hour drive to the airport. Lily slept on the way there, so they seemed to arrive in no time at all.

The sun was just breaking over the horizon as they parked the car. They caught the shuttle and made it to the airport with time to spare. John had pre-booked their tickets over the phone, and after checking in with the agent (which always took a while), they wandered around the airport waiting for their flight. Lily was wide-awake at this point, and she looked around the airport with wide eyes, having never been to one before (her longest trip being the move from the Lake town to Saratoga.)

At 7 am, their flight was announced by a crackling voice over the loudspeakers all passengers travelling to El Plumerillo International Airport for the 7:30 am flight meet at Gate Four for boarding in fifteen minutes. Lily and her father headed to the gate. After giving their tickets to the gate attendant, they boarded the gangway. Choosing seats close to the front, Lily’s father pulled out their entertainment for the flight: a crossword puzzle book, some historical novels, and a few blank pieces of paper for drawing. He also brought out the bottles of water they’d packed to drink.  

As the plane left the gate, the flight stewardess gave the mandatory safety protocol, and they were in the air. Once it was safe to walk around, the attendants moved through the aisles, offering headphones to listen to the movie that was shown at the front of the plane. Neither Lily nor her father were interested and were quickly immersed in their activities.

In what seemed like no time at all, they had reached the first layover stop, and they deboarded. With an hour to wait, Lily and her father decided to eat at a nearby fast food restaurant. With their crazy beginning of summer, they hadn’t had much time to talk about the actual excavation, so Lily decided to ask about the find.

“Well,” her father started, “some hikers had been exploring a nearby area where they realized was a trail. Of course, there was the hiking trail they were following, but one member of the group was more observant and realized there was a trail off to the side. It was covered with underbrush, but it was less dense than the other areas. After leaving a marker to find their way back, the group decided to head in that direction. They didn’t realize they’d found a civilization at first, but one of them had fallen through a weak spot in the ground.

It turned out that there was an underground tunnel, which opened into a cave that was similar to the burial chambers of the Egyptians. After alerting the authorities, archaeologists were called out to study the area. We’re lucky they didn’t try to take anything; I think there is a traditional myth about a stone curse that prevented it.”

Lily listened with interest as her father spoke, caught up in the story, “do you know about the stone curse, dad?” she asked.

“Not much,” he replied, “just that it is a common story told among the indigenous peoples of South America. I learned about it from one of my colleagues at the last dig we worked together on. Apparently, if one were to steal from an ancient burial site, they wouldn’t get very far before they were completely covered in stone. Of course, he could tell the story much better than I, but that’s the gist of it.”

 “Do you think it’s real?” she asked.

John chewed on his hamburger thoughtfully for a moment before answering, “I think that all myths are based on some fact, and that perhaps stone isn’t actually what covered the person, but fear. Because after all, some people freeze up when they’re afraid, so maybe it was just the guilt that catches up with them. When you’re dealing with history, you always have to take it with a grain of salt.”

Lily nodded in acceptance; his theory made sense. There were no such thing as mythical curses, after all. (She didn’t realize at the time, of course, just how wrong she was.)

In their last leg of the flight, having made another layover, the two had tried to settle down for some sleep. It would be morning in Argentina when they arrived, so they had to prepare for the jetlag that was sure to follow.

However, Lily was too excited to settle down and she kept giggling quietly to herself, causing her father to look over at her in concern, “what’s up, Lils?” he asked.

She turned towards him, looking guilty, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up,” she said.

Her father smiled gently at her, “not to worry,” he said.

The older man looked down to where his daughter had pulled her sleeves up slightly to expose her soulmarks, “are they bothering you?” he asked.

“Oh no, they never do,” she said, “I think they really want me to go to sleep but the emotion tickles- I think it’s love- and they’re trying to compete to see who loves me more.”

Her father looked amused, “I remember doing that with your mom,” he said, “before we met, we’d always try to out-love each other through our bonds, but eventually one of us would always fall asleep first.”

Lily smiled slightly, pulling her father’s hand towards her to read her mother’s loopy script, my name is Catherine Powell and I’ll be taking care of you today. The words wrapped almost all the way around his wrist with the phrase being so long.

Apparently, her mother had been working in a nearby hospital when her father had come in with an open wound from a piece of ancient metal. They’d had some medical doctors on site, of course, but he’d gone to the hospital in town just to be sure. Her mother had greeted him with those words (his response had been you can treat me anytime), and that, as they say, was history.

Lily hoped she would have such a smooth-sailing relationship with her soulmates, but something told her not to count on it.

Chapter Text

 True to her father’s word, the sun was shining brightly outside of the windows of the Argentinian airport. As they came out of the gangway, a man caught their attention; he was about average height, with dark hair and tanned skin.

“Dr. Maywell, a pleasure to meet you,” he greeted them with a thick Argentinian accent.

“Ah, I presume you are Dr. Castillo?” Lily’s father asked.

“Yes, I was sent to guide you to our dig site. We have been working on it for several weeks and have found some artifacts that might be of interest.”

After Lily was introduced, they went to through customs and finally to gather their bags from the luggage carousel. Once they did, the group of three stepped out into the surprisingly cool air. The parking lot wasn’t too far away and soon they were off, heading towards the excavation site.

Lily enjoyed looking out the window at the sights of the new country. There were not many large buildings in the immediate city and most of them appeared run down.

“What happened here?” she asked.

“We had a rather devastating earthquake+ in the winter and have had a hard time, ah, rebuilding,” Dr. Castillo explained, “it is even worse farther away where the buildings are not as well built. We are repairing them slowly, as the Dirty War** is interrupting the process.”

By his tone, both Lily and her father knew better than to ask what the Dirty War was. The group fell silent, looking at the damage, the bumpy road in such a developed town making sense now. The doctor’s words came true, as outside the city appeared to be just broken rocks with little habitation.

The Argentinian spoke up again, “the less fortunate people build their homes out of adobe, which is a hardened clay. It cracks very easily, especially with the magnitude we had.”

Lily felt sorry for the people. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to have her home destroyed. Looking at the broken houses, something stirred inside of her that she’d never felt before: the desire to protect. How was she supposed to help her soulmates if things like this could happen? She couldn’t just build a new home and pretend everything was okay, or prevent earthquakes from happening; for once in her life, she felt completely useless.

Turning her head from the passing scenery outside (which was slowly giving way to wilderness), she frowned and looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap.

By the next morning, Lily’s solemn mood had worn off and her excitement returned as she prepared for the day. The night before, they had been shown to their tent, which was simply an open space divided by a thick white canvas to give the father and daughter some privacy.

She pulled on a comfortable, long-sleeved t-shirt, long cargo pants, and sneakers. She pulled her blonde hair back in a braid and put on the special hat her father had gotten her for their adventure, which was wide-brimmed and had mesh material in the back to keep the sun off her neck. After putting on sunblock and her sunglasses, she headed out of the tent to meet her father.

John had been up a few hours earlier, going over what had already been found. He greeted his daughter with a smile before turning back to the pottery on the table, saying, “so this is an Inti*** statue?”

Dr. Castillo nodded, “It was a burial chamber, as we thought. While no body was found, believe the person was from royalty, or at least nobility. He had many figures with him, although we think most of the gold to have been stolen. It’s a surprise no one has found this place earlier.”

At his words, Lily jumped in, “maybe they didn’t report it because of the Stone Curse!” she exclaimed excitedly, forgetting for a moment she didn’t really believe in it.

“The Stone Curse?” Dr. Castillo asked, “I have not heard of that in several years. It is mythical, of course, but how do you know it?”

The younger girl blushed slightly, “I, um, heard it from my dad,” she explained, “he learned it from someone else.”

The Argentinian doctor looked to the other man, who shrugged and said, “I thought it was interesting, especially since it seemed a common theme among ancient peoples. Not everyone, of course, but groups in close locations had similar stories of people turning to stone because of stolen objects. I think it originated in Africa, though.”

Dr. Castillo nodded before turning back to what they were studying, “yes, well, I don’t believe that is the reason. And anyway, we are going to be excavating some of the inner chambers this week to look for clues. I think we will begin in a few hours.”

 Indeed they did, and soon Lily’s days had filled with the pattern of get ready to work, excavate, take a break, excavate, and go to sleep.

As the Maywell’s Argentinian adventure drew to an end, Lily felt rather disappointed by it all. They hadn’t made any major discoveries, nor been able to leave the dig site except for retrieving supplies. Even her soulmates had seemed to be MIA for the month with what little went on.

She and her father were currently working in an open area of the dig, using trowels to shift dirt. Similar activities were happening around them with the other archaeologists.

“You know,” she started, “I’m not sure if this is the job for me. You certainly made it seem much more interesting than this.”

Her father smirked slightly, “what, digging up dirt on people isn’t interesting? I guess I never really did cut you out to be a gossiper.”

Lily rolled her eyes, “no dad, I just thought there would be more action. And by the way, that joke was pre-histerical.”

“You could find that pun in the archives, Lils. I think you have to try harder,” her father retorted.

“That’s-“ she started, but an excited shout interrupted her.

They stood quickly, moving to where the exclamation had come from. It was one of the younger archaeologists, and he was talking in rapid Spanish about what he found. Dr. Castillo, Lily, and her father looked closely at the foreign object half-covered by dirt.

There was a strange, unearthly glow coming from the object as it sat in the ground.

“Don’t touch it,” her father warned, gently pushing the younger man away.

But, Lily didn’t hear him. She stared at the glowing blue light transfixed, even as people began to move around to properly uncover it. The object seemed to whisper her name, with growing intensity the longer she watched it: Lily… Lily…Lily… LilyLilyLilyLilyLily. Almost without thinking about it, her hand reached out and effortlessly pulled the glowing crystal from the ground.

Warning bells were going off in her head, but she knew she couldn’t control her movements anymore even if she wanted to. Deaf to the exclamations of her father and his colleagues, she realized for the first time that she felt complete, like she actually had a purpose she didn’t realize she had. The chant of her name had softened the longer she grasped the crystal, and she slowly became aware of her surroundings.

The first thing she felt was a heaviness in her feet, and the first thing she heard was her father’s urgent tone: “put that down, Lily. I told you not to touch it…” which eventually faded to the background again.

Looking down, she saw that the heaviness was actually stone. It didn’t worry her at first, but as it began to rapidly move up her legs, the fog in her mind cleared and suddenly panic surged through her. She hastily dropped the object, but the stone didn’t stop. Finally, her emotions seemed to get the attention of her soulmates, who immediately felt her fear and tried to comfort her. As the stone crawled up her throat and covered her mouth, her final thought before the world went dark was I’m sorry.

If this is heaven, it isn’t so bad, Lily thought in the darkness. There was nothing; no emotion, no sound, no light, just peaceful silence. But, it didn’t last for long. A deep cracking sound resonated around her, and chinks of light came in through the breaks. She could also hear the shouting of distant voices, and suddenly, she was free.

The stone fell away from her like the chrysalis when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. She even felt different, like a new person. A heavy weight crashed into her, interrupting her thoughts, and she realized her father was hugging her.

“I told you not to touch it, Lily,” but the edge in his tone was lost in his desperate hug.

Her soulmates also reacted strongly; she could feel the aftermath of their fear and the relief that followed. Lily briefly wondered how long she’d been under but brushed the thought away. She hadn’t died, and that was the important part.

Her father released her, his hazel eyes scanning her worriedly.

“I’m fine, dad,” she said, which was true. A little shaken, but fine.

He turned to the rest of the archaeologists, “we’re getting out of here. Be careful packing up, and don’t touch the crystal.”

Although, at this point, the said object had lost its glow and looked like a regular, harmless gem. Dr. Maywell’s order was authorized by one of the leaders, and tools were quickly gathered. Everyone knew that they weren’t equipped to deal with something like this.

During the following days, it seemed to Lily like nothing had changed about her, but she knew something was off. As she helped take down tents and transfer materials, she thought about what happened, but she didn’t have any plausible explanations, except that maybe the Stone Curse wasn’t as mythical as people thought. Her soulmates remained a constant presence during the time as well, almost wanting to be reassured that she wasn’t going anywhere.

On the last day, as they cleaned up the remaining tools, Lily was able to find out exactly what happened. They had been almost finished packing when the first sounds of gunfire could be heard. Immediately, those who weren’t Argentinian (which wasn’t many) began to panic, while those who were quickly headed for the cars.

“Get in the car, Lily,” her father ordered.

His daughter stared at him in shock, “what, and just leave you out here? You’re just as equipped to deal with this as I am!”

“Yes, but you’re a child. Get in the car,” he repeated.

Lily made to do as he asked, heading out of sight before doubling back and hiding beside one of the vehicles while some of the group members had uncovered the guns they had packed and returned fire. The teen watched the sudden skirmish erupt around her, eyes wide. What happened next was a blur, and when she thought about it, she didn’t know why she had done it, just that she had.

The young man who had found the crystal was shooting at the opposing group, and he was clearly inexperienced. Heck, all of them were; they didn’t need to use guns as part of the jobs, everything they worked with was already dead; they only had the guns for emergencies (like this one.)

But the other group didn’t seem to care about that and continued their assault, seeming to come from all sides. The man clearly wasn’t paying attention to the fact that he could get hurt and didn’t see the bullet coming for him. Lily did, although she didn’t know how, and jumped into action before thinking it through all the way.

Putting on an extra spurt of speed, she raced in front of him just as the bullet made contact with her skin, the forcing causing them to fall backward towards the truck. The man righted her quickly, the only thought in Lily’s mind was holy shit, I almost died again.

She felt the area around where the bullet was supposed to have gone through and realized there wasn’t even a scratch on her. The man was asking rapid-fire questions, most of which she didn’t hear, as she stared at the unharmed spot; there wasn’t even a bruise.

Chapter Text

Upon their return to the States, Lily and her father learned that the skirmish had been a part of the remains of the Dirty War. Apparently, even though the government had sanctioned their excavation, not all the local groups were happy with non-Argentinians joining the dig. On her part, Lily’s mother had been rather calm about the whole situation as they relayed the story back to her (Lily attributed this to her nursing job and her father’s past experiences.)

