~Broken Family~

Twinsies

Gwen didn't know what to do with a baby.

He screamed and wailed as Gwen scrambled out of the wreckage, but she was unable to find a way out. What she did find was a hallway, glowing with the creepy emergency lights, with strange noises echoing down them. Water was raining down from the ceiling in a light torrent.

"H--hello?" Gwen called nervously, pushing her slick hair from her eyes and holding Stefan close so he wouldn't get any more wet than he had to. "Anyone there?"

The noises grew louder, evolved into a low growling. Gwen took a step back. The water was making Stefan's scales come out, which caused him to be more slippery. Gwen had to use two hands.

Without waiting to see what the noises were, she turned and ran. Straight into a body.

She screamed and nearly dropped Stefan, but a pair of arms grabbed her shoulders, urging her to be calm, and pulled her into a hug. It was Clint.

"Oh gosh," Gwen whimpered. "You scared me."

"Well, it's about to get a lot scarier!" Clint said as the growls got louder. They bolted down the tunnel, emergency lights casting creepy glows on the pipes, oily and shiny from all the water.

They ran, slipping and sliding in the ankle-high water. What from, Gwen didn't want to find out, but the Infinity Gauntlet was clutched in Clint's grasp tighter than she was holding onto Stefan, so it couldn't have been good.

Tucking the Gauntlet under one arm, Clint dropped explosive arrows in their path.

"Duck!" he screamed as they came to an opening, pure heat surging behind them. A motherly urge to curl herself protectively around Stefan took over her instincts, keeping him safe from the explosion.

They scrambled to their feet and looked behind them, which offered a lovely view of more aliens scrambling over burning alien corpses, and in front of them, which just provided the same course. And above them, a route of escape.

"Gwen," Clint said as he shot a grappling bow and arrow up into the distant vertical tunnel, "can you climb up those walls? Quickly!"

Gwen had hardly nodded before Clint activated the grappling arrow, launching himself into the air. As aliens bit at his ankles, they swarmed Gwen, too. She gave a huge jump straight up into the air and reached out a hand for the wall. Fright made her slip a bit at first, but she cradled Stefan close to her chest, thinking determinedly of Ellie's last wish, and started running sideways up the tunnel.

Finally, after what felt like the longest sideways-run of her life, she and Clint collapsed on a level floor, breaths heaving in their chests. Gwen cradled Stefan close, shushing his gentle cries, which were now genuine. Footsteps approached and when Gwen looked up, Nebula loomed over them.

"Oh, hey," Clint gasped weakly. "I know you."

Nebula reached an arm down to take the Stones from him, which Gwen thought was a gesture of kindness until she reached a hand up to her ear and spoke.

"Father..." she began, making Clint's head raise a little in alarm. "I have the Stones."

"What?" Clint said confusedly, but Nebula planted a boot firmly on his chest and pressed down hard. With a click, she cocked a gun and pointed it at Clint's head. Gwen pushed herself up onto her elbow and scooted back in fear of Stefan.

"Stop," came a commanding voice. Gwen peered into the shadows of the tunnel and spotted Gamora marching out, who also had a gun. She never thought she'd be more annoyed at the sight of guns not for her own safety, but for a wee little thing in her clutches. It was all she could do to not dash down the tunnel she and Clint had just come from, but that would mean facing the alien monsters.

Maybe this is just as bad, she tried to reason as another figure, a second Nebula, stepped out with Gamora.

The first evil Nebula took her foot off Clint's chest and stepped back, but she didn't lower the gun from Clint's head. "You're betraying us?" she rasped.

The second she spotted the second Nebula, she jumped back and fired, giving Clint a chance to scramble to his feet and join Gwen off to the side, taking a protective stance on the floor next to her. He cast a glance down to her arms questioningly.

"Is that---"

"Yes," Gwen hissed. "Ellie...She---"

"You don't have to do this," the second, maybe-good Nebula said, advancing forward a step or two.

"I am this," Evil Nebula countered.

"No, you're not," Second Nebula said, shaking her head. "You've seen what we become."

Evil Nebula cast a desperate glance at Gamora, gave an almost heartbroken shake of the head. Gwen could have been wrong, since Nebula was a cyborg, but she thought she saw tears forming in those cold-dead eyes.

"Nebula, listen to her," Gamora pleaded. Second Nebula nodded, keeping her hands raised in the air.

"You can change."

As Gamora dropped her gun, Evil Nebula smiled and shook her head. 

"He won't let me."

Suddenly, Gamora gave a shout, making Gwen turn her head and shield Stefan alongside Clint, who wrapped her in a tight embrace, keeping one hand over Stefan's small head. When she looked up, Evil Nebula was down on the ground, smoking. A hand went up to her mouth in horrified disgust as she stared at Second Nebula and Gamora, who seemed unfazed by what they had just done. Gwen blinked hard, trying to erase the image of the dead body of Evil Nebula from her mind. But when she opened them, Evil Nebula was still sprawled there, robotic eyes blank and unblinking. A still-smoking hole in her chest that would eventually cool, leaving the body untouched for the rest of eternity.

She shivered.

Clint extended an arm to her and helped her to her feet, taking a moment to look over Stefan to make sure he was okay. His hair wasn't even singed; he was in better shape than anyone else here.

"I know babies," he insisted, offering to take Stefan in his arms. "I've got three of them, after all."

For some reason, Gwen shook her head. She stared down into Stefan's face, now quiet and peaceful. His eyes, now open, were big, green, and wide, just like his father's. Her lip trembled and she hugged him closer.

"I...can't," she whispered. "I need to get him to safety myself."

Clint gave a reluctant nod. "Gwen, I understand. But do you think that you're capable of taking a baby out onto a battlefield, which I'm sure the upper world is right now, and ignore everyone else that needs your help in order to keep him safe?"

Gwen hesitated. "I..."

"Look..." Clint took a deep breath after scooping up the Infinity Gauntlet from the ground. "You can take the Gauntlet to Tony or Bruce, and I can get Stefan to safety. It's the least I can do after what happened. I owe Ellie and Clay this."

Something fierce burned in Clint's eyes: determination. Gwen realized Stefan would get harmed over Clint's dead body; he would protect the baby at all costs. With a nod, she handed him Stefan, but not before he corrected her on how to hold him.

"Babies can't support their necks, see," he said, staring down into Stefan's face with a smile. He turned his eyes back up to Gwen and stiffly nodded. "I'll get him out of here and try to search for Ellie when I'm done. You sure you got the Gauntlet?"

Gwen scoffed and hefted the giant, charred glove fitted with the glowing stones.

"This old thing? Sure I do."