The obliviates | An MCU fanfic

5: The ascended

Steve pushes open the old garage's heavily rusted slide door. It squeeks and shutters as it reveals an absolutely empty room.
"This is our base", he proclaims.
The group looks all but enthousiastic.
"There's nothing in it", Yeona complains.
"There will be. We're gonna have to start from nothing. From now on we'll start training to defeat any opponent coming our way", Steve guides us inside.
"Can't you defeat them all on your own", I ask.
"This team isn't about me. All of you are gonna gear up against threats that aren't as problematic for the big guns, but threats to people nonetheless."
"With big guns you mean the Avengers, right", Akina asks.
Steve gives a stern nod. "We'll have to scramble stuff together to make this high tech enough to funcion for all of us, but for now we'll stick to base training, building some muscle, developing your powers."
"This is about my leg day comment isn't it", I groan.
"We saw some of our enemies at the Cunningham's last time. Though their powers aren't spectacular, they all have some. The guy you encountered Evine, we call him Oracle, he can read people's emotions and manipulate them."
Evine balls her fists.
"The blue girl you encountered Kelvin, that's Black Ice. She can alter her appearence to like like anyone she's seen."
"She wasn't disguised then", I note.
"That's because it was supposed to be an ordinary dinner. Beside Geoff, who calls himself Warlock, there's three others. They call themselves the Ascended."
"They really love themselves huh", Evine says snarky.
"What's Warlock's power", Akina asks.
"He can sense people with powers", Sergio takes over. "They plan to take out the so called big guns. They're not idiotic enough to go after them presently, so they're climbing the superhero ladder, taking them down one-by-one."
"The Avengers will probably start noticing them along the way, but the damage will already be done by then. The plan is to stop them as soon as possible", Steve comments.
"Do we know where they'll strike next. We can't wait too long", Evine says impatiently.
"Precisely why I'm getting to work right away. Surely theres something to reveal in the data we extracted from them", Sergio walks away, laptop in hand.
"So his powers are...", Akina looks at Yeona.
"We called him Datamind. He's basically the internet on feet. He can access the internet from anywhere and extract data from certain distances. He's the guy in the chair", she responds.
"What about you", I ask. "What did they call you?"
"I dubbed myself Lady Aether. I can manipulate matter, though for now that just means I can create holes as form of teleportation."
"Then teleport Markus over here", Evine says annoyed.
"It's not that simple. I need to know the location I'm creating a rift to. Visualise the area, preferably having visited the place."
"We'll get him back as soon as possible, we're a team now. We're not leaving anyone behind", I try to reassure her.
"We did leave him behind. We could have gone back. I... I shouldn't have listened to you", she looks at Steve.
"Look, the outcome wasn't ideal, but we needed to get out of there", he says in a calm voice.
"To what, to come back again later. He was right there", she's getting upset. Her voice getting louder, her expression more serious.
"They could've captured more of us. We weren't ready for the fight yet", Steve says.
"Then why'd we go", she's yelling at this point. "Why didn't YOU go. Is your anonymity that important to you? God knows what they're willing to do to him. We're an unknown threat, didn't you consider they'll come after us now?" Her normally calm exterior is broken down completely.
There's a silence in the room. They're both making solid points. Steve's mysteriousness is getting to a peak now. He's not letting up.
"We'll be ready next time. This was an opportunity we couldn't miss. I'm sorry the outcome wasn't ideal, but we have their data now. We can find them back. Take a break soldier", Steve's compassionate way of speaking makes my heart flutter. Not everyone else's apparently.
"You're not the one I take orders from", Evine says as she storms out.
Everyone looks a bit down.
"Let's all take a moment", Akina breaks the silence. "To let this sink in and all. It's quite a lot."
Bless her kind heart. Everyone dispurses, I decide to look for Evine.

