A Heart Break In Time

I Used The Stones To Destroy The Stones.

The rest of us walked to the lab in silence. I wasn't sure if no one knew what to say or if everyone was caught up in their own thoughts like I was. How do you decide to trust someone when the whole reason you knew them is so they could betray you?

They were supposed to just relay information. We didn't have to become friends in the process. But we did. And they do care about us. Not to mention, we can't really let them leave with Maria. And we certainly won't be able to have Maria stay if we kick the rest of them out. And she needs us right now.

When we got to the lab, Shuri was immediately yelling to us. "It's Maria!"

"What?" We all questioned.

"The lab. The communications on the mission. It was Maria. Both things happened when she woke up." Shuri explained, flustered and overwhelmed.

"Sister, calm down. Explain it to them." T'Challa placed a hand on her shoulder.

Shuri took a deep breath. "Each time Maria has woken up, something must interact with her brain waves, producing a pulse of energy creating a powerful electromagnetic field which results in our systems short circuiting."

"So Maria is an EMP bomb?" Is that possible? Well, given her sisters abilities, it doesn't sound unreasonable.

"Do you think she knows?" Clint asked.

Bruce shrugged. "She might. But I don't know how much control over it she would have. The only things not impacted by it have been the things powered by the Arc Reactor. So her cell, FRIDAY, and the regular power."

I turned to T'Challa. "Do you still have eyes on Bucky? How is he?"

"Still unconscious." Shuri answered with a smirk. "We have his general location, we're looking for the exact coordinates now. It won't be long. His vitals are fine, so they're not harming him in any way."

I sighed. "Thank goodness. Okay. So, we really need to break everything down." I sat down in one the chairs. "Bucky, Maria, the spies, Fury..." I rubbed my temple. "We gotta figure all this out."

"We'll I can answer one of those problems." Sam spoke. I turned and saw him with his arms crossed, his face emotionless. "We can kick the three of them out. Problem solved."

"Sam-"

"Talia, don't." He turned away from me.

I stepped towards him. "Wanda showed us their memories. They care about us. We saw it."

"They were spies!" Sam snapped, glaring at me.

"So was I!" I stood in front of him. His face softened. I continued. "I was a spy too. I was an assassin. Natasha and I both. And then Clint saved us. He had no reason to trust us. He couldn't read our minds. And he trusted us anyway." I looked back at Clint. "I wouldn't be here without him. And if Natasha were here, you know damn well what she'd say."

Sam looked at the ground. He didn't respond but Clint answered. "We don't judge someone based on their worst mistakes."

"We don't have to trust them fully, Sam. But they need us. They don't have anywhere else to go. And they stopped talking to Fury. And Maria... we can't kick her out right now. She needs us. They all need us." I grabbed his hand. "You don't have to forgive her. You don't have to be with her. But you know that kicking them out isn't right."

"Okay. Yeah. Fine." Sam sighed. "Well then that's settled. They can stay. On a probationary period."

"That's reasonable." Rhodey agreed. "FRIDAY can lock down parts of the compound from them."

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. All agreed, then. With Fury... he's not going to be a problem right away. He's not going to come to us with a fight at the very least so... I vote we table that issue."

"Makes sense to me." Steve nodded. "So. The final situation, Bucky."

"As soon as we have a precise location, we can be ready to move." T'Challa replied.

"How long?" I turned to look at Shuri.

She looked at the computer for a moment and then turned to me. "Based on how fast its computing... within thirty minutes."

I exhaled with relief. "Okay, great."

"They're not coming." Sam spoke as if he read my mind. What were we going to do? Locking them all up seemed cruel but...

"Wait. Maria." I looked at Shuri. "You said she's an EMP. If she can control it..."

Sam grabbed my arm. "Talia, you can't be serious. We just got her back from them! And you want to trust her on a rescue mission?"

"That would benefit us immensely... they wouldn't be able to connect each other. And they surely wouldn't be expecting her to help us already." Bruce added.

"We could keep her by the jet. Guarded." T'Challa offered.

Steve seemed hesitant but agreed. "It would help us a lot... Do you think she'd do it?"

"One way to find out." I walked back to the cell.