The teen also hadn’t forgotten what happened with the bullet, although she had yet to reveal this to her parents. Her father would certainly be mad at her for being reckless, and she didn’t know how they’d react to her new… ability, for that’s what she decided to call it. She wasn’t sure what it was, although it definitely had to do with being covered in stone.  

However, it didn’t seem like she had a choice in when they found out, since a few days after their return, she came downstairs to the sound of a heavily-accented Argentinian voice.

“Ah, Miss Maywell, it is a pleasure to see you again!” Dr. Castillo greeted her, surprisingly enthusiastic.

During their time at the dig, she learned that the doctor was rather soft-spoken, but often correct in his opinions. His new energy was a bit disconcerting, especially seeing him in the familiar environment of their kitchen.

“Hello Dr. Castillo,” she replied slightly warily.

“I was just talking with your parents about what happened during our summer. Of course, your father was there, but I wanted to make sure your mother knew as well.”

“Knew what?” Lily questioned, although she had a niggling feeling as to what it was.

“Well, I wanted to wait until you had joined us to completely explain it, but I it’s about the Stone Curse,” Dr. Castillo explained.

“I thought you didn’t believe in it?”

The Argentinian chuckled slightly, “I never said that, Miss Maywell. I just said it was a myth, which it is to most people. You and I are a few of the people who have experienced it firsthand.”

The blonde girl looked at him, bewildered, “what do you mean?”

After glancing at her parents, who looked equally confused, the doctor explained, “the crystal Professor Torres found was one of many in various parts of the world. Of course, not all are buried in the ground, but they are little known to most people. If you had been anyone else, you may not be standing here right now.”

He paused a moment to let his words sink in.

“Wha- why-“ Lily tried to ask, having a hard time coming to terms with this information.

“Obviously, you remember what happened when you picked up the crystal. There is a relatively small percentage of people in our society that would as well, as we all share similar genes. Of course, the average human is 99.9% the same, but there are a select few who are, as we like to call ourselves, Inhumans.

Once they go through Terrigenesis, which was when you became covered in stone, they are given a special gift that separates them from the rest of the human race.  Their DNA is modified to access these gifts, and most live in an Inhuman society for a time to gain control of their abilities. Not everyone has the same length of stay, and no one is forced to live there.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lily interrupted, “are you saying I have magical powers?”

Her father seemed to find his voice, though it was a little shaky when he said, “magic isn’t real, Lils,” before turning to Dr. Castillo, “it can’t be, right?”

The doctor smiled slightly, “you’d be surprised at what is possible, Dr. Maywell. I haven’t come into contact with any, but it is not beyond the realm of disbelief. As for your question, Miss Maywell, your gift isn’t necessarily magic, but to some it can be perceived that way. Simply, it is just a change in your genetics.”

“Can you show me yours, Dr. Castillo?” Lily asked, assuming he was one of these… Inhumans, since he seemed to know so much about them.

He looked faintly surprised but nodded. After he seemed to do nothing at all, Lily started suddenly when she felt a wave of calm wash over her, silencing her whirling thoughts and allowing her to take a deep breath. At least, she was until the ever-constant presence of her soulmates’ emotions went fuzzy. As much as she tried to panic, her mind was too relaxed to do anything other than worry slightly. Then, as quickly as the feeling came, her thoughts sped up again and the rush of suppressed emotions returned.

The dark haired man said, “As you can see, my gift is the ability to calm someone down, and even change emotions,” taking in her startled expression, he continued, “I understand it may take some time to think this over, but I will leave my phone number with you in case you need to contact me. However, should you find your gift, ah, troublesome, it would be advisable to contact me sooner rather than later.”

With that, he scribbled his number on a piece of paper, stood up from the table, and headed towards the door, closing it quietly behind him, leaving the Maywells in rather shocked silence.

Surprisingly, her parents were rather accepting of this new situation; apparently, Dr. Castillo had used his abilities on them as well, without even so much as blinking. They had decided it would be best for her to learn about her gifts, and even allowed her to spend the last month of her summer at the Inhuman society. That was how Lily found herself traveling abroad for the second time, deboarding from a very military-style plane in a town with an undisclosed location.

“Welcome to Afterlife,” Dr. Castillo said as they set foot on the ground.

The Afterlife had a distinctly Asian feel to it and was nestled in the middle of a range of snow-capped mountains. There were quite a few more people moving about than she’d expected, although some were just sitting on porches enjoying the cool temperatures.

“Right this way, Miss Maywell,” the doctor continued, leading her down a main path towards a rather large building.

They stepped into the cool, dark interior which was decorated sparsely. The main foyer had a well-worn rug running down the length of the hallway but there was very little else. Dr. Castillo led the young blonde past several closed doors before stopping abruptly at the last one and knocking.

 Lily didn’t hear a sound of welcome, but her guide pushed the door open anyway into a much brighter office. Although, it wasn’t any office that she was used to; there weren’t any computers or modern technologies, and the back walls were lined with many books. Leafy green plants sat near the window, which overlooked the edge of the settlement before the plateau dropped off out of sight. An older Chinese woman sat an office desk, which was littered with papers and a few other items.

 Dr. Castillo greeted the older woman with a smile, “it is good to see you, Jiaying; I have been gone too long. With my return I bring a new Inhuman, one who has already entered the Mist and needs to be trained.”

Jiaying surveyed him for a moment, her dark eyes watching his movements carefully, “where is the Inhuman? I have not heard of one going through the Mist unassisted in quite a while.”

Lily stepped forward, saying, “It’s- uh, me. I’m Lily.”

The dark-haired woman switched her attention to the young girl, “where did this happen?”

Dr. Castillo answered for her, relaying their story. He even included the skirmish where she protected the young man, which she didn’t think anyone had seen. He finished by saying, “she will need guidance, which I will be happy to give her, since I have an idea of what her gift might be.”

Jiaying studied him for a moment longer before nodding, “I give you permission to train her.”

Taking that as their signal to leave, the doctor left the office with Lily trailing behind him as they made their way to where they would be staying.

“Is she always like that?” the teen asked.

“Pretty much, yes. Something happened to her in her youth, although no one speaks of it. She has a lot of people to care for and I imagine that can be difficult as well.”

When they arrived at their quarters, he said, “feel free to explore the area. You can’t really get lost, although I would advise you to stay nearby. Tomorrow we can call your parents and start your training.”

After that, he bid her good evening and retired to his room, leaving Lily to her own devices.

It took everything in her not to try and dodge the knife that was flying towards her, coming closer every second. Lily trusted Dr. Castillo (although maybe not this much), so she didn’t move from her spot about five feet away from him; he had also used his gift to numb her emotions for the first test, so she couldn’t have even if she wanted to. Finally, the knife hit it’s mark on her arm, but it bounced off harmlessly as if she was made of rubber.

They’d only just started training in a spare room about half an hour ago after making a phone call and reassuring her parents that she was alive and safe. The doctor had explained that he was ninety-nine percent sure that Lily was invincible due to what he had seen in Argentina, and to test his theory they’d have to put her slightly at risk. Using his powers helped, since she was pretty sure she wouldn’t have stood still long enough. It was a relief that he was correct.

After that, the doctor returned Lily to her normal state and became more experimental with what he threw at her, going even as far as using a gun. The teen was pretty sure her parents would freak out if they knew, but what they never found out wouldn’t hurt them. It didn’t hurt her, after all.

It seemed as if that was the extent of her powers, which admittedly were pretty awesome. Dr. Castillo had then moved on to teaching her combat skills, which usually only involved hand-to-hand, as she wasn’t comfortable using a gun. However, it seemed that she had more in her repertoire than just what was on the surface.

A few days later, the Argentinian had been shooting rapid fire at her, trying to get her to move more quickly in a combat situation. While the bullets wouldn’t hurt her, they did slow down her movement because of the speed they hit her with.

Their practice didn’t last long, though. Lily didn’t know why the person had decided to come into the room, but the door opened nevertheless, and the older woman started to step into their practice area. Bullets were still flying, and seeing the woman put herself at risk but being unable to move quickly enough from her spot, raised her hands and felt a pulse of energy leave them, a blue flash that expanded over the woman’s form and created a shield between her and the danger, effectively stopping her from entering the room.

Immediately, Dr. Castillo stopped firing, and put the gun down to look at his trainee in surprise. “Well, I guess that invincibility extends outward as well,” he said, seemingly unaffected by the danger the woman had nearly put herself in.

Lily stared at him, shocked that he didn’t seem to care about the other woman, who smiled slightly as the shield flickered out of existence, “I have seen a lot in my days, Miss Maywell. Walking into danger is the least of my worries.”

Dr. Castillo smiled slightly at the woman, walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. He pulled away to introduce them, “Lily (he’d stopped calling her by her last name a few days ago), I’d like you to meet my wife and soulmate, Mrs. Castillo. Julianna, this is the archaeologists’ daughter I’ve told you about, Lily.”

Julianna moved to shake the teen’s hand, who had a slightly stupefied look on her face; she had never thought Dr. Castillo would be married, much less about his soulmate status. While everyone had at least one, she just hadn’t thought very much about it.

“Michelle told me that you were here. I thought I’d come by and surprise you,” Dr. Castillo’s soulmate explained.

The Argentinian kissed her quickly before turning to Lily, “I think our training is done for today, but tomorrow, we’ll start working on this surprise shield ability you have.”

Lily nodded; seeing Dr. Castillo with his soulmate made her wish that hers were there, too. She didn’t feel much like training after that.

Chapter Text

Gun shots rang through the dusty valley where the archeologists had been focused on the dig, minding their own business. Lily could see people running around and meeting the opposing group in combat, their cries and yells nearly drowned out by the other noise. Dust was kicked up by the many moving feet, and she could see bright, red blood showing starkly against the golden sand. Her instincts were insisting that she move or act or do something, but she couldn’t. As much as she tried, her feet seemed to be cemented to the ground; when she looked, she saw the bumpy, grey stone holding her in place. Immediately, she knew it was part of the Inhuman change.

No matter how much she struggled, Lily was unable to free herself from the confinement and was forced to watch faceless people get hurt without being able to do anything to help. Suddenly, the fight seemed to fade in the background as two unknown opposers got ahold of the archaeologists. But, she knew they weren’t part of the group; she didn’t know how, since she couldn’t see their faces, but Lily knew that they were her soulmates. The opposing group’s arms were around their necks, holding them in place. The teen could hear her soulmate’s cries for help but was powerless to stop them; she couldn’t even move her arms to erect a shield. Two simultaneous gun shots rang through the now-still air, and she felt warm blood splatter on her. She opened her mouth in a soundless scream-

Lily jerked awake, jolting upright in her bed. She was covered with sweat, and her head was spinning. After she regained control of her breathing and calmed down slightly, reassured by the dark stillness of her room, she noticed that her soulmates had woken up, probably due to her nightmare, and were trying to comfort her, sending waves of warmth which helped relax her better than any other method she could’ve tried (although she did feel guilty for disturbing their sleep.)

It was the first time she’d ever had a nightmare like that, and she was surprised that it had taken so long for the events to catch up to her. Although the teen could attribute it to the business of the last months of summer, with all of the intense training Dr. Castillo had her do. Right before she had to leave, the Argentinian had taken her- clearly begrudgingly, since he complained about its existence the whole time- to yet another undisclosed location (he’d said something about it belonging to an organization called armor or something) and had her register on the Index, which he claimed was to keep track of Inhumans, but the organization said that it was for their “safety.”

Lily’s return home three days before school started was the first time she’d had a break, and it seemed that was all that was needed for her mind to catch up to her. She knew she should probably talk to someone about what she’d dreamed about, but after the whole fiasco with her new ability, she didn’t want to trouble her parents anymore, so she kept the matter to herself (and her soulmates.)

Even as she walked into her first class, the fifteen year old didn’t feel a hint of nervousness. Well, perhaps a bit because she didn’t know how she’d react if someone found out about her abilities, but not because of the new stage of life she was starting. Lily attributed this to her activities over the summer as well as her slight sleep deprivation due to the consecutive nightmares she’d had.

But, as she opened the door to her first period class, she had a whole different emotion wash over her: excitement. Not many people would enjoy math at eight AM, but a familiar face greeted her in the sea of strangers- and an empty desk next to the brunette.

“Lydia?!” Lily exclaimed, excitedly.

The said girl looked up from where she’d been doodling in her notebook, her hazel eyes widening as she saw her friend, “Lily! I can’t believe you’re here! Wait- what are you doing here? Sit here!” she said the last words patting the desk next to hers.

The blonde weaved her way quickly through the rows, attracting some stares from their interaction, but most of the students were dead to the world. As she sat down, she said, “my parents moved here in the summer so we wouldn’t have a three hour commute to school, and so my mom could pick up her nursing again. I completely forgot you lived in Silver Springs!”

Both girls beamed at each other, finding a new reason to be excited about high school.

 The rest of the year passed without much trouble (not including her disturbed sleep) as the two teens enjoyed being friends in a way they couldn’t before. In the summer, Lily returned to Afterlife to further hone her skills. Of course, Lydia wondered where her best friend went over the break, but the blonde’s vague answers clued her in to drop the subject.

Lily had made some new friends over the course of both her school year and summer. In her class, she and Dawn had quickly become friends, since her personality was much like Lydia’s (slightly popular, up-to-date with the activities of celebrities, not too uptight.) During the summer, there was Ruby, an Inhuman who seemingly had a need for speed and was very cheerful; and Blake, who was almost her complete opposite personality-wise (and her ability was that she could leave shadows of herself behind). While she didn’t know either girl very well yet, they had gotten along excellently during the summer.

It was about halfway through her Sophomore year, and Lily was pulling books out of her locker that she would need for her homework, since it was the end of the day. Most of the students had gone home, although a few lingered in the hallways either hanging out with their friends or waiting for a ride. She hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings, busy focusing on her task and singing under her breath And I need you now tonight, And I need you more than ever, And if you only hold me tight, We'll be holding on forever…  (since the song she was stuck in her head), so she didn’t notice when someone approached her until there was a throat-clearing cough.

