The Dark Heart(B.Barnes)

40: Everybody Comes Home

{Song: Our Way Out by Nico Collins}

~Edited~

We all land back on the machine at the same time, some of us stumbling back to gain our balance. Banner and Nat move towards us from the control panel while we all glance around at the group to make sure everyone is alright.

"Did we get them all?" Banner asks as he reaches us.

"Ali, what the hell are you wearing?" Nat questions at the same time as she stops next to me.

"What? It's surprisingly comfortable," I look down at the tunic I had borrowed, "Although I do miss my clothes." I add on as an afterthought before the two of us tune back into the group discussion.

"Are you telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey grins, holding up a metal sphere. I let a soft smile pull up my lips as I glance around my family, lightly scanning their minds to make sure no one had any trouble.

Nat was still next to me when my smile dropped, she was watching me intensely as I stared at Nebula. The woman looks over at me when she feels my gaze, and as her eyes meet mine, I feel a sharp shock at my mind which makes me flinch physically as my mind recoils.

"Ali, what's wrong?" Nat whispers as the others start to dissipate from the room. I shake my head, either to clear it or in answer to her question I'm unsure, but I watch as the blue woman stalks out of the room and follows slowly behind Tony and Bruce as they talk about how to use an Iron Man hand for the stones.

"It's the big smurf lady," I whisper as Steve walks over to join us along with Clint.

"Nebula? What about her?" Steve asks, slight alarm entering his voice.

"Her mind... it's different," I furrow my eyebrows as the pain in my mind fades, "It's still Nebula. But yesterday, her mind was shielded with a solid wall of metal. Just now, it felt more like she had surrounded her mind with frayed wires that zap at any intruder. The pain I felt trying to touch her mind was almost as painful as when I try to see the future when the stones are in play." I explain to them while slowly moving out of the room and towards my bedroom to change.

We stay silent for a few beats, then I hear FRIDAY echo around the room telling us that Tony was asking for me to meet him in his lab. "I'm not sure why it's different, something must have happened. She could have been over there for a while and we wouldn't know the difference. I just know that I'm not sure if I trust her." I say quietly to them, slipping into my room to change into my suit and slip on my bracelets before heading off to the labs.

I get there right as Tony was placing the stones on his Iron Man hand, coming to a stop in between him and the raccoon and feeling the tension rolling off of Tony and Bruce as the stones are placed into the metal hand.

"Boom!" Rocket yells out as soon as the robotic hand moves away from the Iron Man gauntlet, causing Tony and Bruce to jump as the animal chuckles at their reaction. We move the glove out of the case and onto a table where Rocket tweaks a few things.

"Alright, the glove's ready," Rocket announces once he finished, "Question is, who's gonna snap their freakin fingers?" He looks up at the group who've gathered together once Banner told them that they were almost done with the glove.

"I'll do it." Thor says immediately, causing both Tony and I to turn to him.

"Excuse me?" We both say as Thor lumbers towards the glove.

"It's okay." He says, but before he could get too close Steve and Tony both reach their hands out to stop him.

"Stop, stop. Slow down." Tony says and Steve puts his hand on Thor's shoulder to stop his movements.