1999
AVENGERS COMPOUND, NEW YORK
Athena was finally ready to go back home. She had somewhat gotten better from before- albeit there still being some memories haunting her- and she was ready to go back to London. I mean, she still had a job to maintain. She couldn't stay in New York forever.
She would be updating with them every once in a while though. According to Jericho- the whole ministry was a wreck. The whole wizarding world had majority of their community wiped out, and many of those people worked in the ministry. The higher ups were working their arses of trying to keep their world calm- despite their situation. They would need all their workers right now, meaning Athena was desperately needed to return.
The young girl was currently packing her stuff from the room she stayed in, nervously doing so. She didn't know who else from the magic side had disappeared, but what she did know was that her closest ones were gone. Her fathers, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and Mister Weasley- those were the only ones she'd known that were gone. And it racked her nerves even more as she thought of her cousin, Neville, hell even Blaise.
She has been cooped up here in New York, having zero contact with those in London due to her being bed ridden majority of the time, taking tests, and having her physical and mental state checked. Her physical state was fine, her body already being healed and such, however, her mental state was still hung up on the past events.
Though, she successfully distracted herself from that topic thanks to the books that James had been bring her about the stones. If she finds that a flash of what had happened on Titan glimpse through her mind, she'll just grab one of the books, and start reading. Sometimes she'd even ask Thor or Nebula on it- but majority of the time they were busy.
She wanted to know more on the stones- on what gave her powers. The stones were a part of her now, and the golden cuffs on her left arm was a reminder of that. She didn't mind the cuffs honestly. It made her look luxurious- sorta. It was a golden colour, with multiple carvings on it, maybe runes, and three different coloured gems would be placed on each cuff. They weren't the actual stones, no, but Tony was the one who created the cuff, so he went extra and bought expensive copies of the gems.
Athena made it her plan to be able to wield as much of the stones' abilities as she can. I mean, why would she waste an opportunity like this? She didn't want to go through more trauma of losing people, and even if it wasn't her fault that they lost the previous war, she wanted to make sure that she wouldn't part from more of her loved ones, or even just the mere civilians that walked on their planet.
(help she suddenly has a hero complex and idk why-)
"Hey Fi? Are ya ready?" James knocked on her door, seeing the girl sitting on her bed, biting her thumb nail as if she was in thought. James sighed. He placed Teddy down, letting the baby crawl all the way to Athena.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Athena could feel a tug on her pants sleeve. Looking down, she could see her baby brother giving her a toothed (well one tooth really) grin. Athena smiled softly, picking the boy up as she sat him on her lap. "Hi love,"
"Afina!" The ten-months old baby exclaimed, raising his small hands above his head. Athena's smile turned into a small grin, tickling the boy by his sides, small excited giggles escaping his mouth.
"That's me baby!" Athena cooed. "What about you? What's your name?"
Teddy's laughter stopped, head slightly tilting to the side as his brows furrowed, hair turning into a darker shade of teal. "Te... De... Te.. Wi!"
Athena laughed at the wide smile on his face, pecking his forehead. "Ted-dy."
"Tewi."
"No baby, you sound like you're saying Terry and that isn't your name-"
"Tewi!" Teddy exclaimed once more.
Athena sighed, though smiling still as she ruffled his now-normal-teal hair. She looked up, seeing her uncle leaning against the door. "Hi Uncle Prongs."
"You ready, love?" He asked again. She nodded, standing up as she placed the baby on her hip, holding hip as she grabbed the handle of her suitcase.
"Yup!" She smiled, though it looked different. It seemed as if the light in her eyes died down a bit.
James frowned. He walked inside the room. "What's on your mind Fi? I called your name out earlier, but you were just biting your nails again, like you were thinking."
"I was?" She asked, in which she received a concerned nod from the man. "Oh. Well, I guess I'm just nervous." She shrugged.
"About what?"
"On who else that I know is still... y'now... here." She stated softly. "You only told me about- my dads and them... but I'm also worried about the Malfoys... Neville even, I haven't seen them in a while and I'm scared that that would've been our final goodbyes-"
"Don't worry Fi," James cut her off, "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to check on them, but we can do that once we drop our stuff back home, yeah?"
Athena sighed, but nodded either way. "Alright then..."
