The Last Avenger [What If...? x DCAMU Crossover]

24. A Very Short Chapter That Begins Well and Ends Badly

Indiana Stark, A.K.A. Tony Stark's little sister, became the deadliest woman known to man.

And there came a day unlike any other when, Earth's Mightiest Heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, she joined the Avengers.

This is what she does now that they're gone.

You get five minutes of happiness. And then...

Gotham City,

December 20, 2015

I sat cross-legged on top of a slab of beers, with my coat thrown loosely over my shoulder, and watched my friend. Yelena had taken over the grill tonight and show us all how to make fudge on the barbeque. It was late and everyone had turned in for the night, leaving me and Yelena on the roof. The cold had continued to intensify, along with the hours of darkness. There was a pit of magical green cool aid in the basement. This was shaping up to be one hell of a Christmas.

Yelena talked and I listened. With everything going on I was straight up squirrelly. The League of Assassins? You can run from that. You can hide from that. If you have to, you can fight that.

But the assassin already after me was unknown? Someone who enjoyed playing with their food, who enjoyed the hunt? That set me on edge.

And don't even get me started on Batman. I was still trying to figure out if I'd hallucinated the whole thing, and he actually hadn't kissed me.

So this was what I did every night, after everyone knocked off for the night. Sat on the roof on a stakeout. And let me tell you; stakeouts aren't all they're cracked up to be, after the first forty-five minutes it's pretty slow going.

I lifted a beer to my lips and a pair of binoculars to my eyes and watched the street for any Tracksuits.

Yelena was surprised to find out I spoke Russian, but a huge smile soon spread over her face. She recognised my accent as from the Komi Republic, because that was where her mother worked for most of the Cold War. Her mother, Natya, was a Night Witch who'd lied her way into the forces when she was sixteen. After the war she worked as a nurse in the Vorkuta Gulag.

"Can I ask, your mother, why she was there?"

Even here in Gotham I couldn't escape that other place.

"You mean, what did she do to be assigned that position in Vorkuta?"

I nodded slowly, finishing the bottle before cracking another beer.

"Believe it or not, Jane, she volunteered to go there." She lowered her voice. "My family always believed in a... greater good." She nodded at the sky. Just like in the HYDRA base, it was forbidden to talk about religion in the Gulags, something that Natya must've passed down to Yelena, but I understood what she was getting at. "My parents devoted their lives to helping others. In fact, my father died doing so, fighting a fire. I tried to honour them by carrying on their mission, but I had dreams of America."

"At least you tried, that's the most any of us can do," I said, feeling slightly overwhelmed by this confession. "But you do honour them, maybe not in the way you wanted, but I don't know what I'd do without your fudge."

Yelena laughed at me from where she was standing. When her laugher petered out, she became very serious. "Can I be honest, Jane Wallace?"

"Da, of course."

Yelena's eyebrows creased as she spoke. "I must admit I did believe, broadly, in the project of the Soviet Union – the Motherland calling and all that – but I am an American citizen now – Land of the Free, you know – it is quite different to be here. Does that make me a traitor?"