The Soulmate Initiative: Book 1

23. THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE YEAR...

LOCATION: AVENGERS MANSION

In late July… 6 month old Braden shows that he, like little Maria, has powers. 

Everyone is sitting round the dining table, eating lunch, when Braden has had enough of his food, he keeps turning his head when Candice tries to put the spoon in his mouth. Candice tries this over and over again, some of her soulmates start laughing at her attempts, when all of a sudden, Braden disappears into thin air. Candice let's out a scream and everyone starts to panic, apart from Vision, who spots Braden sitting on top of the fridge "I don't mean to alarm anyone-" Suzanne interrupts "Are you serious? One of our babies just disappeared! And you don't want to alarm anyone!" Vision rises from his seat and slowly approaches Braden, with his arms held out in front of him. When Ashley sees what he's doing, her mouth drops open and her eyes widen, she quickly stands up "Candice, close your eyes!" She runs to her and covers her eyes with her hands "What are you doing? What's happening!?" Nian stands up in shock, now seeing what Ashley had seen. He points at the fridge and everyone else looks, he mouths to Stacey, who looks back to him 'How the hell did he do that?' Stacey shrugs, worriedly. 

Vision carefully reaches for Braden, he clasps his hands around him and everyone let's out a breath, apart from Candice, who's still panicking "Where's my baby!?" Vision gently pulls him down and hands him to Nian, who then passes him to Candice as Ashley removes her hands. Candice cuddles Braden close and waits for an explanation from the others, when she gets it, she's both very excited, but also completely terrified. Her 6 month old can teleport.

LATER ON IN THE YEAR…

Little Braden starts learning at School de Stark, just the basics of course.

Little Maria's powers continue to be active while she sleeps, always casting her dreams or nightmares into the room around her. Ashley asks Warren to take a look into her mind while she sleeps, he assures her there is nothing bad in her mind, but there is something powerful. Ashley is just concerned because she believes the power has come from the aether when she was infected by it and she remembers what it did to her. Warren says he'll keep an eye on her just in case.

Warren works closely with Johanna, to remove the trigger words from her mind, it's a tough job and it makes Warren think about Lavina more, believing she would have been a grateful help. Which leads him to think about his twin sister, he isn't sad, he is so sure that she's still alive. That Lavina found a way to save her.

And he's right… on Asgard, Lavina is still pretending to be Odin and is getting away with it, making sure to act as much like him as she can, without letting her own opinion of him get in the way. Prisha has woken up from her coma, she's very weak, can't walk far before getting so tired, so she's spending most of her time in Tasia's room and balcony. Some of the Asgardian people have figured out Tasia has mortal soulmates, so they automatically think she is one of them, but they don't know about Lavina being Prisha's soulmate too, so even though Tasia is still away learning about the infinity stones, Lavina as Odin pretends he is looking after Prisha for Tasia, so it makes sense for her to stay in Tasia’s room.

Johanna finds it tough to fit in with her new family, she has nightmares almost every night, ones that only Stacey can safely wake her up from, or else whoever tries to wake her up gets hurt. Once a week she works on her mind with Warren and works with Ashley, who does video calls with Aldrich Killian, to regrow her arm. She spends another day a week with Stacey, trying to recover all of her memories, since she still doesn't remember about half of her life, plus every morning she runs around the field their mansion is on, with Stacey, and Suzanne trailing behind. The rest of the time, she either works out in the gym, especially after her left arm is regrown, or she just sits outside, no matter the weather, just thinking. Sometimes people sit with her, but she doesn't even notice they're there, she's too trapped in her own mind. Johanna is grateful that she doesn't have the mechanical arm anymore and glad she can have two arms again, since of having one is quite difficult. But though the arm has grown from her own body, it isn't her old arm, it doesn't have her soulmarks on it, she doesn't have Nian's or Warren's.

Secretary Ross continues to search for the Avengers, driving himself rather mad as he does so. He doesn't realise that half of those who signed the accords, are not actually helping, just pretending to and T'Challa is constantly lying to his face, protecting them.

The Avengers discover that Braden teleports whenever he really wants to do something or really doesn't want to. However, he's so far only been able to teleport to where he can see. They're keeping a close eye on him at all times, but still panic every time he teleports, he however, seems to think it's very funny.