James then smiled, also grabbing his and Teddy's bags. The two exited the room, the Potter leaving first. As Athena walked through the door, she didn't expect to be met face first with James' back.
"Uhh.. Uncle James?" Athena questioning tone was heard, though no reply. She moved her head to see on why the man had stopped. However, once she did, she couldn't help but burst into laughter.
There, a very familiar face stood, also shocked upon seeing the Potter.
James Potter and Pietro Maximoff couldn't help but stare at each others faces, mouths opening agape as Athena's laughter could be heard in the background.
"Mate..." James started. "You're hot."
"Dude... So are you." Pietro replied, looking at his doppelganger.
Athena was now leaning her back against the wall, chest heaving up and down from her laugh, trying to hold Teddy securely in her arms. "I didn't expect that to be the first words you two say to each other!"
Breaking from the weird trance, James and Pietro look at Athena, who was trying to tone down her laughter.
Finally doing so, Athena picked herself up from the wall, dragging her bag to stand in front of the two identical men. "Okay... Uncle Prongs, meet Pietro. Pietro, meet James."
✎
So, it turns out this whole time Pietro had either been on vacation or doing errands for S.H.I.E.L.D. Apparently he wasn't a part of the battle in Wakanda, due to him being busy at the time. And when the blip happened- him finding out that Wanda was gone, he was heart broken. He was cursing everyone here in Sokovian apparently, and had locked himself in the room he had here in the Avengers Compound, only coming out for food and such.
It makes you wonder how big this place really is, as this was the only time they had all cross paths.
It was nice seeing him again, even if they hadn't bonded for a long time a few years ago. Their schedule had been brought back by a few minutes, seeing as Athena wanted to catch up with Pietro, the two identical-looking strangers chatting away after.
However, they still had places to be.
So, after James telling Pietro that he would invite him over some times, seeing as he found that they had many similarities, and then telling the Avengers that they'd be off and that she'll stay in contact with them, both Potter and Black(-Lupins) had disappeared from the place, James apparating and Athena teleporting both her and Teddy back to their home.
Athena took a few steps inside the house, slowly walking around the place. It was messy, yet neat at the same time. Ignoring the growing dust-layer on the furniture, Athena's eyes scanned around the place, a tear drop simply gliding down her face.
However, as she's been told and reminded multiple times before (by herself and others), it'll only hurt more to dwell on the past. Maybe, she wouldn't be able to move on from their disappearances, but she refuses to just do nothing and cry. No. She's going to grow, and become a better version of herself, just to make them proud.
She inhaled deeply, then exhale. She continued walking around their house, turning the lights on and such. James had quickly gone back to his house, placing his items back (he actually wanted to accompany the two first but after Athena reassured him that they would be fine, he - hesitantly - agreed).
Ignoring sad thoughts rushing through her mind, she quickly waved her hand on the couch, ridding the dust and such, and placing Teddy there. Teddy just looked at her sadly, making grabby hands at her with a pout.
Athena chuckled, kneeling down in front of the boy. "I'm sorry Ted, Athena has to get up and clean the house now. Seeing as papa and dada didn't do so before they left."
It's not like they had the choice.
Athena smiled softly, ignoring her thoughts as she kissed Teddy's forehead. "How 'bout I put on a muggle show for you, yeah? That always steals your attention, right?"
Athena went to grab the remote of the muggle television they had, grinning when it had successfully turned on. She had flipped through the channels until she stopped at the channel that was playing 'Calliou'.
She had placed his dummy (pacifier) in his mouth. She then watched as he slowly started to get entertained by the show, then leaving him in the living room to clean up a bit. She hasn't even gone outside the house, nor go upstairs, hence why she started to do so.
Starting off outside, Athena made her way to the front door, stopping as her eyes laid on the pile of letters on the floor. She carefully picked them up, hoping that there were no bugs or dust mites in between the pile. Thankfully, there wasn't.
So she started opening them one by one, and upon reading them, emotional tears started streaming down her face, and not bad ones- good ones actually.
The letters she had just received were from people she knew, Draco, Neville, Blaise, Molly, and a few others from work checking in to see if she and her family, ya know... weren't ashes.
Relief filled her, knowing that these letters were somewhat recent. They all weren't gone, and she was so fucking happy.