𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 || 𝘙𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦-𝘢𝘯𝘥-𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵
FOR FOUR MONTHS, NATASHA HAD HELD ONTO THOSE DOG TAGS. Waiting for the moment that Carter would intervene once more. Spew his information for their Earth's future like some type of psychic. Constantly wondering if they'd just ushered in the end of days. Those thoughts led her to be more cautious, not only about what she did but about what the rest of the team did as well. And the problem with this was that she didn't know what the Extinction Entity was. She didn't know if it stood amongst her or was in the near future. That alone had her nerves spiked to a dangerous delusion.
She'd bounced ideas off of Steve and the rest of the team. Searching for a female with powerful abilities that could be dangerous to the world. But they came up with nothing that could give them a hint at the person Carter mentioned. The only information she and the rest of the team had was that this "Entity" was female and would be found down the path they walked–it was inevitable.
And that gave Natasha more anxiety than she'd liked to admit. Constantly wary of every step she took, every action she did. She was carrying most of the weight of this responsibility on her shoulders. The reason is that "contents are fragile. Like the world and everything in it."
But she knew that if they were drawing closer to the moment things would change, he would show up. He didn't outright shoot down the idea of helping them. If he had been to other universes, then he's helped, other Avengers. This then means the idea of him helping them wouldn't be entirely out of the question than what the rest of the team seemed to believe.
So, as she stood over the precipice of a cliffside, she stared at the dog tags whilst the team acted on their assault toward the castle. They'd gotten gamma radiation sensors going off in Sokovia. She'd gathered the team as the Sceptre was their first target so Thor could bring it back to Asgard. And much like the past few bases they've cleared, Natasha felt an unsettling amount of nausea in her stomach.
"Natasha, we're moving in," Steve announced. "Do you copy?"
The woman blinked a few times and swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yeah, I copy," she replied. "Making my way in now."
Upon turning around, Natasha inhaled when she saw that golden mask when she turned around. Her lips parted to speak, but he hushed her. "Shh," he interjected. "Don't wanna get the team all antsy before the mission starts, do you?"
Natasha stepped out of his way as he walked past her. Humming deeply as he tilted his head back slightly. "Is she here?" Natasha mused. "The Extinction Entity?"
Carter let out a quiet snicker. "Oh, she's here alright." He paused, feeling that familiar shiver run down his spine. "I can feel her in my bones."
"What do we do if we capture her?" Natasha asked as she stood beside the man.
He glanced at her and scoffed. "The number of times you have asked me that is unbelievable," he sighed. "I'm starting to believe you are always nervous when it comes to this part."
And for a moment, Natasha's lips curled into a tiny smile. "Who said I was nervous?"
"The other five of you." His deadpan made Natasha purse her lips and shift on her feet. "We're all wearing masks of our own. Hiding some truth from the world that no one would be able to handle or understand."
"Then what's my mask?" Natasha crossed her arms over her chest. She was curious. Carter could see it in her eyes as fighting ensued in the background.
His eyes inspected her from the ground up before turning fully toward her. Pressing his lips together with a faint glimmer of sympathy. "You are haunted by your past, Nat," he said. "You resent your family and miss your siblings. You want a family, a domesticated life, but with the Red Room, they fucked you up pretty badly, huh?"
If he knew everything, she knew he knew the answer to the question. "So badly that you want to make things right," he continued. "Wipe the slate clean and make up for your wrongdoings. You want to prove to yourself that you aren't the monster you once were. And most of all, you want to give Nova something more than the work life you two share."
Natasha pursed her lips as she watched him open his hand. She handed him the dog tags, which he clipped around his neck. "But the mask can come off sometimes," he muttered. "Even when it doesn't seem right."
It felt unnatural for someone else to unravel the truths of her life. In all honesty, Natasha hated it. Fury knew of her past, as well as Clint. Those were the people she trusted. But she couldn't have expected anything less from someone like Carter. After all, he'd been to places she couldn't even imagine.
Her thousand-yard stare was broken by Carter letting out a chuckle. Looking out across the landscape as he flickered down the bracelet cuffed to his wrist. Pinching the tiny red bead that hung attached to the leather band.