The teen looked up from what she was doing to see a rather good-looking guy with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He smirked at her slightly, his eyes amused.

“Can I help you?” she asked, faintly irritated from being interrupted.

He paused for a moment before saying clearly, “come here often, gorgeous?”

Lily’s eyes widened, immediately understanding the importance of the words. No way, she thought, freaking out, she met her soulmate! Her pulse rose as she grew excited and her mouth dropped open slightly. She could hear laughter from across the hall, but it didn’t matter; she’d just freaking met her soulmate! She could feel her soulmates’ confusion through their bonds at her sudden surge of excitement, but that didn’t matter right now either.

It wasn’t until the guy- Jason?- started laughing that she was startled out of her daze.

“What?” she asked, her elation giving way to worry; was her soulmate crazy?- it didn’t matter of course, she’d still look after him, it was just a bit jarring.

Through his laughter, he exclaimed, “I can’t believe you think I’m your soulmate! I mean, I knew you’d be desperate, but I didn’t think that you’d believe just anyone who said that phrase. You should totally see your face right now!”

Lily felt her stomach turn when the realization hit her- it should have been obvious, of course. While not everyone found it desirable to wait until they met their soulmate (and subsequently dated around), there were some who did, and she was one of them. Sometimes, this was subject to teasing, name calling, or cruel jokes, especially if the person didn’t cover their soulmark (or had two), like her. Lily realized he must have read the words on her wrist and decided to have laugh. She glanced over at the group of students across the hall, figuring that was where the laughter had come from earlier.

Her happiness quickly dissolved into despair; she had long ago decided that she’d wait for her soulmates, but this time it made her wonder if she’d ever meet them. There were so many people in world what were the chances?  Feeling tears prick her eyes, Lily quickly slammed her locker closed and walked away, unwilling to let them have the satisfaction of seeing her run, their laughter following her down the hall.

 As soon as they were out of sight, she ran to an empty classroom, dropped her books on her desk, and dropped to the floor, burying her face in her hands. Loneliness and despair quickly overwhelmed her and she began to let out loud sobs. She really was never going to meet her soulmates. If she did, why would they even want her? She was a freak- who was invincible and could erect glowing blue shields? No one, that was the answer (well, except for her, hence the ‘freak’ part.) They would never want her, and she’d be all alone for the rest of her life- even worse, they’d want each other and-

The barrage of thoughts slowed as she felt the familiar warmth of love wash over her. Her brilliant, amazing soulmates were trying to make her feel better. They probably wouldn’t want to if they knew the truth, but they didn’t right now so she tried not to take it for granted.  

Life continued on in a similar pattern after that, although her soulmates seemed to check in more frequently since (what she termed) The Incident. While her nightmares lessened, sudden loud sounds made her jumpy and nervous. Her reactions had not gone unnoticed (or unquestioned), but she was reluctant to tell anyone, even her own parents, since she still felt like she shouldn’t bother them.

In her Senior year, Lily and Lydia decided to get a math tutor in order to prepare better for their final exams (since math wasn’t their strongest subject.) They were waiting in the school’s library at the appointed time, and Lydia was telling her about the latest celebrity news- apparently some singer, Paula Abdul, had gone way up the charts in the music industry*- when a friendly voice sounded next to them interrupting their conversation, saying “I’m Nate, what’s your name?”

He was staring at Lydia, who stared right back, a startled look on her face. Lily was instantly suspicious, remembering her own encounter, but when her friend answered, “I’m Lydia, you’re too hot to be a math tutor,” and Nate’s expression changed to one similar, Lily knew she didn’t have to worry.  

Chapter Text

1990

After they graduated High School, Lydia and Nate decided to stay in Saratoga for College, while Dawn had chosen to attend a school in Florida, since she claimed that she couldn’t take anymore of New York’s cold weather. Lily, on the other hand, wasn’t quite ready to leave home, but she did want to experience something new, and the best place to do that was right in the middle of New York, at New York University. While it was hard being away from her friends, they kept in touch with weekly phone calls.

Lily was currently working on her undergrad for an Archaeology degree and had been encouraged by one of her new friends to take an art class. She’d always been interested in trying something in the arts, especially art itself (since so many of her father’s archaeological digs had a degree of paintings in them), so she was easily persuaded to do so. This had turned out to be a good investment, since she was a quick study and taken to the medium with little difficulty.

She had elected to stay on campus for winter break, since her father had decided to take her mother on a year-long dig in Romania. Lily had chosen to use this time to take some winter classes to get ahead on her studies, since, with all things considered, she thought she was doing very well. Her grades were pretty good, her appreciation for art was strong, and she hadn’t had any problems with her ability, although there had been a close call revealing her invincibility in the cafeteria during a sloppy joe food fight (who knew College kids could act like five-year-olds?)

The twenty-one-year-old was currently sitting in her dorm room, which was shared with another girl, Rose, who wasn’t ashamed to party during the middle of the week, leading to her being absent most of the time. Lily’s portion of the room wasn’t decorated very much, except with a few pictures of her friends and family, and her comforter from home on her bed, which she was curled up in. Her pencil sketched lines along the paper without real meaning, Lily’s mind almost in a trance; it was one of the reasons why she enjoyed drawing: it was a great way to relax and escape college life for a little while.

As she curved her pencil on the paper, her hand suddenly jolted out of the smooth line, causing a jagged streak to mess up her paper. The blonde was abruptly pulled out of her daze, and her breathing shallowed as she felt tears prick her eyes- shock, she realized; not hers, her soulmates’. They were in shock, and she didn’t know how to help them. Lily desperately tried to calm the racing of her heart and get ahold of her own emotions, closed her eyes and focused on comforting them, as they had so many times for her. It was clear that her other soulmate was doing the same, as she could feel the after effect.

Her soulmate was upset and there was barely anything she could do to help, Lily thought, her urge to protect growing stronger, as well as her frustration at her inability to do anything. She didn’t know how long she sat there, trying to help them, but eventually the pain and sadness lessened; it never quite went away, but it went almost… numb, like they were turning off their emotions. Lily wanted to shake them and say that she was supposed to be helping them, and not to shut her out, but there was nothing she or her other soulmate could do.

The next morning, when she woke up, there was a distinctive lack of feeling coming from her right soulmark. She knew there was technology that could be placed over one’s words to cut off the connection (similar to the photosynthetic veil that would be invented) so neither soulmate could feel the link, and it would hide the mark.

Almost on cue, her phone rang as she was getting ready that morning, and Lydia’s voice greeted her, and she seemed to only be speaking in exclamation marks, “ohmigosh did you hear?! It’s all over the news this morning! Apparently the Starks- not Tony, but his parents- got killed in a car accident last night! I mean, who would’ve thought! Not a single person won’t know about this by tomorrow, that’s how famous they are! Everyone’s saying-”

Her voice continued to excitedly recreated what was known of the story (apparently the media was being surprisingly respectful), but Lily wasn’t listening anymore, something major happened last night, and at the same time, one of my soulmates wanted to stop being a part of my life… it can’t be a coincidence. Could Tony Stark really be her soulmate? It would be a far cry with little proof, and with what he was going through right now, she’d probably look insensitive anyway if she tried to claim anything.

Almost numbly, she interrupted her friend’s story, “hey- I’ll, um, call you later, okay? I need to get to class.”

“Oh- right, of course! There’ll probably be more news later anyway. Talk soon!” and there was the distinctive click of the call ending.

Lily was at a loss of what to do, with her (possible) soulmate so close, and yet so far. Her other soulmate had made sure she knew that their connection wouldn’t be affected, which made her feel better, but the emptiness inside of her from the loss of contact made it very hard for her not to demand an audience with Tony Stark right away to shake some sense into him.

2000

Lily jolted upright in her bed, breathing heavily. Once she took in her surroundings, she sighed, and buried her face in her hands. Ever since her soulmate- Tony Stark(?)- had blocked their connection, her nightmares had returned with a vengeance, probably because she couldn’t even feel if they-he- was at least okay anymore, and it worried her far more than she cared to admit.

Over the past ten years, she’d tried not to focus on it, and instead completed her Undergraduate and Doctorate degree in Archaeology. She’d travelled abroad for two semesters to Italy and Egypt, both of which were amazing experiences. Unfortunately, over the years, she and Lydia had grown distant; they were still good friends, but due to their different lifestyles (the brunette had settled down after college, gotten married, and had a kid with another one on the way), they didn’t have much time to spend with each other anymore.

Slowly, the blonde swung her legs over the side of her bed and began to get ready for her first class. While it wasn’t her class to prepare for, her students wouldn’t appreciate her being late (well, from her experience, they would- it was the faculty she had to worry about.) While in the undergrad program, she’d also decided to get a teaching certificate, since what she’d said to her father was true; field work wasn’t exactly her forte.

Lily rushed into class a few minutes late, noting that her students had already gotten prepared for class great, she thought, what a way to make a first impression.

After taking a moment to collect herself, she turned to address her class, “Hello everyone. Sorry I’m late- traffic…” she noticed one of her students raising their hand, “yes, Ms…”

“Boyle, Professor-“

“It’s Doctor, actually.”

“Right,” Sarah Boyle continued, “Dr. Maywell, you didn’t assign us any textbook.”

Lily smirked, so she must be one of the know-it-alls, she thought, “Well Ms. Boyle, I did not make a mistake, if that’s what you’re implying; it’s just that, I’ve had first-hand experience with archaeology and realized it’s not something you can learn from a textbook.”

There was a murmur of interest in the room, causing her to laugh, “yes, yes, I know everyone is very disappointed, but don’t worry, there will be plenty to do throughout the semester. There is quite a bit of archaeology to do right here in New York, and we will be travelling to some Native American sites to gain some hands-on experience, as I’m sure you’ve read in the syllabus, Ms. Boyle.”

The young woman flushed slightly at being called out, “yes, ma’am.”

The blonde smiled slightly before starting her lecture, which she thought wasn’t half bad; only two of her students actually fell asleep, to her amusement.

2008

Lily really considered herself lucky that she hadn’t been teaching when it happened; she’d been home, just hanging up the phone with her mom when she felt it. The soulmark belonging to her soulmate on her left had been anxious and excited all day, which at first she’d been happy with, glad that her soulmate was having a good day (or so she assumed.) She didn’t know what triggered it, but suddenly pain laced up her arm like she hadn’t felt in a long time (thank you, invincibility.)

The blonde gasped, clutching her wrist as she was driven to her knees with not pain, she realized, anger. Uncontrollable rage. It swept through her like a tidal wave, clouding her senses so that all she could feel was the need to… smash? Lily wasn’t sure what that meant, but she couldn’t focus on anything, except for desperately trying to calm her heart, which was pounding in her chest. Her eyes were blurry with tears from both the strong emotion and fear, for soulmate, for herself, for not knowing. She forced herself to concentrate on the cold kitchen tile beneath her, cooling the hot rage that rushed through her.

After some time had passed- she didn’t know how much- Lily realized her breathing had evened out, and all she felt was fuzziness. Her soulmate must have passed out, she realized, since the feeling was much different than the numbness that she felt on her right. Her heart clenched at the thought of her soulmate in such uncontainable fury- what even caused that? If it happened to them, she’d be out for blood if she knew who to fight, but if it happened to be them, she longed to be there to protect whoever they were and have them know that she was there for them. At this time, though, the best she could do was make sure they knew she wasn’t going anywhere, even if it happened more than once.

When they woke up a few hours later, she felt the aftereffects of rage, lessened by the confusion and fear, and she did her best to reassure them that she was still there, despite whatever may have happened. And, because she didn’t often catch up on the news, she had no idea that a research project at a University went awry, creating an uncontrollable rage monster in an unsuspecting Dr. Banner.

Chapter Text

2011

In the recent weeks, NYU had been a hubbub of activity. The students were excited because their commencement speaker at graduation would be Tony Stark, for, even if he was someone of dubious reputation, he was still (as part of his introduction), a genius and philanthropist. Many of the faculty had a hard time reigning in their classes, and threats of needing to study for finals fell on (mostly) deaf ears. Lily, on her part, managed to keep her students in line due to the fact that most could sense her irritation- because of her mounting anxiety- and therefore knew not to cross her. How was she supposed to feel when her (possible) soulmate was about to be closer to her than ever before, and yet the distance between them had grown exponentially?

When May 18^th arrived, the school’s excitement had reached an all-time high, because not only was Tony Stark coming to speak, but the President* had confirmed an appearance as well. The enthusiasm in the Stadium was on the verge of chaotic, surprisingly so for such a solemn occasion. By the time the ceremony was about to start, most of the staff were glad that it would just be over. During the ceremony, Lily’s stomach was in a knot of nervous excitement and she found it hard to pay attention to most of the event; she was glad that her last name afforded her a more back-seat location so no one noticed. When it came time for Tony Starks’ speech, loud applause (with a few were daring enough to stand up) greeted his appearance.

By this point, Lily’s senses had focused solely on her soulmate(?). He seemed surprisingly… calm? No, not quite. Perhaps responsible? She wasn’t sure what the word was, but it didn’t really matter; she didn’t take in much of what he was saying, anyway. The blonde studied his appearance critically, almost with an artists’ eye, as she took in his curly brown hair, thin frame, and olive skin. She couldn’t see much of his facial features from where she sat but knew from the few pictures she’d seen that he had brown eyes and often sported a cocky smirk.

She was pulled out of her concentration when Stephanie Orwell, a fellow Social Sciences teacher, leaned closer to her, “I know he’s hot, but maybe you want to tone it down before someone else notices,” the woman whispered, grinning.

Lily blushed and forced her eyes to look somewhere else than Tony Stark.

2012

Nearly a year after seeing Tony Stark in public for the first time, Lily was no closer to figuring out who her soulmates truly were. One remained distant and detached, their bond fuzzy and broken, while the other experienced concerning flashes of intense anger, although nowhere near as powerful as he had a few years ago.

