Several days after the decimation the remaining Avengers decided to return to their compound, they needed to get to work. Okoye worried over Kal, she had not spoken a word since that fateful day and suggested that she return to New York with the Avengers in hopes that she might find purpose with them and it would help her friend heal over time.
"The world needs the Avengers right now and they could use your help M'Kali, there is nothing for you here for you" Okoye pleaded.
Kal glared at her, her eyes filled with anguish and tears welling in the corners.
"I'm sorry M'Kali, you know what I mean my friend please do not be angry with me"
"She's right Kal, we are short handed and the world is in chaos" Steve interjected "We need you, will you help us?"
Kal just nodded and walked past them into her room with out a word or a look in their direction. She shut the door behind her and slid down to the floor sobbing quietly into her hands, the world needed the Avengers, they needed her, but she needed him, only him.
After several minutes she pushed herself off the ground and dragged the two cases that once held her and Bucky's combat gear into her closet and started haphazardly throwing things into them. Once she was done in the closet she went to the bathroom and grabbed an arm load of personal items dropping them inside, there was a slight knock on the door before it opened and Steve walked in holding her combat gear folded neatly in his neatly in his hands.
"Don't want to forget these"
Kal looked at him blankly taking the items and carelessly dumped them into the case nearest her. Steve smiled at her weakly and picked up a picture from the night stand, it was of Kal and Bucky on his birthday after he had proposed. Both had big smiles that spread through their eyes, his arms were wrapped around her tightly and her left hand was placed on his chest displaying the diamond ring perfectly.
"I don't think I have ever seen him so happy in my life" Steve said sorrowfully.
Kal snatched the picture out of his hands sharply but then her indignant resolve deteriorated when she looked down at the the frame in her hand. She let out a weak whimper and dropped to her knees crying, Steve sat down beside her pulling her into his arms while she let out her despair, though he tried to hold them in tears fell from his eyes which he quickly wiped away with the heal of his hand.
Kal took several deep breaths trying to calm herself before getting up pulling Steve up with her, she smiled at him gratefully, she had no idea what to say to the man or anyone for that matter afraid that if she opened her mouth she would scream and not be able to stop. She looked down at the picture in her hand again with a sigh then grabbed one of Bucky's sweaters from the closet gently wrapping it around the frame before carefully setting it in the case, she then grabbed several more of his shirts, including the one he last wore and placed them inside as well. Kal looked around the room at other pictures and items that reminded her of everything that she had lost, deciding to leave them in her home where they belonged.
With Steve's help she covered her furniture with dust clothes and Okoye promised to take care of the home in her absence, before leaving she took one last look at her home as if Bucky might run out to stop her.
Steve and Natasha had located a modified pager next to Fury's abandoned SUV which was emitting a strong signal that had been initiated seconds after the snap. Back at the compound Bruce was able to override the battery to keep the signal strength up while they ran diagnostics on both the pager and the world census. Kal still did not speak but tended to gravitate to Thor who also remained relatively silent, they often sat in the courtyard of the compound brooding and glaring into the void with Thor occasionally would take off using the Bifrost at which time Kal would walk off to the woods on her own.
After a couple of weeks from when they found the pager the signal suddenly stopped and a woman appeared, Carol Danvers who Fury had met back in the nineties and had extraordinary powers including the ability to fly and survive in space. Carol offered to attempt to locate Tony and the others, but they had no idea where to begin. Rocket and Carol were leading a meeting where a strategy to locate them was being developed when Kal walked in the room, her eyes were dark, her hair was dull, she was wearing one of Bucky's sweaters and jeans with bare feet. She looked like she hadn't slept in days or weeks even, in fact Steve was sure that she hadn't as he and the rest of the team had often woken to her cries and screams in the night. The sight of the small, fragile woman in front of him broke Steve's heart, he should be taking better care of Bucky's girl but he had no idea what to do, they were all so broken.
"I can find your friends" Kal said, her voice was raspy from lack of use.
