ATHENA | peter parker

49 | i used to have nothing

I changed the time jump from five years to one because of the story and I don't want Athena to be like 22 when Peters still 17 so, yeah. I know this will f up Morgan's time line a bit but in this book, pepper will have already been pregnant with Morgan so she's two years old :)

42 | i used to have nothing

1 YEAR LATER...

Athena held her hand up at the target before blasting it down, before doing it again, and again, until her hand began to burn.

She grabbed her hand I'm pain and took a seat on the grass, shaking her head.

It had been two years since everything happened, two years since she last saw Peter — since he vanished. A short while after they all settled, Athena told Nat about Peter, about how amazing he was. She was surprisingly accepting of the boy. She'd told Thea how happy she was that she'd found someone she loved at such a young age. Athena then told Nat about her time in space.

Even though she lost Peter, Athena was happy she still had Natasha to keep her steady. If she didn't, she wouldn't know where she'd be or what she'd be doing.

It was the opposite way around when it was Nat she was missing.

Athena stood up and walked herself back into the facility. There, she saw Natasha virtually talking to Rhodey, Carol, Rocket, okoye and Nebula.

"How's it going?" Athena asked as she took half of Natasha's sandwich. Ever since the snap, she had been living in the facility with Nat. Tony had moved in with Pepper and his daughter whilst the others found their own places.

"Hey, Thea." She heard rocket say before he looked at Carol "Yeah, and now we smell like garbage."

"You got a reading on those trimmers?" Nat asked, smiling at Thea before looking back to Okoye.

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate." The woman answered.

"Do we have a visual?" Nat asked "how are we handling it?"

"Natasha, it's an Earthquake under the ocean," Athena looked at her with a raised eyebrow "we handle it by not handling it."

Natasha looked at Athena sadly before turning to Carol. "Carol, are we seeing you here next month?"

"Hopefully not." Athena mumbled under her breath as she took a seat on the table. She still didn't like Carol; not one bit.

"Not likely."

"What? You gonna get another haircut?" Athena joked as she bit once again into the sandwich.

"Listen, brat. I'm covering a lot of territory." Carol said, snapping her head towards Athena "the things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere on thousands of planets."
Athena scoffed and looked down. "So, you might not see me for a long time."

"Alright, well, this channel is always active," Natasha answered. "So, if anything goes sideways, if anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't. Comes through us."

"Okay," they all nodded before disappearing, except Rhodey. Athena sighed and sat back down on the table. She asked, "where are you?"

Natasha looked up and finally noticed that he was still there.

"Mexico" he answered "the federalists found a room of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys, never even had the chance to get their guns out."

"It's probably a rival gang." Athena looked down before looking back at Nat who was staring down at her plate. She missed Clint, they both did. And after finding out all the massacres he'd been causing, they weren't sure what to do with themselves.

"Expect it isn't," Rhodey said "it's definitely Barton. What he's done here — what he's been doing for the last two years... I mean, the scene that he left. I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even wanna find him."

Athena looked back down before looking at Natasha who had a gleam of tears in her eyes. "Well, you find out where he's going next."

"Nat." Athena said, looking back at Rhodey who looked at the two sadly.

"Please?"

"Yeah," The man said before leaving. Athena bit onto her lip to stop herself from crying before looking back at Natasha who had her face in her hands. This was hard on her, her best friend killing people. It was hard on Thea, too. Clint grew up as a brother figure to the girl, she didn't wanna lose him.

"You know, I'd offer to cook you girls dinner but, you seem pretty miserable already." Athena looked up when she saw Steve standing in the doorway.

"You here to do your laundry?" She heard Nat ask.

"Here to see my friends." Steve answered causing Athena to smile at him.

"Clearly your friends are fine."

"You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge, you would have liked them, Thea." Steve said as he played with a chain in his hands.

"In the hudsen?" She asked with a chuckle.

"Fewer ships, cleaner water." He stated.

"You know, if you're about to tell us to look on the bright side..." the blonde started. "I'm about to throw half a peanut butter sandwich at your head."

"Sorry," Steve said as he came and sat down on the chair beside the table "force of habit." He sighed as he looked down "you know, I keep telling everybody they should move on — grow. Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?" Nat ask as she gestured to what she was doing.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done."

Athena let out a shaky breath as she stood up from the table and threw herself down in a chair to be level with the others.

"I used to have nothing," she looked up when she heard Nat speak. "And then I got this— this job, Thea — this family. And I was better because of it. And even though half of them are gone... I'm still trying to be better."

Athena bit her lip and looked down at her necklace, a small tear falling down her face.

"I think we all need to get a life." She chuckled as she looked back up.

Natasha looked at the blonde and said "you first."

A notification popped up on the screen in front of Natasha so she lazily swiped it. Athena thought nothing of it until she heard a familiar voice ring through.

"Oh, hi! Uh, is anyone home?" It was none other than the voice of Scott Lang. How could she forget it? After all, she spent two hours listening to him explain the rules of uno. "This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago at the airport... in Germany. I was the guy who got really big, I had a mask on. Youd recognise me."

Athena stood up as Steve asked "is this an old message?"

"Ant man... ant man? I know you know that."

"It's the front gate."

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