They used to be so close, and whenever she thought about their growing separation, it made the ache in her chest worsen every time the thoughts crossed her mind. During this time, Lily focused on her teaching and not about the mess that was related to her soulmates. As much as she longed to meet them, their lives had taken so many unexpected turns that she had dropped the childhood fantasy of meeting them unexpectedly; by this point, she was pretty sure they’d be disappointed if they were to ever meet.

By May, most teachers were relieved to have a break from their jobs, Lily included. She had decided to celebrate her freedom by going out with Lydia and catching up on everything she’d missed during the school year. The two women often did this, as both were busy during the fall and winter months with barely any free time. Lydia’s first child, Rose, was twelve, and her two sons were six and four, meaning she spent most of her time hopping from one child’s activity to another. Most of these evenings were spent with Lydia eagerly sharing the “mom’s gossip” she heard amongst the play groups and encouraging Lily to “try and get a life,” while the said woman deflected most romance-related questions and happily listened to her friend’s gushing.

By the end of their time together, Lily left the (third) bar feeling happy and content, ready to spend a summer walking around NYC and spending time with her friends, ending with revising her teaching plans for the next year. So, when she returned to her apartment with this in mind, she was understandably startled when she flicked the lights on to find a an old friend standing in her living room, facing her window.

The blonde woman stood frozen in place as the Argentinian man turned around, “good evening, Ms. Maywell.”

The woman blinked, and on reflex answered, “it’s doctor, actually.”

He smirked, “apologies, Dr. Maywell,” and then, almost conversationally, “you really should have locks on your windows.”

Lily slowly entered her living room, “I live on the second floor.”

The dark-haired man shrugged, “rapists can climb.”

“Not to be rude, but Dr. Castillo, what are you doing here?”

“One of my friends has requested my help. We have much to discuss and very little time. Tell me, do you remember our trip to SHIELD?”

The blonde gave a jerky nod, a memory coming to light, “that was the place where you said the Index was for our safety?”  

“Yes. You may also remember my mistrust for them, but I have inside connections that are more reliable than others, and our current situation relies on putting this disagreement aside.”

Confusion turned her expression into one of puzzlement, “current situation, Dr. Castillo?”

The older man sighed, looking suddenly tired as his dark brown eyes met her blue ones, “we are at war, Lily, with forces beyond the extraordinary.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lily said through her mic. They were currently in a helicopter on their way to Stuttgart, Germany to face a freaking Norse god- it was a lot to take in, “so we just have to get the glowing blue thingy away from him? What’s with the rest of the background info?”

Dr. Castillo, who was sitting across from her, answered, “background information is always important to have when dealing with these things. I’d give you more, but we don’t have time to talk about it. You’ll be joined by established superheroes which, while they’re experienced fighters, will be your duty to protect. We may need them in a second wave and can’t risk them getting injured- understood?”

The blonde woman nodded when their eyes met. Her head was still spinning with information on the Tesseract, because apparently more than just Inhuman magic existed. She’d looked over the electronic files as the helicopter had left America and most of it seemed unbelievable, except that it was actually happening. Thor- Loki’s brother, apparently- had made his appearance a few years ago, making myth come to life, which helped decrease the incredulity of the whole situation.

“Good,” the Argentinian man said as he checked his watch, “we should be there in record time- one of the few things SHIELD is good at is efficiency. We should be there in five hours.”

Lily looked down on the bright lights of the city, preparing herself for her first combative fight. While she’d learned her techniques from the man across from her, she’d never actually had to put them into practice; luckily, her invincibility would help make up for any mistakes she would make.

As the helicopter lowered, the said man looked to her for confirmation, “ready to go, Lily?”

Despite the nerves coiling in her stomach, the blonde woman gave a firm nod, “ready to roll, Dr.,” she unbuckled her fastenings and carefully made her way to the door despite the buffeting wind, “wish me luck.”

He smirked, “you’ll need more than luck.”

Rolling her eyes, the blonde took a deep breath and jumped from the helicopter. There was a brief moment of wonderful weightlessness as she plummeted to the ground before the impact hit. She landed in the “superhero pose” that she’d seen so often in movies and felt a thrill of joy, yes- nailed it!

As she stood, she took in the people kneeling before a man in a horned helmet- but he wasn’t alone. A very familiar figure was squaring up to him, and Lily heard the end of what he was saying, “- we ended up disagreeing.”

She didn’t allow herself to freak out that Captain America was standing in front of her- she’d get to do that later- instead, she watched as Loki steadied himself, saying, “the soldier, the man out of time.”

“I’m not the one who’s out of time,” the opposing man answered.

At the sound of jet engines, Lily looked up to see another SHIELD plane with a woman’s voice issuing from it, “Loki, drop the weapon. Stand down.”

Obviously, he wasn’t going to obey.

Instead, he used his staff to shoot blue light at the plane, causing the kneeling people to scramble up and run in panic. Lily watched as Captain America rushed towards the Asgardian, causing her to roll her eyes. The superhero may be strong, but he wasn’t invincible, which was proven as the god easily threw him off. There wasn’t even much of a fight as Loki quickly lodged his staff against the other man’s helmet, prompting Lily into action- she didn’t even need to think as she charged towards the caped man, calling out, “hey, asshole!”

Loki turned around, his target momentarily forgotten. Lily knew how she must look- an easy victim, a civilian, not even wearing any armor, face completely unmasked. The dark-haired Asgardian looked disturbingly pleased as he met her head on, swinging his staff towards her body. The blonde turned quickly, making sure it didn’t touch her, not wanting to reveal her secret weapon too soon. Instead, she danced around him, her smaller, quicker, unencumbered frame easily escaping his (rather clumsy) swings.

It was probably the adrenaline talking as she let out an amused laugh, “I can do this all day, Rudolph.”

Clearly, he didn’t like that, as he lunged at her with renewed anger. Captain America recovered and intercepted the attack, glancing at the seemingly defenseless blonde woman, “get to safety!” he ordered.

Lily smirked, “and miss the party, Captain? I don’t think so.”

With almost perfect timing, loud music issued from the PA system of the plane followed by a jet stream of bright light as Iron Man flew into view, easily hitting the horned Asgardian in a double blast that caused him to fly backward. Lily calmly walked towards the red-and-gold hero despite her renewed nervousness (because, after all, Tony Stark was behind that mask) and readied herself in a defensive position as Captain America joined them.

“Make a move, Reindeer Games,” Iron Man threatened, holding his arms out.

The god’s horned illusion slowly fell away as he held up his hands in surrender. Lily didn’t believe the gesture for a single second; Dr. Castillo had said this man was the God of Mischief and Lies, after all, but no one asked for her opinion, so she kept quiet.

Chapter Text

Being stuck on a jet plane with a psycho criminal, Captain America, a woman who could probably kill you with a single look, and the man Lily assumed was her soulmate was not as cool as it sounded. There was a tense air about the ship as their captive refused to say a word, the only sound being the woman reporting back to what was presumably home base. It was only when the air was completely stifling that someone tried to break the tension.

Iron Man had (unfortunately) decided to sit across from Lily, who was doing everything she could to avoid his gaze until seemed to relax and gave her a flirty half-smile despite their situation, “come here often, gorgeous?” he asked.

Lily startled, looking around quickly to make sure there wasn’t another person the question could be directed towards. When it was determined that there wasn’t, her pulse skyrocketed as blood pounded in her ears. She’d hoped, of course, and guessed, but now that the words were actually said, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind. The blonde desperately tried to control her increasing excitement because it certainly wouldn’t do to look like a crazy fangirl in front of her soulmate, and answered as calmly as possibly, “actually, no. I wish we had time to go sightseeing.”

The man across from her smirked, “maybe I can take you back there sometime, show you around.”

Lily watched his reaction closely, knowing he was the one who’d cut off their connection. When there was no visible reaction to her words, her excitement took a drastic turn and plummeted towards disappointment. The blonde closed her eyes quickly, trying to prevent the prickling sensation behind her eyes from becoming worse. She gave a little nod and, while keeping her eyes closed, she answered in a much softer tone, “maybe.”

She felt a slight shift as Iron Man stood up to talk to Captain America, but she tuned out their conversation in favor of wrestling with her emotions. She’d expected it, of course, that if her guess was correct, this particular soulmate wouldn’t want her, but being in the actual situation was so much worse  than anything she could’ve done to prepare for it. It was crushing to know that her other third didn’t so much as give her the time of day, except to use the same motions he would on any other woman he tried to pick up. She’d dreamed of meeting her soulmates her entire life, and while there was still one left to go, Lily was now dreading the meeting- she didn’t think she could handle this rejection twice.

A loud rumble of thunder broke her from her spiraling thoughts as a flash of lightning lit up the cabin, “where’s this coming from?” the red-haired woman asked.

Lily opened her eyes, her attention drawing to their captive as he looked discomforted. She wasn’t the only one who noticed as the Captain asked, “what’s the matter, scared of a little lightning?”

The dark-haired man’s eyes flicked towards the windows as he answered, “I’m not overly fond of what follows it.”

A second later, Lily jolted in her seat as a heavy thump came from outside. Iron Man slid his helmet on, opening the door to the plane, and a man suddenly appeared from seemingly nowhere, wearing a long, red cape similar to Loki’s green one. Thor was Lily’s first thought- it had to be, they had the same medieval dress and the blond man looked incredibly annoyed. He didn’t even give Iron man a second thought as he casually flung the hero out of the way in favor of going for his brother. Before Lily or Captain America could stop him, both were gone. The blonde pushed down her negative thoughts about her less-than desirable soulmate meeting; there was work to do. She could wallow in her sadness later.

It didn’t take long for Iron Man to right himself, heading towards the open end of the plane as he did so, “and now there’s another guy.”

“Another Asgardian?” the woman called from the cockpit.

“Do you think he’s friendly?” Captain America asked.

“Doesn’t matter, if he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost,” Iron Man replied, turning towards the opening.

“Stark!” the blond hero called after him, “we need a plan of attack!”

Without looking back, he answered, “I have a plan- attack,” as he jumped out of the plane.

Lily sighed. She knew she was probably unwelcome in the big-shot superhero conference, but that didn’t stop her from trying to prevent the damage two literal gods could do. What did Tony think he was going to do anyway against someone like Thor? Had his briefing not included watching the fight that had happened in New Mexico?

She watched as Captain America suited up, exchanging a few words with the woman pilot. She let out another long-suffering sigh, the thought occurring to her that she should probably ask for payment when this was over. She would need compensation if her charges were two over-confident superheroes. Lily pinched the bridge of her nose as the Captain leapt out of the plane, saying in a pained breath, “what. An. Idiot.”

The woman glanced back at her words, “you’re not planning on following them, are you?”

Lily shrugged, “what other choice do I have?” she asked, before taking a flying leap.

I should really add jumping out of planes my new hobby, she thought as she fell through the flashing lightning. Landing on the forest floor with a wet thump, she took a moment to orient herself before her ears caught onto the sound of clashing metal. Despite the fact that it could be barely heard over the thunder, she picked up her pace to run towards the sound, her pulse starting to race again. Even if she was already fed up with the thoughtlessness of the superheroes, even if Tony Stark didn’t give two shits about her, he was still her soulmate and her stomach turned itself in knots at the thought of something bad happening to him that she could’ve prevented.

The trees around her blurred as she ran, whether it be from her speed or from her emotions, she couldn’t tell, but soon the landscape turned into broken branches and felled trees, getting closer, she thought- and then, she burst into the clearing where the two men were fighting. They were in an arm lock as she stumbled upon them, Thor twisting Iron Man’s arm in an attempt to free himself. A bright beam of light shot from the suit throwing the god off balance. Thor threw himself headfirst towards his opponent as Iron Man copied the gesture, both men evenly matched until the god was thrown backwards.

Lily saw her opportunity, running into the clearing, “stop!” she cried, placing herself between them, “this isn’t what’s important!”

“I’d stay out of this one, Blondie. Let the grown-ups play,” Iron Man countered, attempting to edge around her.

Lily wasn’t fooled, “I’m questioning who the grown-ups actually are when all the superheroes are acting like testosterone-filled five-year olds,” she snapped back, “do you realize who this is?”

Thor righted himself, holding his hand out for his hammer, “listen to the lady, Metal Man. This is beyond you.”

Well, Lily thought, that certainly won’t go over well. She was right, of course- Iron Man shoved her to the side with noticeably less force than he was capable of before throwing himself back at the god. The blonde’s shoulders slumped. Clearly, they wouldn’t listen to her unless she put on some kind of equally impressive power show. Luckily she had planned for something like this.

As the two men threw themselves around, Lily braced herself for another opening. Thor had dropped his hammer in favor of slamming Iron Man on the ground, and he held his hand up again to summon it. Lily darted between them, holding her hands up protectively, “c’mon, man you don’t want to do this.”

“I don’t,” he agreed, before unknowingly echoing her words from before “but what choice do I have?”

Lily heard it before it happened. Thor brought his hammer whistling down- he’d given her enough chances, after all, and apparently the stubborn woman wasn’t giving up without a fight- but a flash of blue lit up as he finished his swing, sparks flying off of the sudden shield as the woman grunted from the force of impact. Lily shut her eyes, crossing her arms more tightly in an effort to strengthen her projection, turning it a deeper blue. As Thor’s hammer came down again with rattling force, she faintly heard Tony exclaim, “what the hell, Blondie?”

The third impact caused her feet to slide slightly as Iron Man stood up, eyes wide behind his mask, “what is this, the X-Men?”

Lily winced, “that would be X-Woman to you, Mr. Stark,” her concentration wavered as she addressed Tony by (admittedly last) name.

There was a loud crack! as her shield finally failed, and the force of Thor’s hammer throw caused her to fly backward. Lily groaned as the full weight of the weapon hit her in the stomach and her short flight backwards ended with her hitting a tree. Unable to move because of the hammer pinning her down, the blonde slumped, exhausted.

“Shit!” was the expletive that left Iron Man’s mouth as he used his suit to fly towards the woman. Direct impact from the hammer couldn’t be good for human vitals, “give me her stats, Jarv,” he commanded.

Lily didn’t hear the response, obviously, as it came from inside the man’s suit, but she could see his reaction to whatever the AI was saying, and it was very confusing. He seemed to relax slightly before tensing up again, “that’s not possible, Jarvis. No- no, stop,” he said the last part in what could be classified as a snarl.