"What?" The group said almost in unison.
"Why are you just telling us this now!?!" Rocket spoke up angrily "Our friends have been missing for weeks and you can locate them!"
"Enough Rocket" Thor's voice boomed from behind Kal, striding into the room with Storm Breaker in hand "She didn't know she could until now, we've been testing the range of her powers"
"So that's why you've been disappearing Thor?" Rhodey asked getting a curt nod from Thor in response.
Kal stood at the end of the conference table with her arms spread wide at her sides, purple energy encircled her, lifting her feet off the ground, her head tilted back with her eyes closed.
"I've found him" Her voice was almost ethereal.
Kal lifted her head opening her glowing eyes and looked right at Carol, Kal's gaze was boring into her when suddenly Carol's eyes flashed purple as well.
"Got it" Carol said abruptly before running outside and taking off with a shot into the sky.
The energy encircling Kal dissipated causing her to land on shaky legs, Thor held her steady and helped her to the couch in the common room. Natasha noticed that she was shivering and grabbed a blanket covering Kal with it carefully, Bruce gave her a sedative and she was asleep in a matter of moments.
"I get the feeling that this might be her first sleep since the snap" Rhodey said sorrowfully.
"Will she be alright?" Rocket asked, the anger he felt earlier was gone regretting his outburst.
"She has never understood her powers, she had no mentor or guidance and she was afraid of them, so she rarely tested them" Thor sighed.
His hand crackled with electricity and he placed it over her heart sending the energy into her causing her to take a deep breath and her heart rate to slow.
"When she faced Thanos she absorbed the energy from the stones, while it makes her infinitely stronger using it weakens her as it has not yet bonded with her." Thor continued "She isn't just hurting emotionally like the rest of us, she is also in agony trying to hold this new power in"
"How do you know this?" Steve asked.
"She told me" Thor tapped his head.
Steve understood, Thor had lost his entire family as well as her, they had a bond that only they could understand.
"Bruce is there anything you can do for her?" Natasha asked.
"I'm not sure, but it would help if we knew more about what Hydra did to her" Bruce rubbed his chin looking down at the sleeping woman who needed his help "We have Strucker's research that we recovered in Sokovia!"
The team spread themselves out around the common area combing through the boxes of files and photos.
"Guys, I think I found something 'Project Sparrow' it talks about a baby that Strucker was experimenting on" Rhodey exclaimed excitedly.
They spread the contents of the box on the conference table each reading through the documents, Steve picked up a picture of a small girl, no more then two years old only wearing underwear covered in cuts, bruises and burns. The girls deep mahogany eyes starring back at him confirmed it was Kal, Steve stifled his tears.
"Holy shit!" Nat exclaimed grabbing everyone's attention "She's Tony's half sister"
"What are you talking about Nat?"
Nat had one of Strucker's journal's in her hands, she read out loud;
"Our operative, alias Anna Parson successfully infiltrated SHIELD and was able to initiate a romantic relationship with Howard Stark as his mistress which has resulted in a pregnancy. Stark has refused to accept the child as his and demanded that Anna have the child in secret to avoid the scandal from being discovered, his own legitimate child is due any day now. Parson has returned to Hydra to have the baby and has agreed to turn the child over to me for my research. This child is our future, she will usher in a new era of world domination"
"Wait a minute, Tony was born in 1970 and Kal's mother was pregnant at the same time?" Rhodey asked confused "That would make her 47 or 48 years old?"
"I have got to get her skin care routine" Nat said sarcastically.
"They put her into cryostasis between her treatments, she had only aged about four years by the time she was 23 years old" Bruce said reviewing the file in his hands "I think that I've found what I need, but I'm going to need to study it further"
Steve flipped through the journal in his hands, his heart shattered reading what she had endured and how coldly Strucker referred to her as an object, like she couldn't feel.
"How are we going to tell her?" Nat said to no one in particular.
"Not right now, not with all of this..." Thor gestured to documents spread around the table.
