For You, The World

Chapter The Eleventh

New York, New York, 2012 ACE

"Now I don't mean to complain, but how and why exactly did I go from a watch list to being pulled from my home for you people?" Kaia asked, picking at her fingernails, "I had plans."

"Yeah, you look like you had plans," The younger Stark scoffed, "What were they exactly? Spend the rest of eternity dusting that bookshelf? Maybe write a new novel while you're at it?"

Kaia stood up, beginning to pace around the penthouse floor she'd ended up on. She really had had plans, to go visit Druig again, but when Tony Stark and two Shield agents came knocking at her door, she really had no other choice.

She hadn't been entirely sure how she'd ended up on Shield's watch list, but if she had to guess it would probably have been somewhere between befriending Howard Stark in the 50s, and coming forward with information when Thor had leveled a town a few years back. Still, she ended up here, in Stark Tower either way.

"Well, lets see, how do I put this? You remember Thor?"

She nearly scoffed at the question, "Of course I remember Thor."

"Well, his brother is sending an army of aliens to attack New york."

"What do you want me to do about it?" She laughed, "I don't work for you people, and I have no intention of working for you people."

"Do you have something against working for shady people?"

"Yes actually. I do. The last time I actually went on a mission for anyone... Well, let's just say I don't see those people anymore." 

Stark sighed, crossing his arms, "Look, I get it you're trying to do the whole angsty, 'nobody knows my back story and I'm mysterious as all shit' thing, but we really do need your help. You are the only one with a background in fighting aliens, so..."

Kaia weighed her options for a moment. This would make a good story to tell, but... she risked too much by joining them. A thing like this would draw too much attention, and the whole point was to help and stay unnoticed.

"Okay, here's the thing, you're having a whole entire internal debate and monologue right now... we don't have time for that."

Kaia sighed, "You are so damn lucky I owe your father one, and that I keep my suit in my go bag."

That was how Kaia found herself caught up in what seemed to be an invasion of Chitarui. She looked up at the wormhole, and the faint outlines of things that began to move through. Dealing with them in Norway had been hard enough, "And here I was thinking I would never have to see one of these things again."

The human with the bow and arrow, Clint, looked at her strangely, "I'm sorry, what?"

She just shook her head, preparing for the battle to come.

The Amazon Rainforest, Peru, 2012

"Do you remember the Chitari?"

Druig looked up, confused. Ever since Kaia's late arrival to the village, she'd been acting strange, but now this question seemed even stranger.

"Yes, I remember them."

She sighed, looking down at the ground, "They attacked New York. Loki led them. The humans stopped them... with a little of my help."

"I was under the impression that Loki was dead." He frowned.

"So was I. I'm worried that as bigger threats come, we won't be able to help them anymore."

"We'll manage, I'm sure of it."

Wakanda, 2018 ACE

This was not what Kaia had thought she had signed up for by helping the humans in 2012. She'd heard of Thanos, and his plans before, but she didn't think that she would be there working to stop him, not when the humans had become so capable. And yet, there she stood, because while they had become capable, the Avengers had also become used to her help.

The Wakandan field was dry, and empty except for the soldiers who stood in wait. Long ago, Kaia would have been anxious to fight in a field like that, so far from her element, with no water to wield, but over the millennium, and especially since meeting the avengers, her ranger of powers had grown, taking on the traits of her sort of team mates.

She watched, quietly, as the creatures Thanos commanded, that seemed a little too close to deviants for her taste, rushed against the forcefield that surrounded the city. Distantly, she wondered what any of the others would be doing in her position.

Kaia wasn't sure what had happened, or how they had lost, but she did know that one moment she had been standing in the field, watching humans crumble away into dust, and the next she was floating in the void yet again, Arishem towering over her.

"You really have taken on the other side of you," He seemed to laugh, "Taking on so many others powers. I'll bet you even enjoyed taking power from them."

"You're gloating, as if you weren't the one who suffered the loss."

The void seemed to crush in around her, and his voice echoed again, "You may be lucky for Thanos' success, but it will not stop me for long. Your precious avengers will want nothing more than to bring back the dead. And when they do... Kaia, there will be no stopping me."

"That's what you think!" She spat.

"How will you stop me? You're already tearing yourself apart- how will you manage to save everyone, if you can't even save yourself?"

His words echoed in her ears as the void was whisked away, to be replaced by the Wakandan battlefield. Something in her chest felt stuck, and quickly, she dug through her pockets, retrieving her sling ring and quickly opening a portal back to her home.

She had all but fallen through it, exhausted, both physically and mentally, as she came to crash into her bed.

Arishem's words about her being, and her powers, forced herself to reflect. Something about it, the idea that it had gone far enough that she hardly used her own powers anymore, it disgusted her. How could she really give in to that side of her so much?

Kaia's mind raced, but no matter how much she wanted to go and seek Druig's comfort, she couldn't force herself to move, and it seemed like she wouldn't for a very long time.