Before she could ask, Captain America finally decided to show up, drawing both men’s attention away from her, “now I don’t know what you plan on doing here-“

“I’ve come here to put an end to Loki’s schemes,” Thor interrupted angrily.

“Then prove it. Remove your hammer from that woman,” he pointed to where Lily was stilled pinned against the tree.

Thor raised his hand and the hammer flew away from her, causing the blonde to sigh in relief. While she was invincible, it still felt like being hit by ten buses at once- meaning, it was very uncomfortable.

“Good,” Captain America said, “now put the hammer down.”

“Uh- that’s not very good,” Iron Man put in, “he loves his hammer-“

His point was proven by Thor yelling, “YOU WANT ME TO PUT MY HAMMER DOWN?” before he flew towards the Captain.

There was a bright flash of light as Thor’s hammer connected to Captain America’s shield, felling all of the trees in the area. Lily winced as she sat up, less affected by the blast of energy as the other men were. When all four were standing, Captain America looked around at the group, “are we done here?”

Chapter Text

Lily shifted impatiently on the medical table as SHIELD’s staff checked to make sure she was really okay. Tony- who’d taken off his suit- was hovering nearby and it was setting the blonde woman on edge. As the fourth nurse tried to puncture her arm with a needle, Lily gently pushed it away, “really, I told you, I’m fine.”

“We just want to be sure, Blondie,” Tony answered, his brown eyes surprisingly concerned, “a human shouldn’t have been able to take a hit like that and walk away from it.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, “and why do you care, again?” she asked testily, her protective defenses taking over, “I seem to recall you charging directly into battle against a god.”

The man winced slightly, “uh- yeah, shortsightedness on my part. I should’ve had Jarv calculate for the damage. Anyway, Blondie-“

“My name is Lily,” she interrupted.

The brunet paused, his eyes finally meeting hers for a split second before darting away, “right. Anyway, Blondie- this isn’t about me, for once. You might want to enjoy the spotlight while you can. I don’t even know why you’re here. We can protect ourselves just fine.”

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a disbelieving look, “right. Having an egotistical metal man, grandpa superhero, God of Lightning, spy woman and a giant, smashing Hulk in a flying vessel is a great idea. There’s absolutely no way for this to go wrong,” her nerves were definitely making her snappy. Who could blame her, though, when her mind was just beginning to accept the enormity of the situation?

“Whoa, whoa, whoa- slow down there, Blondie. That’s unnecessarily offensive to my suit. Jarvis is pretty much sentient.”

Lily opened her mouth to argue back but was interrupted by Dr. Castillo’s appearance. The Argentinian man looked grim as he surveyed them, “are you cleared yet, Dr. Maywell? We’re waiting for you.”

The blonde woman glanced at the closest nurse who gave her a reluctant nod. Their needles were pointless against her anyway. Lily slipped off the table and fell in next to Dr. Castillo, wanting to avoid contact with Tony as much as possible. The dark-haired man glanced at her, able to feel her roiling emotions, “are you ready?”

Lily knew the double meaning behind his words. If she gave any sort of negative answer, he would use his power to help clear her feelings. On the other side, he was also asking if she was ready to formally meet the world’s known superheroes. She took a deep breath before nodding, “as ready as I’ll ever be.”

As they walked into the main area of the ship, Lily’s eyes fell on the superheroes sitting around the conference table. The man in the purple shirt was currently talking, “iridium, what do they need iridium for?”

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” Tony’s confident voice came from behind her. As Dr. Castillo left them, he continued, “it means the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD,” as he walked by Thor, he acknowledged him, “no hard feelings, Point Break. You have a mean swing.”

“Tell me about it,” Lily grumbled, placing a hand on her stomach.

The red-caped god at least looked slightly sympathetic, “I’m sorry, My Lady- that hit was not intended for you. Are you healing well?”

She gave Thor a little smile, surprised by his apology, “uh- yeah. Didn’t leave a scratch.”

Tony glanced at her, “you done, Blondie? Good- it also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants,” he continued, going back to their original conversation.

As he turned to look at the control room, he gave the workers and amused look, “that man is playing Galaga!” he sounded unnecessarily smug, “thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did,” he glanced at the nearest control panels, “how does Fury even see these?”

“He turns,” a woman answered, clearly annoyed.

“The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source. High-energy density, something to kick-start the cube.”

Lily’s mind flashed back to the power source that turned her Inhuman as the SHIELD woman asked, “when did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”

“Last night- Selvig’s notes, the packet. Am I the only one who did the reading?”

“You might be the only one who did the reading,” Lily answered, “but you’re not the only one who did the homework.”

Tony turned to her, “thank you! What’s your contribution?”

Lily grinned and tapped the side of her head, “fighting moves. Dr. Castillo had me watch clips of everyone’s combat skills- or lack thereof- for eight hours.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t help us,” Tony said dismissively, “anyone else?”

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Captain America asked.

“He’d have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the Coolum barrier,” the man in the purple shirt said.

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.”

“Well, if he could do that, he could achieve the heavy ion fusion of any reactor on the planet.”

“Finally!” Tony said, walking towards the other scientist, “someone who speaks English!”

 Lily raised her hand slightly, “is anyone else lost?”

Captain America nodded in agreement, “is that what just happened?”

Tony held his hand out, “it’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you loose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

Lily blinked, paying attention to the dark-haired man for the first time. The Hulk didn’t have much in the way of footage- she figured most of it had been crushed while he was smashing things- but she certainly hadn’t suspected the human who transformed into such a creature to be… so, well, good-looking. Not that she’d pictured him to be anything like the hunchback of Notre Dame, but still, as a light blush coated the man’s face and his eyes widened in surprise, she couldn’t help but breathe out, “oh no, he’s hot.”

Apparently, she hadn’t been quiet enough because Dr. Banner turned towards her, looking even more embarrassed as he said, “uh, thanks, I guess.”

They both froze at the same time, brown eyes meeting bright blue ones. Then Dr. Banner’s attention flicked towards Tony and back towards her, as if he was trying to process something, “wait… you’re- you’re,” he seemed to struggle to get the right words out, pointing between the man and woman, “you’re them!”

Lily relaxed slightly, her heart speeding up again, at least he’s not actively ignoring me. Tony looked between them, puzzled as he turned to the male doctor, “come on, big guy, speak English. You were just doing it a second ago.”

The dark-haired man’s eyes were wide as he breathed out, “you’re my soulmates.”

The blonde woman held her breath as she gave a nod, giving the man a little smile, “yeah, I am- and- and you’re mine.”

Tony had the complete opposite reaction. He was clearly trying to mask his panic as he shook his head fervently, “no, no, you’ve got it wrong. I’m not- I-“

His denial was ignored as Lily approached her soulmate, biting her lip nervously. She tentatively held out her hand, “I’m Lily.”

Dr. Banner’s shocked expression softened as he reached his hand out to greet her, “Bruce.”

When their hands met, Lily had to remind herself that breathing was important. She couldn’t look away from the man’s gentle expression as he looked at her for the first time, and she him. His hand was larger than hers as he grasped her fingers gently, and his skin was abnormally warm to touch. She could feel the roughness that she supposed came from medical work and as he pulled away, her grip suddenly tightened- she didn’t want to let go, at least not yet.

He seemed to accept that and stopped, but his expression grew wary as he seemed to remember something, “you know who- what- I am, then.”

Lily tensed at his darker tone but nodded, “I do,” now that they’d met, now that she was physically touching him, she could feel the lesser emotions that she hadn’t been able to sense through their bond before. She could feel that he was happy, which was a relief, but there was an underlying current of fear, which made the knots in her stomach tighten- her soulmate should never have to be afraid.

“Hey,” she said softly, causing his eyes to meet hers again, “it’s okay. You can’t hurt me, Bruce.”

His expression shadowed, “I know you want to believe that, but trust me when I say he doesn’t care about this sort of thing.”

Her soulmate gave her a concerned look as she smiled at his words, “then trust me when I say that I am invincible. It’s my superpower.”

Bruce blinked, glancing at Tony for confirmation. While the other man had been unusually quiet during the exchange, he gave a nod, “it’s true. I saw her take a direct hit from Thor’s hammer not two hours ago, and look- she’s fine.”

“You what?” he asked quietly, turning to look at the blonde woman.

Her eyes widened, “uh-“ she turned to Tony, hitting him on the arm, “why did you have to tell him that?” she snapped, causing him to grin and shrug as he held his hands up defensively, “hey, I’m on your side, Blondie.”

“It doesn’t seem-“ her sentence was cut off as Bruce turned to the offending god, “you threw your hammer at my soulmate?!”

Lily could feel the man’s anger rising, and while it was admittedly an attractive trait for him to fight a god for her, they certainly didn’t need the side effects. Stepping forward quickly, she gently patted his arm in a hopefully comforting manner, “hey- hey, Brucie it’s okay. Deep breaths- I’m fine, promise-“

Her soulmate closed his eyes and followed her suggestion, gently pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to calm his anger, “you’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry-“

She smiled softly at him, “it’s okay, really. I appreciate the gesture- I just… didn’t want things to get out of hand.”

He opened his eyes and gave her a grateful look as he turned to Thor, “that still doesn’t mean I’m cool with what you did.”

The god opened his mouth to defend himself but was interrupted by the arrival of Nick Fury, “Dr. Banner is only here to attract the cube,” he gave the soulmates a stern look from his good eye, “not to instigate a lover’s quarrel between my team. I was hoping you might join him,” the last part was clearly addressed to Tony.

“I’d start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it looks an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,” Captain America suggested.

Lily ducked her head, embarrassed. She’d forgotten they had an audience.

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube, and I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys?” Thor asked, “I do not understand.”

“I do,” Steve said, unusually happy, “I understand that reference.”

Between her two soulmates, Lily smirked, “he would, the grandpa,” even more pleased when Tony offered her a not-so-subtle underhand high-five that left her fingers tingling.

“Shall we play, doctors?” Tony asked, looking between Lily and Bruce.

Chapter Text

Loki’s staff sat propped up in one of the Helicarrier’s labs for convenient viewing. The gold, metal-like material was curved into a deadly point that housed a glowing blue light in the opening of the claw. Lily gave the staff a critical look. While she wasn’t an expert on the word-vomit title the SHIELD woman had thrown out, she was an archaeologist, and this staff was definitely older than the civilizations she studied.

The glowing blue light in the center was familiar, too, and her memory recalled a similar power that had whispered her name when she was younger. In an almost trance-like state, she stepped closer to it, reach her arm out towards the power- closer, she thought, just a little- her progress halted, her vision clearing as she focused on a lightly tanned hand gently gripping her wrist, “I don’t think so, Blondie,” Tony said sternly, “remember what happened the last time you touched a foreign object?”

While he looked amused, Lily could almost convince herself that there was unease, maybe fear in his tone, and briefly, she wondered how much her soulmates knew about what had happened to her, before brushing away the thought. She gave him a guilty look, “sorry- it’s a bad habit.”

The dark-haired man scoffed, “you make it a habit to touch potentially dangerous, otherworldly objects?”

She grinned, “yeah, didn’t you know that I’m attracted to shiny things?”

Tony rolled his eyes, “I swear you’re a walking hazard.”

“Hey,” Bruce spoke up, walking over to her. He gently placed his hands on her upper arms and guided her back until she was several feet away from the staff, “maybe it would be safer if you stood here?”

There was more obvious concern in his tone, causing Lily to cave and slump her shoulders in defeat, “fine,” she said, pouting slightly and crossing her arms, “I don’t get to have any fun.”

He gave her a little smile, “don’t worry, at least you get a front row seat, right?”

Her expression took a 180 as she smirked, letting her eyes drift downward, “yeah, I suppose I do get the best seat in the house.”

Bruce- as she’d suspected he would- blushed and ducked his head, turning back towards the matter at hand. Lily didn’t mind, though. He could pretend he didn’t like it all he wanted, but she could feel through their bonds how much he enjoyed it. Tony was wearing a similar expression as he glanced at her, and pointing a finger in her direction, said, “I’m definitely starting to like you.”

It was Lily’s turn to be embarrassed, but it didn’t stop her from being pleased with his appreciation. Bruce looked even more uncomfortable and slid his glasses on as a diversion, “can we please focus on the staff?”

Lily and Tony exchanged a glance, the latter sighing, “you ruin all the fun, Brucie.”

“The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig’s reports,” Bruce said, running the wand across the surface of the staff, “but it’s going to take weeks to process.”

Tony was concentrating on one of the monitors to Lily’s left, “if we bypass their mainframe and direct route to their homeware cluster we can clock this at around 600 teraflops.”

Bruce gave an exasperated sigh, “all I packed was a toothbrush.”

Lily grinned, “you beat me. I didn’t pack anything!”

Tony gave her an amused look, “you guys should come by Stark Tower sometime- top ten floors all R & D, you’d love it, it’s Candyland.”

“Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem,” Bruce said, glancing between the monitors.

The knots that had loosened in Lily’s stomach threatened to reform- Bruce wasn’t going to leave after this was done, was he? Lily squeezed her eyes shut; now wasn’t really the best time to think about after- there might not be an after if this went South. She shook her head to clear it, “yeah, but this time it will be different, right?” she winced at the obvious hope in her tone.

Both men looked at her and Bruce sighed, “maybe.”

“If it helps, I promise a stress-free environment,” Tony said, backing Lily up, “no action, no surprises,” he grinned at her as he sneakily tasered Bruce’s side.

The man yelped, turning sharply towards Tony, who didn’t even bother to look innocent, “nothing?”

Lily gave him a sharp look, “I can’t believe you called me the walking hazard. First you try and fight a god, and now you’re doing this?”

If Tony hadn’t blocked their connection, he would have felt her spike of fear at his action, because he wasn’t thinking. What if they annoyed Bruce so much he wouldn’t want to stay? And for what, Tony’s selfish desire to… to wake the giant rage monster? She sent a worried look to Bruce, who could sense her reaction, and was surprised to find him giving her a reassuring one in return.

