Beyond

Swift

Lance tripped as his feet hit the floor, a blast skimming his leg. He rolled and turned blasting the sentries behind him with no mercy.

He sat there for a moment trying to breathe.

"Come on, where are you?"

"Keith?" Lance slowly got up. "Where are you? Can you hear me?"

"Lance?"

"Lance look out!"

Lance managed to sidestep just barely to miss a blast before he shot the lead sentry down.

The training deck fell silent.

"You okay?" Clint asked appearing by his side.

Lance sighed. "Yeah, I- I... I'm fine."

"Are you hurt?" Natasha asked, cupping his face.

"No, no." Lance said quickly. "I'm fine, I'll talk you through the next bit."

~~~

"Any chance you can explain what happened?" Lance asked quietly.

"You keep hearing voices of your friends, completely logical answer is that your depressed memories are returning." Dr Strange offered. He looked slightly anxious though.

"And if we weren't being logical?"

Stephan sighed. "Then it could be that the bridge between our worlds is weakening."

"That's... not... good?" Lance frowned, he was so tired and confused. He thought he had come here by accident and now things were worsening.

What had Haggar done to his universe?

"I fear that if you remain here much longer our worlds may become parallel."

"And that would be bad?"

"Every villain or monster that we have to deal with here could easily move to your universe and damage what is there, and same goes for those on your side."

Lance's eyes were wide as he let that sink in. Haggar and her forces here? Sendak attacking a world? Zarkon ruling?

He couldn't let that happen.

"I can't get home." Lance whispered. "Blue... Her wormholing it's not working."

Stephan gave a slight hum in thought. "Then perhaps when this woman returns, she could take you back."

"You mean Axca? You know that's not likely."

"She is not acting on her own initiative." Stephen said turning to Lance. "She too was infected with dark energy."

"That makes sense." Lance frowned. "If I get her to you, can you remove it?"

"Yes." Stephen nodded. "I can then contain it and seal it away."

Lance glanced toward the window. "I have a question about this dark energy, where do you send it?"

"To an alternate dimension, one where nothing except dark energy is allowed." Stephan reminded tilting his head. "Why do you need to know this?"

"Just curious." Lance shrugged. "When I go back to my universe, will I remember any of this? Being here with the Avengers?"

"I'm afraid that is something I do not know the answer to." Stephan admitted patting Lance's back. "We will have to wait and see."

"I don't want to forget, not when everyone has been so kind and..." Lance sighed tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling. "I don't want to break the universe but I wish I could hold onto this version of earth, mines gone and..."

"Life doesn't always go the way you expect it, but you adapt and carry on." He reminded.

Lance groaned. "Sometimes I wish none of this happened, that I had never come but... I would never have met some of the most amazing people in this universe."

"And I know that they are glad to have met you."

"Hey kiddo."

Lance turned to see Bucky stood in the doorway.

"Bucky!" Lance grinned. "How did it go? Have they figured things out for you yet?"

"Nothing yet." Bucky sighed. "Blues been an amazing help even when I wish Winter would turn up just to scare them all into action."

Lance looked across the room. "Not sure if you've heard but there is a potential that a group of Galran's from my universe are coming to stop me."

"Stop you as in kill you?" Bucky frowned.

Lance shrugged. "I don't even know anymore. But what I do know is that I have to stop Axca before she makes things worse."

"Right, and is this Axca girl your ticket home?"

"I think so." Lance whispered looking at his feet. "She can get me back to my universe and then hopefully I can stop the madness that is happening over there."

"That won't be the easiest of things. Want help?"

"I don't know if you can come with me." Lance admitted quietly. "I don't think anyone can."

Bucky gripped Lance's shoulder. "Just say the word and we'll be there, any and all of us. We're there for you Lance."

"Thank you."