"Your bond goes quite deep it seems", I enter the room she holed herself up in. She seems to be meditating or praying, some kind of combination of the two.
"It's not that. I haven't known him long. But at least I know him", she opens her eyes.
"It must be lonely, not having a place in the world", I walk into the room and sit down with her.
"I've lived an entire live. I've had families, dreams, goals... And then I ended up in the afterlife. I was together with my love. My dream had been fulfilled. We were gonna spend eternity together. I only met Markus for a small period of time, I assumed I'd never see him again. People get reborn all the time. Apparently I do too..."
"But you didn't just get reborn, didn't you?"
"It's like I passed away all over again, and stayed mortal just the same. This isn't the world I used to live in anymore. I'm like a fell angel, a disgrace to the gods", she shakes her head.
"I don't know much about gods, but I don't think you're a disgrace. What if you were brought here for a greater purpose", I consider.
"I made a sacrifice in Markus's name. I got punished for it. I wonder if I'll have to spend eternity here, with people that won't last along with it", she's really deep in it. "The closest thing to eternal beings are the spirits, that's why I spoke to them just now."
"You can talk to ghosts", I ask until the shok hits me. "Ghosts are real?"
Evine giggles. "They're all around us. Ever since I came back, I was able to see beings mortals cannot. Our communication doesn't go through words, so language barriers aren't an issue. 
Sometimes the frequencies pick up radio stations too, so on occasionI just listen the to music."
"That doesn't sound scary at all. Lovely even. It's a nice, kind of eerie, sentiment to know none of us are ever alone", reposition myself on the cold, hard floor.
"That's why love and faith is so important. It lasts beyond the borders of our existence. I don't know anything else that does", her way of phrasing shows the beauty in her wisdom. It also seems to have calmed her down. "Do you have anyone you love", she asks innocently.
All I can do is smile brightly.

We're at the end of our training session. I'm exhausted enough to sleep for a lifetime. It really showed our poor condition. Yeona and Sergio were surprisingly good however. Evine didn't show up unfortunately. I walk over to Steve afterwards.
"I have to ask you something", my tone is serious, very unlike myself.
"I'm not giving you time off", he chuckles. His grins fades as he reads my face.
"I need to know your intentions. I need to know because... Well, I need to know what our motivation is here. What my motivation is. I trust you Steve, but I don't want to follow you blindly because I admire you so much. I want to follow you because I believe in doing the right thing. And currently, I don't know what that thing is. Yeah, we're gonna stop some bad guys, but anyone else might've been able to. You disappeared from the world, to randomly show up with vague intentions. What if you're not even really the Captain I saw on television. This might as well be a pyramid scheme. So I'm asking you, what are your intentions?"
Steve is taken aback by my sudden outburst. He places his hand on my shoulder and walks with me out of the room.
"I spoke to you about leaving a legacy. There is more to that", he looks troubled speaking his truth. "Believe it or not, but in order to save the world, we time traveled. As you may know I'm not from this time myself, so eventually I went back. Back to the woman I owed a dance to, the woman I love."
"You used present tense... So why'd you return here", my heart sinks to the ground, crumbling into pieces.
"I got family in this timeline too. After spending a while with Peggy I realised, I didn't know those people anymore either. I left Peggy heartbroken, though she did understand. I used my last trip to come back here. Everything changed after the blip, and I've realised I made a mistake. People moved on. Though I could try to reforge those bonds, I've ultimately already lost the days I used to have here. I've decided to go home to Peggy, the love of my life. But I'm using this opportunity to leave likeminded individuals in charge of this new era. To protect the family I have here", his sincerety is beautiful, if only I could hear them through the spinning of my head. If only I could read his face through my upcoming tears. I'm such an idiot. What delusion have I been living in.
"Are you okay", I hear Steve say. He has a fallen sadness on his face. I open my mouth to say the words but...

"Status report Captain", Sergio enters the room. I quickly wipe my face. "The ascended are headed to China. According to sources there'll be a black market auction. I'm confident they're willing to sell the Pym particles."

"Then let's suit up", Steve says after a moment of silence, marching out of the room.