Tony didn’t get a chance to defend himself as Captain America entered, “hey! Are you nuts? Listen to your woman,” he said, pointing to Lily.

“She’s not-“ Tony started to protest before he thought better of it, “he’s got it under control. Really, what’s your secret?”

“You can’t just do that!” Lily interrupted, “that’s like- that’s like waking the dragon, or something.”

“Game of Thrones fan, are you?” the man in question asked, “I really didn’t peg you for one-“

She glared at him, “stop deflecting! Geez, how does anything ever get done around here?”

Steve gave her an appreciative look, “is everything a joke to you?” he demanded.

“Funny thing-“ Tony started, pointing to the angry blonds.

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship, of your soulmates, isn’t funny.”

Tony’s expression darkened at the mentioned of his soulmates, and he opened his mouth to probably refute the claim, but Steve didn’t give him a chance as he added, “no offense, doc.”

“No, it’s alright, I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things,” Bruce reassured him.

Lily relaxed, knowing the danger had passed (for now), but clearly the conversation wasn’t over, “you’re tiptoeing, big man- you need to strut.”

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark,” Steve countered.

“You think I’m not? Why did Fury call us now? Why not before?” Tony questioned, “what isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

“You think Fury’s hiding something?”

“He’s the spy- his secrets have secrets.”

“That’s probably true,” Lily said, “Dr. Castillo doesn’t trust SHIELD- or the Index, for that matter.”

All three men turned to look at her, “the Index?” Steve asked.

“It’s what SHIELD uses to keep track of powered people,” Lily explained, “I’m on it. They say it’s for our safety, but Dr. Castillo thinks its so we can’t try anything.”

“See? It’s bugging him too, probably,” Tony said, looking towards Bruce, who seemed to want nothing to do with the conversation.

“Uhh… I just want to finish my work here, and-,” the dark-haired man said, waving his arms over the general area.

“Doctor?” Steve asked.

Bruce sighed, taking off his glasses, “a warm light for all mankind, Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube.”

“I heard it.”

“Well, I think that was meant for you,” he explained reluctantly, pointing towards Tony, “even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big, ugly, building in New York?” Tony gave Steve an injured look.

“It’s powered by an arc reactor, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?”

“That’s just a prototype,” Tony said proudly, “I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now.”

“So why didn’t SHIELD bring him in for the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

“I should probably look into that once my encryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files,” Tony acknowledged.

Steve and Lily gave him equally unimpressed looks, “dude!” she exclaimed, “seriously? That’s totally not what you’re supposed to be doing right now.”

Tony showed them the device he was using, ignoring Lily’s outburst, “Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has tried to hide,” he offered the bag of blueberries he’d been eating to them casually.

Steve ignored it, “yet you’re confused as to why they didn’t want you around.”

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence. Historically, not awesome.”

Lily hated to admit it, but he was right. Still, she didn’t think it was smart to go snooping around in their files when there were bigger problems at stake right now. Steve seemed to agree, “I think Loki’s trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don’t stay focused, he’ll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.”

“Following’s not really my style,” Tony said casually.

“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?”

“Of the people in this room, which of them is A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?”

Lily winced, feeling slightly hurt. She knew Tony was mostly talking about Steve, but technically she was useless in non-combative situations as well. Bruce looked up from his work, “Steve, tell me this doesn’t smell a little funny to you.”

“Just find the cube,” he demanded, stalking off.

“That’s the guy my dad never shut up about?” Tony asked, returning to the monitor, “they should’ve kept him on ice.”

Lily sighed, knowing this was going to be a long day, “he’s not wrong about Loki, though.”

That caught their attention, “what do you know, Lil?” Bruce asked.

The blonde woman tried not to feel too pleased at the nickname, “he’s the God of Mischief and Lies, and he’s known for causing chaos.”

“How do you know that?” Tony demanded.

She gave him another unimpressed look, “have you seriously never read any Norse mythology? I mean, I know I’m the archaeologist here, but it’s not like the myths are unheard of. Not all of them are true, of course, but they certainly share the common trend of chaos and destruction,” she shrugged, “some of them also say he’s descended from the Ice Giants.”

“Well that’s helpful,” Tony said, in a tone that actually seemed sincere, “so what, fire hurts him?”

Lily shook her head, “I don’t think it works like that. Since Thor’s appearance, I’ve been researching Norse mythology in case something like this happened. Loki’s always crazy in the stories, but most don’t have any helpful information except to understand his motives.”

“Well this is going to blow up in his face, and I’m going to be there when it does.”

“I’ll read all about it,” Bruce said, looking up from the screen to them.

“Or you’ll be suiting up with the rest of us,” Tony countered.

“Uh- you see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed, like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”

“You know, I’ve got a cluster of shrapnel that’s trying every second to crawl it’s way into my heart. This stops it,” he tapped the center of his chest, where Lily knew the arc reactor was, “this little circle of light? It’s a part of me, now. Not just armor. It’s a terrible privilege.”

“But you are in control of it.”

“Because I learned how.”

“It’s different.”

“Hey, I read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you. “

So you’re saying that the Hulk- the other guy, saved my life? That’s nice, that’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?” Bruce’s voice was bitter.

Lily watched their exchange, feeling the knots return in full force. What’s the point of being able to protect people if I can’t even protect the ones I need to? she thought desperately. They’d both been through so much that they didn’t deserve- that no one deserved, and she hadn’t been there for any of it. And yet- and yet, here she was, finally, completely whole, untouchable, and useless. Everything bad had already happened, so what was the point of her being here, anyway?

Chapter Text

“What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” Nick Fury’s voice broke through the quiet of the lab.

Tony, who had taken a seat on the table looked up as the man walked in, “uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you.”

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”

“We are,” Bruce said, “the model’s locked and we’re looking for the signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll have the location within a half a mile.”

“Yeah, we’ll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss,” he paused before asking, “what is Phase 2?”

There was a loud, metallic clang as Steve returned, “Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Tesseract to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me.”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that-“

“I’m sorry, Nick,” Tony interrupted as he swung one of the screens around, “what were you lying about?”

“I’m sorry, Director,” Steve said, not sounding very sorry at all, “the world hasn’t changed a bit.”

Lily, who still hadn’t moved from the spot Bruce had guided her to a few hours ago watched with growing anxiety as Thor and the woman spy returned- Lily still hadn’t gotten her name- who looked like they meant business.

“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked.

“Do you want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?” the woman asked.

Lily tensed, knowing it wouldn’t deescalate from this as Bruce responded, “I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well-removed.”

“Loki is manipulating you,” the red-haired woman said, moving forward.

Lily finally moved from her spot, copying Bruce’s gesture from a few hours ago, placing her hands on the woman’s arms, “I wouldn’t come any closer, if I were you,” the blonde woman said, trying to lessen the growing tension in the room.

“And you’ve been doing what, exactly?”

The spy wrenched herself free from Lily’s grasp, “more than whatever she’s doing.”

“Hey- leave me out of this!” Lily protested, not wanting have a repeat of what happened with Thor.

“I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

“Because of him,” Fury answered, pointing an accusing finger towards the god.

“Me?”

“Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned.”

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet,” Thor protested.

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you? And, you’re not the only threat. The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched, they can’t be controlled. Take her, for example,” Fury said, gesturing towards Lily, “Maywell, you weren’t always like this, were you?”

Lily’s eyes widened as the attention turned to her, “uh, no,” she had to admit.

“SHIELD has the Index for people like her, so we can keep tabs on them in case they get out of hand. What would happen if there were people on Earth, powered people, who had that sort of freedom?” Fury demanded.

“Like you controlled the cube?” Steve countered.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it,” Thor said, “and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

“A higher form?”

“You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-“

“A nuclear deterrent,” Tony put in, “because that always calms everyone down.”

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark.”

“I’m sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-“ Steve started.

“Wait, wait, wait- hold on- how is this now about me?”

“I’m sorry, isn’t everything?”

“I thought humans were more evolved than this,” Thor remarked.

“Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?” Fury questioned, his voice rising.

As the group’s arguing increased, Lily rolled her eyes, these are the people who are supposed to protect humankind? she thought exasperatedly. How were they supposed to form a team if they could barely get along for ten seconds? She zoned out, her attention grabbed by something more interesting- the glowing blue light of the staff. She glanced at Bruce and Tony, who were preoccupied with the disagreement and slowly made her way forward, watching as the light shifted and swirled within the staff.

An arm reached out to block her progress again, but this time it was Bruce, not Tony. She gave him a pleading look, but all he did was turn her gently so her back was facing the staff. Lily supposed that wasn’t a bad compromise as he kept his arm around her waist, returning to the argument as if nothing happened, “we’re a time bomb,” he put in.

“You need to step away,” Fury said, causing Lily’s eyes to narrow.

“Why? Just because you’re afraid of him losing this control you’re so fond of?” she snapped.

“The woman’s right,” Tony agreed, putting a casual arm on Steve’s shoulder, “why shouldn’t the guy blow off a little steam?”

“You know damn well why,” the Captain countered, shoving Tony’s arm away, “back off.”

“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.”

“Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off and what are you?”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Tony listed easily.

Lily felt a rush anger mixed with sadness at the third title, turning closer to Bruce. Everyone knew about Tony’s lack of commitment, but it hurt worse when he was her known soulmate, especially when he elected not to acknowledge them. The dark-haired man’s arm tightened around her and she could sense he felt the same way she did about the description.

“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you, and I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the kind of guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

“I think I would just cut the wire,” Tony jabbed back unhelpfully.

“Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”

“A hero? Like you? You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle,” Tony snapped.

The blonde woman closed her eyes, wishing everyone would just stop arguing. What was important was slipping farther from their grasp every second they spent at each other’s throats, which was exactly what Loki wanted.

She was drawn from her thoughts as Fury turned towards Bruce, “Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner to-“

“Where?” Bruce interrupted, separating himself from Lily, “you rented my room-“

“The cell was just incase you needed-“

“-Incase you needed to kill me, but you can’t, I know- I tried,” he answered fiercely, “I got low, I didn’t see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out, so I moved on. I focused on helping other people, I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. Do you want to know my secret, do you want to know how I stay calm?”

Lily’s eyes focused on Fury’s hand reaching towards his gun and readied herself. There was no way in hell that she would let Fury kill her soulmate. She’d kill the Director first if she had to. Lily had never even considered that option, would never consider it, but when her soulmate was threatened for simply existing? She’d do it in a heartbeat, Fury being a top-notch spy be damned.

“Dr. Banner, put down the scepter.”

Lily’s head turned to see Bruce holding the staff in his hand, his expression suddenly confused. Lily lunged forward, wrenching it out of his hands with a loud cry of “no!”

The metal was cold and deadly in her hands, but she’d take the power any day over threatening the life of her soulmate. Now all eyes were focused on her, two men in particular watching her carefully, knowing her attraction to the glowing center- but that wasn’t why she’d picked it up. Pulling her gaze from the staff, she looked up to see several expressions ranging from surprised to anxious. Fury’s hand was now firmly on his gun, but she wasn’t worried about that. Lily stood frozen with the staff in her hands, unsure how to proceed from here until a warm hand was placed gently on her shoulder, “put the staff down, Lil.”

Her eyes met Bruce’s, who was looking at her softly, “you don’t need it, we’re- I’m okay.”

She gave a shaky breath, but after reassuring herself that he really was okay, she set the staff down. It was almost amusing to watch everyone’s expressions turn to relief. At least, they were until the alarm started to go off.

 “Located the Tesseract?” Thor asked as Bruce moved to check the monitor, “it belongs on Asgard. Humans are no match for it.”

Tony turned to leave and Steve reached out to stop him, “you’re not going alone.”

His hand was slapped away, “and you’re going to stop me? Put on the suit, let’s find out.”

Lily rolled her eyes at the recurring argument, preferring instead to move next to Bruce’s side to watch him work. She stood close to him as the map found the coordinates of the Tesseract, and, she and Bruce came to the same horrifying realization together: the Tesseract was much closer than they thought.

Before they could share their findings an explosion shook the ship, reaching all the way to the lab. The second before they were blown backwards off their feet, Lily wrapped her arms around Bruce’s waist, a blue shield lighting up around them as they flew away from the monitors. They landed harshly on a lower level of the carrier and Lily lost the shield as they came crashing down. She groaned but shook her head to clear it. She was the invincible one- Bruce wasn’t. There wasn’t even time to worry about what happened to Tony as the blonde woman scrambled over to where her soulmate was lying facedown on the metal, “oh my god, Bruce- are you- are-“

She couldn’t seem to get the words out and her hands fluttered uselessly around him, afraid that any sort of contact would make his rapidly failing control worse. It was obvious, really, from the way he was clenching his fists and his breathing became erratic, and she recognized the increasing currents of anger that she felt through their bonds as the Hulk threatened to break out.

Finally, she gently placed her hands on his back as he pushed himself up, giving the man a worried look, “Brucie? What- are-“

“You have to get out of here,” he snapped at her, apparently forgetting that she was invincible, “you can’t be here when-“

She winced at the pain in his voice, “I’m not going anywhere,” she said firmly, “he can’t hurt me, remember?”

“GET OUT!” his voice was deeper and more terrible than she’d ever heard it. Bruce was clearly trying to delay The Hulk’s appearance as he scrambled away from her.

Lily stayed crouched on the floor as she watched with wide eyes as her soulmate’s skin bubbled and grew, turning an obvious shade of green. Finally, it seemed like The Hulk had broken free of Bruce’s control as he stood, stumbling to get his balance, roaring loudly to announce his arrival. The Hulk was here, and he was furious.

The blonde woman gasped as she felt the full force of his rage through her bond and it prompted her to rise to her feet. While The Hulk couldn’t hurt her (she had to remind herself of this), enclosed spaces were probably not the best for calming him down. As he turned, she saw The Hulk’s face for the first time. His eyes focused on her and his lips turned up in a snarl, all traces of her soulmate completely gone.