"There won't be no need for masks soon," he told her. "Meeting your possible demise brings focus to the mind. It makes people like us honest."
He teleported, and Natasha flinched as she turned around to find him staring at her with that familiar smirk. His once-seeming vulnerable state is walled off with his usual attitude. Something she had mixed feelings about.
"When you meet death–look into her eye," he snapped his fingers, grinning ear to ear when she blinked, "will you blink?"
Carter took a few steps away as he extended his arms out by his sides. "I'll see you down there, spider."
With a flicker, Carter was gone. Natasha didn't waste a moment longer hopping into the jeep she had stolen. Picking up Clint when the battle began. "I might want to add, Carter, is here."
"And you didn't think that was good to announce when you saw him?" Tony asked. He had a sore spot when it came to Carter. Primarily because one of his monsters nearly ate him alive when they first encountered him.
"Who is this Carter being you speak of?" Thor then questioned after destroying a jeep with Mjolnir.
"Oh, he's just a guy from a whole different universe come to make sure our planet doesn't go into extinction," Nova replied. "You know, casual guy."
"Focus on the mission," Steve told the group. "We'll deal with Carter when it comes to that."
While they were preoccupied with fighting Strucker's HYDRA soldiers, Carter was watching from a distance. Glancing down at his wrist pad to see he was slowly hacking into the Avenger's communications. Lifting his mask into the air, an ocean of ink began to cover the land as golden essence emerged from the mask.
The same two large beasts landed on either side of Carter as he clipped the mask to his face. "I feel you, Wanda," he mused. "I won't fail you this time. Even if I have to kill our friends to stop it from happening."
Tony was quick to notice the snow slowly fading to a black on the ground. A very noticeable shake of the surface is heard in a methodical boom. "Uh, we might have a problem," he announced. "Carter's close. Be cautious of possible giant ink monsters."
They continued to fight towards Stucker's castle. Somewhere along the way, Clint was hit and quickly taken back to the Quinjet by Natasha. Meanwhile, Thor stayed in the forest, disposing of any remaining HYDRA soldiers.
As Steve marched up to the front gates of the castle, he could hear a roar cut through the air. His pace quickened through the front gates to find Carter standing in front of one of his beasts. Watching the creature swallow a HYDRA member whole and not daring to stop it.
Steve was unsure of how to feel about Carter. He was between trusting the man and not. The middle ground between Tony and Natasha who didn't either know what to think about this masked man. But he trusted what they believed, and that made it hard when both looked at Carter very differently.
"You going to tell your dog to spit him out?" Steve asked as Carter hummed.
"History is written by the victors, Steven," Carter quoted with a tiny chuckle. "I plan to rewrite your future, Steve. So, picking a few bad apples doesn't hurt anybody."
"Can I trust you?" Steve interjected as Carter finally turned to him.
But before he could answer, Tony appeared Nova by his side. Both hovering with their repulsors aimed at him. "No, you can't," he replied. "We'll take him on three, all right?"
Carter looked down at his wrist and smiled as the screen flashed green. With a cocky turn to Tony, he pressed his fingers to his earpiece. "Do you want to try that, Tony?"
"How'd you get into our communications?" Natasha questioned over the line.
With a hidden smirk, Carter pointed at Tony accusingly, but mockingly out of amusement. "Tony did," he stated. "That's the best part of being too different universes. Things can be so different, but so..." He swayed his hand before snapping his fingers as if he had just had an epiphany. "The same," he chuckled. "You don't change Tony. You should get J.A.R.V.I.S. on that. Your coding is child's play to me at this point."
"And who taught you to hack it?" Tony asked.
"Well," Carter paused, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips, "you did, old pal. Taught me everything about tech. We used to get drunk all the time and torment Rogers when he slept."
"That does sound like something Tony would do," Natasha pointed out.
"We must've been friends in your other universes," Nova added.
"Enough," Tony interrupted. "I've given you this chance to not screw with me. We work together and then we get an explanation of what the hell you are doing here."
And surprisingly, Carter raises his hands in surrender. "Fine by me," he agreed. "Just don't go killing death. You might not like what she can do."