They packed up the boxes and carried them into Bruce's lab to help where he could review them out of sight. When they returned to the living room Rocket was standing next to Kal's sleeping form holding her hand and with his other hand on her head, he looked sadly at the ground, with one of Strucker's journals in his waistband.
"She didn't deserve this" Rocket said dismayed.
Rocket knew full well what it was like to be poked, prodded, tormented and tortured, to be made and unmade for someone else's gain. A loud rumbling came from overhead and the compound shook waking Kal.
They rushed outside to see Carol carrying a spaceship, setting it down on the grass in front of the compound. The ramp lowered and blue woman helped a very frail Tony Stark out of the ship, Steve ran up the stairs to help him down. Once they were on the ground Pepper ran up to them and embraced Tony, the couple held each other tightly and wept. The scene was too much for Kal to handle her heart ached for Bucky, she went back inside without a word.
Kal sat on the edge of her bed with the picture of her and Bucky in her hands, silent tears rolled down her face, she didn't flinch or move when Steve sat down next to her.
"That is a great picture, you brought happiness back into his life Kal"
She said nothing and placed the picture back on her nightstand and looked at the floor.
"Kal, there is something that I need to tell you, but I am not sure how to say it"
"Just tell me, I am numb now" She responded stoically.
Steve swallowed the lump in his throat and reached over engulfing her hand in his, he stroked his thumb across her knuckles.
"A few years ago we apprehended Baron Strucker in Sokovia along with his research"
Kal sucked in a breath but nodded to encourage him to keep going.
"When you fell asleep earlier we pulled them out of storage to see if we could find any information on what Strucker did to you so Bruce might be able to help you with controlling your powers, we found something called 'Project Sparrow'"
"That is what they called me" She said monotone.
"Bruce is still going through the files about your abilities and how Strucker gave them to you, but we found information about your family"
"What?! I don't have a family Steve" Kal jumped up and glared at him "My family turned to dust!"
"I know, I am sorry, I meant your birth parents" Steve said with empathy standing in front of her "Your mother went by the name Anna Parson, though we are not sure what her real name is and your father was Howard Stark"
Kal froze starring up at him in shock.
"Anna was a Hydra operative working undercover at SHIELD, her and Howard were having an affair. You were born shortly after Tony in secret and turned over to Strucker"
Kal shook her head crying, it was so much to process. Steve swallowed her up into a hug, but she pulled back looking up at him with teary eyes.
"That means... I-I,I have a brother?"
"Yes it does" Steve smiled down at her.
He reached up and cupped her face swiping away her tears with his thumb, Kal leaned into his hand as it if it were Bucky's for just a moment she lost herself. Then she came back to reality and jerked away from Steve's embrace feeling as if she had just betrayed Bucky.
"I'm sorry, I just, it's just that..."
"It's okay Kal, I understand, I really do. Just know that I am here for you, we all are"
Kal wiped her tears smiling weakly in response, she felt so foolish for the way that she had acted when he was just trying to comfort her.
"Wait, when was I born?"
"We aren't exactly sure, but either 1970 or early 1971"
"That doesn't make sense, I can't be 47 years old, I'm 29!"
"They used cryostasis, same as they did with Bucky between your treatments. Bruce is trying to learn more and now with Tony back they will likely be able to come up with a way to help you sooner rather than later"
"How is he? Does he know?" Kal paused "About me?"
"He's sedated, he's weak and needs time to get his strength back. We haven't told him yet, but Pepper feels it's best if it comes from her"
Later that night Kal slipped down to the infirmary to find Pepper sleeping in a chair next to Tony's bed.
"Pepper"
Kal said softly into Pepper's mind causing her to rouse and look up at Kal sleepily.
"Pepper, go get some rest, I'll stay with him"
She stood giving Kal a soft hug before leaving the room. Kal sat down tentatively in the chair and reached out taking Tony's hand in hers.
"So you're my brother" Kal whispered quietly to the sleeping man.