Lily only had time to think shit, before the Big Guy came lumbering towards her. Knowing calming him down right away was futile, she made a quick break for the stairs, praying she was fast enough. She’d never been particularly sporty when she was younger and she was certainly paying for it now. She could hear The Hulk’s roars following behind her as she made her frantic dash towards whatever open space was the closest, her heart crying out for the pain her soulmate must be in.

Chapter Text

As Lily raced through one of the back rooms, her eyes darted around desperately to find an open space before The Hulk caught up to her- and then she went flying. Too late, she thought as her body crashed against a metal wall. Luckily, she was able to pick herself up in time as The Hulk lunged forward, letting out a loud roar directly in her face. The force blew her hair back and caused her to squeeze her eyes shut- his breath didn’t smell great.

When she opened her eyes again, The Hulk’s big, green face was snarling inches from hers, his voice a deep rumble as he growled, “run.”

Lily’s blue eyes flashed and she crossed her arms, lifting her chin up to look him directly in his narrowed eyes, “no,” she answered firmly.

That seemed to puzzle him and he took a step back, “not afraid?”

The blonde woman shook her head, “you can’t hurt me, Big Guy.”

The Hulk tilted his head, not seeming to understand. Lily relaxed her posture and uncrossed her arms, slowly holding out one of her hands, palm up. She could feel his anger starting to dissipate as he looked at her hand curiously, “it’s okay, you can touch it,” she reassured him.

He slowly reached out his own, much larger hand and gently brushed her fingers against his. Lily stayed absolutely still as the back of her hand met the palm of his, holding her breath in case any sudden movement startled him off.

“Why not afraid?” the Big Guy asked, looking up from where her hand rested in his.

Lily smiled slightly, “Bruce-“ at his sudden snarl, she changed tactics, “Banner,” she corrected, “is my soulmate.”

“Soulmate?” the term seemed to confuse him even more, and Lily realized that even if Bruce had soulmates, how would The Hulk know about them?

“Here,” she said, using her free hand to gently tug the sleeve of her left arm up, “look,” she pointed to Bruce’s handwriting on her wrist, “this is Banner’s connection to me, it makes him my….” she thought for a second about the correct wording that he might understand before she answered, “partner. I can feel what he feels, and it’s how we know we’re meant to be.”

She wondered if that explanation helped clear things up at all, but when she watched his expression carefully, she could see the confusion smooth away, “Pretty Girl Hulk’s soulmate, too.”

Lily smiled slightly at the name, “I don’t know,” she said apologetically, “I’m not sure how this stuff works.”

He ignored her, choosing instead to flip her palm over, holding both of their hands together with their palms touching. His hand was much bigger than hers, of course, but she felt the familiar warmth that came with Bruce’s skin seeping into her own. Lily felt his anger fade a little more, turning into curiosity instead. She wondered when, if ever, the last time was that someone showed him any sort of trust. Everyone was afraid of the rage monster he could be, and that made them forget he could have other feelings too. Lily looked up into his face, which was surprisingly softer now- she could even see some of Bruce’s features hidden in there, too- and gently pressed her palm against his, “it’s gonna be okay, Big Guy.”

The Hulk was suddenly blown off of his feet by a vertical force as the God of Thunder came flying at him, crashing through the wall and into the next room. Lily startled, leaping forward as both men picked themselves up off the floor, “you idiot!” she seethed to the god as The Hulk’s anger returned in full force, “I had it under control!”

Neither listened to her, of course, as they engaged in combat, “we are not your enemies, Banner!” Thor called.

Not a good move, Lily thought, as the god went flying. There was a pause as Thor disappeared behind a pile of stacked cases before he reappeared with his hammer, “no!” she cried, holding her hands up and closing her eyes. There was a bright pulse of blue energy and a solid blue wall separated Thor from The Hulk, “you’re going to hurt him,” she snapped to the only man currently capable of listening to reason.

Apparently, that was wrong as he scoffed, “he can’t hurt me, My Lady. Haven’t you learned from the last fight you couldn’t keep out of?”

Thor’s hammer hit her shield the same time The Hulk’s fist did and paired with the fresh wave of rage coming from the Big Guy, her shield shattered as she flew backward, grunting. Lily flopped down on the floor and closed her eyes, deciding to let the idiots fight it out on this one. At least, she was until SHIELD decided to get their shooting planes involved.

As the shots rebounded around the messed up lab, Thor threw himself out of firing range while Lily ran right into it. The rage she felt from The Hulk was threatening to make her head spin, but she forced herself to push past it as “the target” turned towards the plane currently firing at him, “no!” she cried again, “you don’t have to fight everything!”

She tried leaping into his path to stop him somehow, maybe throw a shield up in front of the shattered window to keep him from flinging himself at the plane, but all getting in The Hulk’s path did was make him scoop her up and share his flying leap with him. Lily felt the wind whistle in her ears they jumped from the opening followed by the thud of The Hulk landing on the plane. The rest of his attack was a confusing swirl of motion and rage.

Lily was pretty sure she passed out for their fall from the plane because the next thing she knew, she and Bruce were lying in a pile of rubble in a very… compromising position. He was really warm and comforting, though, and she’d been up for hours. Lily shook her head and blushed as she forced herself to push away from Bruce’s chest, realizing that The Hulk having pretty much no clothes translated to Bruce having pretty much no clothes after.

She tried to ignore her embarrassment as their eyes met, instead giving her soulmate a worried look- they did just fall from the sky, after all, “hey,” she said softly, “you okay?”

His face scrunched as he tried to get his bearings, “I think so,” he said slowly.

A sound drew her attention and her eyes focused on a man wearing a cop’s uniform standing over them. She immediately tensed, looking between Bruce and the stranger for a second before pulling off the leather jacket she’d been wearing. It was more beat up and torn than when she’d first put it on- it wasn’t invincible like her, after all- but it would do the trick. She shoved it towards her soulmate, feeling a strange, more possessive desire to protect him in such a vulnerable position in view of the unknown person watching them.

He took it from her gratefully, looking towards the older man, “did I hurt anybody?”

Her heart twisted at the concern in his voice and she gently placed a hand on his shoulder as the man shrugged, “there’s nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons, though.”

He relaxed, “that’s lucky.”

“Or just good aim- you were awake when you fell,” the man said.

“You saw?”

“The whole thing. I’m surprised you’re still alive,” he said, addressing Lily, who shrugged, “you fell right through the ceiling, big and green- you’re lucky the girl landed on top of you. Here,” he added, throwing a bag towards them, “I didn’t think those would fit you until you were back to a regular size.”

The bag turned out to have clothes in it and Lily slid off of her compromising seat to allow Bruce to pull them on. She stood, holding out a hand to him to help him up as the man puzzled over the pair, “are you aliens?”

Lily grinned, tempted to say that yes, she sort of was, but she knew that wouldn’t help the situation. Bruce shook his head, “no.”

“Well then son, you’ve got a condition.”

Lily sat on the back of the motorcycle, her arms wrapped around Bruce’s waist as they drove through the destroyed New York streets. Upon entering the perimeter of the zone, she’d formed a dome of blue light around their vehicle to help fend off any stray lasers from the alien army. The blonde woman was still processing the fact that real aliens existed- not just humanoid-looking ones like Thor and Loki- and she was glad none of them had decided to attack the pair yet, although it was only a matter of time.

They pulled up to where a group of familiar heroes were standing, looking like they’d been in combat for a while already.

“So,” Bruce said as they approached, “this all seems horrible.”

“I’ve seen worse,” Agent Romanoff answered flatly.

“I hope you saved some for us, guys,” Lily added, looking at the rubble, “it would be rude to keep us from all the fun.”

Chapter Text

“Stark, we got him,” Steve reported through the comms.

Lily didn’t hear the reply but she didn’t need to. Not a minute later, Iron Man flew towards them with an alien spaceship on his tail, a sight that made her breath stop short.

“I don’t see how that’s a party,” Agent Romanoff said.

“Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time to get angry.”

“That’s my secret, Capt., I’m always angry,” Bruce answered, turning to face the oncoming ship.

Unlike on the Helicarrier, there was a seamless transition as Bruce turned into The Hulk, slamming his fist into the nose of the ship just in time, something Lily definitely appreciated as she watched with wide eyes, “shit, that’s hot,” she mumbled under her breath.

The ship turned over them, prompting her to jump into action as a blue dome suddenly appeared around the remaining team, glowing darker every second. The force of the ship crashing against her projection rattled it but didn’t break and the pieces fell to either side of them as the heroes inside remained untouched.

“That’s handy,” Captain America commented, and Lily turned to grin at him in response, allowing her shield to fade as the danger passed.

The aliens definitely didn’t like their ship getting destroyed if their roaring answer was anything to go by. Luckily, though, The Hulk was able to answer back for them. Lily felt a strange sort of pride as the team readied themselves to take on the rest of the aliens, a group finally united to save the world. When she was younger, she’d liked to play superheroes as much as any other kid, but now it was for real, with higher stakes than any of them could’ve ever imagined.

“What’s the plan, guys?” Lily asked, watching the aliens warily.

“Call it, Captain,” Tony agreed.

“Alright, listen up,” Steve said, “until we close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything- call out patterns and strays. Stark, you’ve got the perimeter, anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

“Want to give me a lift?” Barton asked.

They flew to their respective spots as Steve continued, “Thor, you gotta try and bottle that portal, slow’em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up,” he looked at the remaining woman, “Romanoff, you stay on the ground with me, Maywell- check for any stray civilians and get them to safety. After that, point check on us- you know our fighting moves, guard our backs.”

Lily gave him a firm nod before racing off to do her assigned duty. She moved methodically through the streets, escorting people from partially broken buildings to outside of their perimeter using her shield to protect them from stray lasers. It was slow going, especially when she couldn’t fly and the people refused to form any sort of order.

As she heralded the last civilians to safety- the police had done a surprisingly good job of getting everyone underground- she turned back to the fight, wondering just how she was supposed to spot check her team when some of them were way beyond her reach.

Her answer came in the form of Loki shooting past her on one of the alien hoverboards. She smirked, pleased that the god would be pissed to know he helped her. At the next one that passed, she made a grab for the back just as it went out of range, leaving her dangling feet up in the air. It was a relief for her to know she’d still be safe if she fell from this height.

Lily scrambled onto the back of the craft, almost instinctively letting out a burst of her power, causing the alien in control to fly forwards off the front as her blue shield rapidly covered the standing room of the craft. She grinned, leaping forward to take control of the vehicle, impulse telling her how to fly it.

With a wild laugh, she shot forward, using the lasers to shoot aliens down from the sides of buildings. The wind blew her hair back and the buildings blurred with speed, and it would be wonderful if they weren’t currently in the middle of a war.

She directed the craft to where she’d last seen Romanoff and Rogers, and the redheaded woman was still there, “Romanoff!” Lily called, “need a lift?”

The woman turned, eyes widening in surprise, “how’d you get that?”

“Hijacked it from an alien,” Lily answered as casually as if they were talking about the weather, “want to hop on?”

The woman shook her head, “I’m good here-“ only to be cut off as a flash of blue lit up above her, bright light bouncing away. She nodded to the blonde woman, “thanks for that- you might want to check on the others.”

Lily shot off leaving a gust of wind in her wake. She forced the craft upward, “how’s it going, Barton?”

The archer startled at her arrival but grinned after he processed what he was seeing, “I’m good here, but you might want to check on Stark. He’s got a couple of strays on his tail.”

The blonde woman gave him a two-fingered salute, “aye aye, Capt- oh wait, is that blasphemy?” she asked, amusement coloring her tone.

Barton rolled his eyes, “if it is, I won’t let him know.”

She winked at him, “thanks, Legolas,” she said, before shooting away to find her errant soulmate.

Lily shot off again, this time towards the perimeter, flying up next to the man in the metal suit, “need some help there, Stark?” she called over the noise of the wind.

He didn’t even seem surprised by her new vehicle, which was slightly disappointing, “get them off my tail, would you? They’re annoying me.”

She grinned, “my pleasure.”

Lily turned the ship around, shooting down the aliens attempting to thwart the man’s progress, “what else you got?”

Tony repeated her question through his comms before transferring the answer to her, “Thor’s on 6^th!”

“Race you there!” the blonde woman called to him, putting the craft into full speed and leaving Tony in the dust.

Although, it wasn’t for long and his metal suit glinted out of the corner of her eye, “no fair!” he called, “you didn’t say go!”

Lily rolled her eyes, which widened immediately after- Romanoff had copied her idea except not as well, “now that’s not fair,” she called to the redhead, turning her ship around to shoot at the trailing aliens, “that’s plagiarism!”

“No it’s not!” the spy called back, struggling to gain control, “this is completely different!”

“Yeah, in a worse way!” Lily answered, but there was no real malice in her tone.

She turned back around, lowering the nose of the ship to the ground to shoot a steady wave of beams at the aliens on the bridge, “hey! Those were mine!” Tony called to her.

“Snooze you lose, Stark!” she answered easily.

Lily turned the ship back towards the sky as Thor and The Hulk came into view, shooting in an arc as she flew over them, calling “hey guys!” as she went, before nosediving back towards the street. A group of aliens circled together, lifting their guns to shoot at straggler civilians. Oops, Lily thought guiltily, before catching their attention, “hey, assholes!”

It worked as well as she wanted it to, and she was able to plow through them as easily as dominoes falling over, “you’d think aliens would be a lot tougher than this!” she said to no one in particular.

It seemed like her wish was granted as an unfortunately familiar green-caped god flew past her. Yes! she thought. Even if this was technically Thor’s fight, he wasn’t around, and he didn’t have a ship to race his adopted brother with. Without a second thought, Lily shot after the god, close on his tail.

Barton got to him first, though, and Loki’s ship exploded right in front of her, prompting her to grumble, “jeez, a little more warning next time!”

Lily then had a split second decision to make: jump off the ship and attempt to engage Loki in combat, potentially closing the wormhole, or return to the fight and allow more aliens to come through.

Lily jumped.

To her surprise, Romanoff landed next to her (much more gracefully.) The blonde woman picked herself up from the ground the same time Loki did and glanced back to make sure her partner was okay.

