The Blue Crow [an Avengers fanfic][TO BE REMOVED SOON]

Chapter 3

"My apologies, I didn't see you there-" she stopped herself and looked at me. She was in her forties with graying brown hair and gray eyes. She seemed familiar as well. "Aunt- Aunt Lacy?"

I looked at her closer, "Arabella?" she put a hand on my shoulder and nodded with a wide grin. I wrapped her in a hug, without letting go of my shawl. "Oh my goodness."

Pulling away from me she looked me over again "You haven't changed at all!"

"I wasn't sure that you would remember me, you where three when I last was in Germany."

"Father spoke of you sometimes, going on about how you were the last of the true line, blah blah. He said you were the same as you always were, even when he was a child. He said, 'she is the angel that watches the family line, as she will do till the line ends' and I guess that he was right. I have no brothers, so there is no one after me in the blood line."

As she spoke, a waiter walked by with a tray of champagne, and sipped it slowlyuntil it was gone.

I set my glass on the next tray that passed. "Well, your Father was a smart man, I didn't know him well, but we were family, as are we, Arabella."

She smiled. My eyes drifted to the stairs, and I saw him. He was just the same as he was in my dream. He started to make his way down the stairs, and I began to walk toward the base. He was going to hit that guard.

As I made my way through the crowd, our eyes met for a brief moment. In my dream they were emerald, but when I looked into them, they were blue. That didn't make sense.

He reached the guard who was on his back within moments. I stopped were I was and watched as he grabbed one of the guests and flipped him onto the bull-like sculpture. He pulled a strange object out of his jacket. It began to twirl and he plunged it into the man's eye.

People began to run, but I was frozen where I stood. I watched as he gazed around at the reaction, smirking. Someone tugged on my arm as they ran passed, shaking me out of my daze.

I kept a hand on my shawl as I ran, careful not to let it fall. I looked back and watched as the man's suit turned to armor and his cane to a scepter. A helmet also appeared on his head. He blasted a car with the glowing end of his scepter. All the people that were on the streets were now mixed in with the people of the gala.

The strange man made duplicates of himself surrounding us. "Kneel before me," he called out. No one did, they were too scared. More duplicates appeared. "I said," he stomped his staff, the top flared with light, " KNEEL!" he shouted the last part. Everyone fell silent and did as they where told.

I kept my head down but managed to look around me as well. I didn't see Arabella. She might be somewhere behind me, I thought to myself.

The man smiled and began to walk through the people, "Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state?" he paused looking around. "Its the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy of a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel," he stopped walking and gazed around once more. I could see the mad lust for power in his eyes, and in his wicked grin.

An old man a few feet in front of me stood and locked his gaze onto the power hungry man. "Not to men like you." he called out strongly, standing his ground.

The armored villain laughed and raised his scepter slightly, "There are no men like me." He said it proudly, with that grin still glued to his face.

"There are always men like you," he held his head high, knowing what he had said was true. I knew it was true as well.

Raising his scepter higher, the strange man called out, "Look to your elder people," the end of the scepter began to build up energy, " let him be an example." The energy began to build up and my eyes widened.