Maya

The phone rings three times before my mother picks up.

"Maya!" Her warm voice calms my heart. My shoulders sag as I stare out over the clouds.

Bucky is flying the Quinn jet and I'm in the back making a quick call.

"Mom." I sit down in one of the seats, toying with the buttons of my jacket. "How are you?"

She chuckles. "Oh, you know. Here and there. I'm running some errands." I can hear a dog barking in the background. "Orlando! Down boy!"

I laugh. It feels nice to laugh.

Orlando is Mom's new dog. She adopted his from a pound a week before he was supposed to be put down. I'm not sure what type of dog breed he is he has the energy of a border collie and the height of an Italian mastiff mixed in with the temperament of a golden retriever.

"Looks like you got yourself a handful."

"You have no idea." She huffs. "This fellow makes raising children easier."

The Quinn jet shudders as we descend below the clouds. I can't see the mountain ranges of Canada appear like lines on a painting.

I can't keep this quiet any longer.

"Um...Mom, do you have a moment? I need to tell you something."

Mom goes quiet. All the background sounds disappear. I know she's in another room alone. "Maya, my love. I know. Fury already to me."

My throat feels tight again. I clear my throat to keep the emotion out of my voice. "I'm sorry."

She sighs. "Don't be. We can finally put that chapter of our lives to rest."

"Any regrets?" I ask.

"No." She said firmly. "None at all. As long as I have you, it's enough. I don't need anything else in my life, love."

I want to tell her everything. About Raza's final words to me but I push it back down. I'm not going to hurt her. She deserves peace.

"That's good." I wipe away a stray tear that escapes my eye. "I'm heading out on a mission."

"I don't think this is an encrypted line." She mutters. "Maybe I should contact that lovely friend of yours, Natasha."

"Mom!"

"Love, I've been a diplomatic aide for a long time." She chuckles. "I know a few tricks."

"I'm certain if there's a problem you'll just ask a Fury to take care of it," I said. "What are you holding over that man's head? He won't tell me anything."

"That's 'Director Fury' to you, young lady."

I roll my eyes. "Of course."

"You sound strange." She said. "Are you...crying?"

"Me? Pfft! No!" I lie, wiping away another tear. My lower lip wobbles but I manage to hold it back. "Hey, I need to ask you something. It's a little weird."

"Maya, nothing is weird to me anymore."

"Do you remember how we used to go stargazing when we were young?" I ask. "You taught me how to find Jupiter using coordinates? I can't remember what they were."

"Okay...that's certainly odd." I hear the suspicion in her voice. "You remember Right Ascension and Declination."

"Vaguely."

"Well, you see Right Ascension is usually measured in hours, minutes, and seconds. 24 hours make a full circle. Declination is how far an object is above or below the celestial equator. So it ranges from -90° to 90°."

"Ugh. Too much math."

"Hush, you asked and I'm answering."

"Yes, mom."

"Jupiter used to show up in October so it's easier to find. Now what were those coordinates...Right Ascension was 5 hours, 19 minutes, and 3 seconds. I can't remember Declination."

I frown, racking my brain for fuzzy memories. "Wasn't it 22?"

"Ah, yes!" She exclaims. Orlando barks in the background. "That's the one!"

I rub my forehead feeling a slight headache. I feel tired and I'm sure it's just a lack of sleep. My right hand hurts for some reason, a tingling sensation comes and goes which is starting to annoy me.

"We should do that sometime. Go camping, watch the stars. Maybe when I come back?" I offer.

"I'd love that!" The happiness in her voice is radiating. "Oh, maybe you can bring your friends with you."

"My friends are busy saving the world, mom."

"At least bring James with you." She suggests. "Or Tony. Maybe Steve if he's willing. I'm sure Sam would never say no. It was so nice having them over."

"I'll see what I can do about it." I look up to see Bucky signalling me. We're almost there. "Hey, I gotta go. I'll call you later."

"Okay, love. You go on and save the world too."

"I will. Love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Maya."

"Hey. Just one more thing?"

"What is it, Love?" She asked.

"It might be a while before I contact you again."

She gasps softly. "Are you in trouble?"

I shake my head, not even knowing how to explain the clusterfuck I've gotten myself into. "It's a long story and I need to go. Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"Oh, Maya. Who's going to take care of you?"

__

This place hasn't changed a bit.

It's still dilapidated and nature has started to take over the remaining structure. Once this was a base for the Anwar Clan. Raza used to hide his most fucked up experiments here, especially the ones that disappointed him the most.

Those people he used were long gone but I had this eerie feeling that their spirits remained.

I shuddered as a cold breeze flowed through the trees.

"I hate this place," Bucky said, kicking a stone.

"You nearly died here," I said. "And then I saved your life."

"Oh yeah. That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship."

We walked inside, mindful of the fallen walls and exposed electrical wires. The whole place smelled like stagnant water and moss. We went deep into the bowels of the compound, watching where we stepped.