They didn’t have any time to react, though, because The Hulk came flying towards the god, sending them both through a window of Stark Tower. Lily wondered briefly if the Big Guy had sensed she was in danger but dismissed it as foolish and turned to jump through the window after him instead.

“ENOUGH!” Loki shouted as Lily arrived, “you are, all of you beneath me, I am a god you dull creature! And I will not be bullied by-“

He didn’t get to finish as The Hulk slammed him bodily from side to side, causing the blonde woman to smirk, “I wouldn’t piss him off, if I were you,” she said casually- directed, of course, to the god.

He didn’t have the energy to respond as he lay limply in the dent on the floor that his body had made. The Hulk seemed unbothered by his actions, “puny god.”

Lily turned away from the god, knowing he wouldn’t be moving for awhile and joined Romanoff on the terrace, “what’s up?” she asked.

The redhead glanced at her, “we need Loki’s scepter- it could close the portal- and it’s right below us.”

Lily glanced down, “I could make the jump, but getting back up here in a timely fashion is the hard part. In case you didn’t notice, I can’t fly.”

Romanoff looked faintly amused, “I’ll give you a boost.”

Chapter Text

With a nod, the blonde woman jumped, landing harshly on the concrete but easily rolled to her feet again. She grabbed the metal staff and with Romanoff’s help, eased her way back onto the platform with the Tesseract. 

“You wanna do it?” the spy asked, watching her carefully.

Lily glanced down at the staff in her hands, remembering how transfixed she’d been by the glowing blue center- there was none of that now, though. She gave a stiff jerk of her head and approached the power source carefully, holding the staff like a spear.

The tip of the scepter barely touched the air around the Tesseract when it let off a burst of energy, a forcefield similar to her own forming a protective sphere around the object. She added more pressure to her thrust as the man who’d previously been controlled by Loki watched the computer monitors, “right in the crown!” he encouraged her.

“We can close it!” Romanoff reported, “can anybody copy? We can shut the portal down.”

Lily struggled to keep the staff steady as the spy tried to get an answer on their position, the blonde woman glancing up as briefly as she dared.

The redhead glanced towards her, apparently listening to what was being said before placing one of her hands on the scepter, “I’m taking over,” she informed her partner, holding out the small black earpiece in the other, “there’s someone who wants to speak with you.”

Lily’s eyes widened and after a careful change of positions, she placed Romanoff’s comm in her ear, “hello?” she asked, slightly confused.

“Hey, Blondie,” Tony Stark’s voice answered, to her surprise, which only grew into concern as he spoke, “I’m sorry this wasn’t able to work out differently, but you know I don’t have a choice, right? You’ll be happy with Bruce, at least, happier than you would be with me- I promise.”

“Wh-what?” she stuttered, “what are you talking about?”

“I’m redirecting the nuke, Lily,” he said, using her real name for the first time.

“What?” she breathed, her eyes jerking up to the wormhole, knowing that was were it was headed, “Tony Stark, you come here right now!”

“No can do, Lil,” he answered, and she was pretty sure he sounded regretful, although it was hard to tell, “can I ask you something, though?”

She wanted to deny him, thinking that maybe it would force him to stay, but she knew that was futile- she’d only live to regret her choice, so she answered firmly, “anything.”

“Stay on the line, would you? Just- just keep talking?”

Her expression softened even as her heart dropped to her stomach. How could she say no to that?

“Of course,” Lily tugged on her blonde hair in thought for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip nervously as her eyes stayed trained on the wormhole, “I’ve known you were my soulmate for awhile now,” she decided to say.

“Yeah?” Tony prompted, sounding slightly surprised.

“Well, actually it was just a guess,” she admitted, “I had no real proof, of course, even if I wanted to march up to Stark Tower and demand an audience with you,” her smile was slightly watery, “I didn’t think you’d appreciate it.”

“Probably not,” his voice admitted, “how’d you guess?”

She flinched as he flew past them on the tower, “It’s not exactly a good memory,” Lily cautioned as if nothing had happened, “but, um, I was in college the- the night everything happened,” she explained tactfully, hoping he would understand, “and I felt your response to it. The next day, one of my friends called to report the news, and-“

She stopped abruptly as the lines went fuzzy, watching as her soulmate disappeared through the wormhole, “Tony?” she asked worriedly, “Tony, can you hear me?”

His voice was crackly as he tried to respond, but she couldn’t hear any real words. Tears pricked her eyes as their connection disintegrated. As long as they could communicate, she’d been fine, since she could hear that he was okay. Now, though, there was nothing. No sound, no feeling, just the dark, empty opening into space as her eyes stayed fixed on the portal, praying to any god that would listen to just keep him safe. The opening grew blurry as she fought to keep her emotions in check, but she wasn’t a trained spy who knew how to do that.

Lily refused to let herself curl up in a ball and never move again, as much as she wanted to- even if they’d barely gotten forty-eight hours together, she knew he wouldn’t want her to do that, or at least, whatever part of him still cared.

She was glad that Romanoff had taken over because there was no way she would’ve had the strength to close the portal with the knowledge that Tony was still up there. Lily knew she should hate the woman for giving up on him, but she couldn’t; they’d had to make the call, otherwise everything her soulmate had done would’ve been for nothing. That didn’t mean she had to look away from the closing portal, though, and her blurry eyes strained as she hoped against hope that something good was going to happen.

And it did.

Her eyes widened as a small, dark speck grew larger with every second as it- he- fell from the sky. Her fear returned, though, as she realized he was free falling in an uncontrolled flight. Lily’s heart pounded in her chest with the realization that he was still going to­-

She couldn’t even finish the thought in her head as she stood uselessly on top of Stark Tower, too far away to be any help at all.

 As much as she had contributed during their fight, she was still achingly useless without adequate transportation. If she could fly, she would’ve taken the nuke up herself, being the invincible one, and now she wasn’t even able to reach him fast enough.

There was a distant, furious roar that she faintly recognized as The Hulk’s, but she didn’t care. Everything was the worst right now and it didn’t even matter that they’d won. Lily felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and the blonde woman looked up to see Romanoff giving her a surprisingly sympathetic look that didn’t really make her feel any better.

She felt even worse when she realized she’d caved and was on her knees anyway. Lily angrily wiped away the tears that had escaped, forcing herself not to think about anything, “what’s next?” she asked the redhead in a flat voice, all previous joy from a few short hours ago completely gone.

But then Romanoff’s expression turned surprised as the woman’s gaze slid past her, causing Lily to turn. And right there- right there­- was the rest of their team, including- she scrambled to her feet, practically bowling over Barton as she launched herself towards- “Tony!”

Even if she’d previously tried to keep her distance from him out of respect- and maybe fear- she didn’t care about that now as she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly, “oh my god,” was all she seemed capable of saying.

To her relief (and pleasure), he barely hesitated as he returned the gesture, seemingly speechless for once. There was a throat-clearing cough that made them pull apart, Lily turning around slightly to see Steve looking uneasy. She smiled sweetly at him, “I’m sorry, Captain, does affection make you uncomfortable?”

Steve flushed slightly, “we should take care of the prisoner first,” was his response.

Tony grinned, and when Lily met his eyes, she was almost convinced that they looked suspiciously glassy as he leaned towards her and said in a not-very-good stage whisper, “I think it does.”

They gathered around the defeated god with Barton in front, Romanoff holding the scepter next to Thor, Captain America standing behind Barton, and Lily in between The Hulk and Tony with her arms crossed, none of their expressions friendly.

Loki seemed to understand that he was defeated as he said, “if it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.”

The clean up after the attack was extensive, and even when most things were wrapped up, there were still a few items on Lily’s to-do list that she wanted to cross off. One of them involved their two extraterrestrial visitors.

Steve and the others were finishing up with the politics of where things went in the main foyer of Stark Tower when Lily approached Thor. Unsure of how to broach the subject, she gave a gentle tug of her hair, her blue eyes flicking between the gods uneasily, “so, how goes it?”

Thor gave her an amused look, “if there’s something you want, all you have to do is ask, My Lady. You are a valiant fighter and have earned my trust.”

The blonde woman blushed at the flattery, “it’s just, well- I’m not sure if you’re going to like it,” this was directed towards her teammate, of course.

He seemed unfazed, “it does not hurt to ask. Isn’t your Midgardian saying, ‘the worst I can do is deny you’?”

She nodded, not bothering to correct the wording, “um,” she started, but when her eyes flicked towards the bound god, her will resolved, “I want to punch your brother.”

Thor let out a loud laugh at that, “you are not the only one, My Lady. May I ask why?”

Her expression hardened as her soulmate disappearing into space flashed behind her eyes, “he almost killed my soulmate.”

The God of Thunder’s amusement vanished. After his time spent on Midgard before the Avengers, he’d learned how important soulmates were to mortals. Asgardians didn’t have them as their lifespans were too long, but he knew of the meaning behind their bonds, “Stark is your soulmate?”

Lily gave a firm nod, “he’ll probably deny it after this is over, but I’d feel much better if I got my own revenge.”

He considered her for a moment before glancing at his (adopted) brother, “I will not deny you this request, but you should have fair warning that if my brother ever escapes-“

The blonde rolled her eyes, “I think I’ll be fine. I’m invincible, you know. And besides, he was only able to attack- what? Thirty-six blocks of New York with an entire army? How much danger will I really be in?”

Loki’s eyes narrowed, but due to his bonds he was unable to reply. Thor nodded in acceptance and Lily turned to the dark-haired Asgardian, readying herself. She’d never punched anyone before, but Dr. Castillo had given her some minimal training in self-defense just in case, so she knew how to do it.

Pulling her arm back, she met the god’s eyes, trying to convey to him how much she loathed him, “this is for my soulmates,” she said simply, before her fist connected with his face, careful to aim above the metal gag.

She felt gentle hands rest on her shoulders, and for a second she thought it was Bruce, but- “that’s a mean right hook you have there, Blondie. And I’m totally not complaining since the bastard deserves it, but why are you punching a god?”

Lily flushed, not realizing the team had finished so quickly, “uh-“ she started.

Chapter Text

When Lily returned home for the first time since Dr. Castillo’s arrival, she’d never been more pleased to have the foresight to live away from Stark Tower. She was lucky, really, that her area of life had been untouched by aliens. It was strange coming home after so much had happened, and the stillness of her apartment was almost disconcerting.

She closed the door and leaned against the solid wood, closing her eyes for a moment. What am I supposed to do now? she wondered. She’d just fought aliens. How was she supposed to return to teaching and act normal?

While she hadn’t worn a mask during the fight, Lily wasn’t afraid of being recognized. She’d been too fast on the hovercraft and the other part had been at Stark Tower, away from any news cameras. But still, there were so many things that had changed.

She decided what she really wanted to do right now was take a shower and make a few calls.

On the scheduled day of Thor’s departure a few days later, Lily left her apartment promptly at noon. She’d spent a relaxing few days at home after calling in “sick” to the school and had started planning a fitness routine, knowing she’d need to get in shape if there was more world-saving to do.

She’d caught up on a few shows she’d gotten behind on, called Lydia to reassure her friend that she was okay, and called her parents to do the same. Lily had left out any mention of her soulmates since then she’d have to explain everything, and while she was pretty sure her parents had seen her telltale shields on the news, they hadn’t asked anything yet and she was planning to keep it that way.

As Lily walked to the designated entrance of Central Park, she took in the repairs and clean up that were being made in the damaged areas. There had been a lot of progress in the past few days, with everyone from construction workers to normal civilians helping out. While it would take months to have everything fully repaired, it was nice to see people working together. She did feel a little guilty about all of the destroyed property, but would people really rather have aliens ruling over them?

At that thought, her eyes flicked towards Stark Tower, and for a second, she saw the wormhole appear above it, a black speck moving up- she blinked, and it was gone. Forcing herself as she’d often done over the past few days not to think about that, Lily continued on her path, sticking her hands in the pockets of her beat-up leather jacket.

A warm, fuzzy feeling swept through her, causing a smile to appear on her face. The blonde woman glanced down at her wrist- the left- fondly, sharing the same emotion back. It had been a few days since she’d seen either soulmate. As much as she loved her new friends, she’d needed some time to process. Now, though, she was going to see all of them- and out of uniform, too- for the first time since the attack.

The reminder put a spring in her step and helped the darker thoughts dissipate. Steve had been good enough to take on the legal side of things with Fury’s help, so the rest of them had taken the time to recover. Lily had even decided to take a whole two weeks off and use some of her vacation time. 

As she neared Central Park, the blonde woman recognized a very familiar figure, “yo, Rogers!”

At the sound of her voice, Steve turned, pausing with one leg thrown over his motorcycle to look around in confusion before he noticed her. Lily grinned at him, “copying my look, are you?”

He gave her an amused one in return, “no, I’m doing it better.”

She gave him a mock offended look, “you wound me!”

The blond man rolled his eyes, coming to her side and falling into step with her instead. Lily looked back at his ride, “isn’t that a little too modern for you, grandpa?”

Before he had a chance to answer, a different voice interrupted them, “I hope you’re not trying to steal my soulmate, Rogers.”

Lily winked at the blond-haired man, “if he is, he’s not doing a very good job of it,” she said teasingly as she stepped towards her soulmates.

When she was in front of them, though, she shifted awkwardly- it didn’t help that they had an audience.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

The three of them fell silent after that. Even though she was pleased to see them, they knew nothing about each other. People always made it seem romantic when soulmates first met, but it wasn’t, not really. Maybe in the initial meeting, or in normal circumstances, but for three people who’d just saved the world together not even a few days before? It was very strange.

Luckily, Thor’s arrival broke their standoff and they gathered around the departure point. It was kind of sad to see him go after everything they’d been through together, but she knew they’d see him again.

As the Asgardians disappeared in a flash of blue light, the team said their own goodbyes to each other. Steve left on his motorcycle, and Romanoff left with Barton, leaving the three soulmates on their own. After a pause, Tony turned towards the (very expensive) car, opening the back door, “ladies first.”

Lily hesitated for a moment before giving him a small smile, accepting his offer. The two men piled into the front, “where to next?” Tony asked.