His constant riddles or enigmatic wording pissed Tony off every single time. But the billionaire dealt with it, for the time being, wordlessly flying off as Carter whistled. The two large beasts fell into a pit of ink that soaked through the concrete and cracks before disappearing completely. No evidence besides what was witnessed from the eye.
The three went their respective ways into the castle. Carter opened up his hands, a shimmer appeared before a pistol landed in his grasp. Just in time for him to shoot two HYDRA soldiers that went running down the end of the hall.
He continued down the halls, taking out any HYDRA soldier he saw. Feeling the gravitational pull that he's felt over and over again in each universe. "Wanda!" He called out. "Wanda, come to me."
"We're locked down out here," Natasha announced.
"Then get to Banner," Steve replied. "Time for a lullaby. Carter, how are we with the Extinction Entity?"
The man hummed. "Still looking," he said. "Your mind is strong Captain, don't let her play with it too much."
Carter strolled into a room, eyes flickering around and piecing together that it was a bedroom. It's bare with only the grey brick walls giving it life. But in the corner beside a bed sat a multitude of pictures.
He walked closer, taking one in his hands and looking over it. The description and coherency of it were scribbled out. But he could make out the gold-faced figure that had black surrounding him. A tiny smile formed on his lips as he stared at the drawing intently.
It was short-lived as Steve's voice came over the comms saying, "We have a second Enhanced," he announced. "Female. Is that who we're looking for, Locke?"
And before he could respond, the pull of energy grew ten-fold. Its pleasing climate was like strawberries and whipped cream. So very little, but so delicious to eat. "I see you know me."
"Who are you?" That rich Solkovian accent brought a smile to Carter's lips.
He sighed as he folded the paper in half and stuffed it in his pocket. Turning to meet that all too familiar face that held curiosity and caution. Just like every time.
"I am offended, Wanda," he chuckled. "Is this how you react to everyone from your dreams? Your knight in shining gold armour? Some guy come to save you? This is everything you've ever wanted."
The woman clenched her jaw, eyes sharpening, yet didn't match the dullness of her words. "You don't know me."
A laugh erupted from Carter's chest, shaking his head as he said, "Oh, but I do."
Wanda blinked and he was gone. Hearing the flash of electricity behind her, she could barely respond in time for his mask to be placed on her face. Her body was being lifted in the air as she gasped, whimpering from the suffocation and shock that was flowing through her.
But he shushed her gently. "I know," he whispered. "I know it hurts, but you're stronger than you think. Just hold out a little longer and then the mask can come off. It always does."
Wanda stared at Carter, remembering him from her dreams. The nightmares. Seeing him standing in an ocean of red. It frightened her every single time. Yet, she found him interesting, in some twisted way. Why him? She often asked herself that question but earned nothing in response.
Pushing the thought aside, Wanda tensed her fingers with a red tendril flowing out. But before it could reach his temple, he grabbed it out of the air. She gasped at the sight as he looked down at it with a sigh. Hearing him clicking his tongue with a shake of his head.
"Mind manipulation?" He mused. "Really? I may be a goddamn fool, but this is insulting, Maxi. After everything I've done, you're going to use the oldest trick in the book? At least show some damn decency."
She watched as the red seeped into his hand, sucking the energy of her powers. But he couldn't get a lot as in a current of white and grey, he was kicked into a wall. Pietro grabbed Wanda out of the air and pulled the mask from her face, tossing it aside. Wrapping his arms around her, they both looked at the man who began to laugh.
That laugh turned into a cackle as he stood to his feet. Wiping the dust off his clothes, he glanced back at the sizable crack in the stone infrastructure. "Well, damn, Pietro," he muttered, looking at the twins. "Still pack a damn punch, man."
He brushed his hand down his combat gear, lifting his hood back over his head with a sigh. "Get to it," he dismissed with a wave. "I'll be seeing you two very, very soon. You can count on it, sweetheart."
Pietro glanced at his sister and then Carter before speeding away. Carter grabbed his mask off the ground and attached it to his balaclava. The absorption of Wanda's energy flows through him like a tsunami. Satisfying every sensation scattered across his body, resembling a shot of adrenaline. This was different from the others. There was so much power.
His lips slowly curled into a grin as he sighed. A golden mist slipped past his lips.
"No more games, Wanda. I'm coming for you."