A year ago, I was sent here with a team to clear this whole place out. I had swept this place from top to bottom. It was something that had kept being pushed back.

I always had a nagging feeling that I was missing something.

Looks like I was going to find out today.

The lowest subbasement was three floors down. It was muddy and there was algae all over the walls. I could smell the dampness.

"This brings back memories." Bucky swung his flashlight around. "I think Tony showed us a movie similar to this."

"Which one?" I asked curiously as I stepped over a large three-foot crack.

He hummed, following after me. "The one with the three teenagers in the woods."

"Blair Witch Project?"

"Yeah. That's it."

"Don't worry, Bucky." I patted his shoulder. "There are no scary witches down here. You're safe and sound."

He scoffed. "I've seen real witches. I'm not screwing around with that. The world was easier when I had to fight against the Nazis. Now there's sorcerers, gods, witches, and who knows what else out there in the universe."

"Wanda's not so bad."

"That's because Vision exists."

There's a giant cement wall that is covered from floor to ceiling with graffiti. The symbols of the Anwar Clan are haphazardly painted on it.

Many people didn't know that the Anwar Clan had two symbols. The first one was my father's favorite; the black images of a swan, rose, and bear. It represented his three strongest 'soldiers' and puppets. Amir hated it, I remember he tried to burn the flag but Mimi stopped him from doing so.

The second one was the true symbol of the Anwar Clan.

The eight-pointed Star of Inanna. Also known as the Star is Ishtar.

Raza had kept the symbol hidden, only reserving it for special occasions. He gave each of us a gold pin of the Star of Ishtar. When his back was turned I threw into the hearth and watched it melt.

Bucky whistled, looking up. "I don't think anyone from your family does anything subtle."

I closed my eyes and listened.

I could my heartbeat, slightly high as my stomach churned with uncertainty. Becky's heartbeat was steady, smoother, and a bit slow from his time in cryofeeeze. I slowly pushed put, ignoring the racing heartbeats of rats and pushed past the wall. I could feel nothing, not even the fluttering heart of a bat.

And then, like a brush of a hummingbird's wing, I felt it.

I could feel them.

A simple beat of a young heart, rhythmic as raindrops on stone and so faint that I thought I was hallucinating it.

I raised my hand, pointing at the spot under the Star of Ishtar.

Bucky lifted his flashlight and started to tap along the wall, listening to something. All I heard was a dull tap until finally, he landed on something hollow. Both of us froze as we exchanged glances.

I know I had been thorough when I cleared this place out all those years ago.

Nothing is ever absolute though. Things can slip between our fingers whether we want them to or not.

"You want me to call this in?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Not yet. Not until I know."

Bucky nodded and tossed me his flashlight. He reeled his vibranium arm back and slammed it into the wall. He repeated it several times, using all his strength to tear apart concrete till it was nothing more than powdery dusk. He made a small hole, roughly two feet wide.

I placed an arm on his shoulder, silently telling him to stop.

He looked up at me with his blue eyes, sweat causing strands of his hair to stick to his forehead. His heartbeat was steady as a drum, it hardly ever betrayed him. I knew he didn't want to send me in but I had no choice.

"If you don't come back in ten minutes, I'm tearing down the rest of this wall and come get you. Got it?"

I cracked a small smile. "Got it."

I took a deep breath in and crawled through the hole. The other side was dark but I could smell the stale stench of recycled air as I managed to find my holding.

It was a lab, I could make out the outlines of beakers and glass as I walked down the dim corridor. This place had somehow survived the onslaught of destruction that had raged above, I could make out the cracks in the ceiling and the broken glass that littered the floor. My boots crunched with each step I took.

I felt like I was Ripley in Alien.

I wish I could be as badass as Sigourney Weaver.

The heartbeat got louder, more clear and defined. I felt my own heart slow, beating in tandem with it. Everyone's heartbeat was different, no two likes were the same. My mother had an erratic one, Becky's was steady, Tony had a paced beat due to his arc reactor, and Pietro's was like a hummingbird's wing. Even at rest, you could pick up the subtle signs of a person if you listened closely enough. It's why Nat brought me in to interview criminals, I had become a human lie detector just by listening to their heartbeat alone.

Blood flowed through the heart after all and I moved blood to my own will.

Eventually, I came to the source of it all. Just past the labs was a large empty room, cold and damp. I could hear water trickling down from the ceiling. I could see a puff of my breath as I approached the giant black stone box in the centre of the room. There was a small square on top of it, illuminated by white LED lights.

A keypad blinked to life.

If these were normal circumstances I would turn back and get Bucky but my right hand throbbed painfully causing me to drop the flashlight. I cradled it to my chest a took a deep breath, reminding myself why I came here.

I reached out my fingers and carefully keyed in the numbers.

5, 12, 5, 22.

There was a moment of silence, between a heartbeat and breath before it blinked green and slid back inside. In its place sat the Star of Ishtar, illuminated in red. I took out a small knife from my pocket and slid the tip of it over the surface of my palm. Blood oozed out of the cut, dripping down my fingers and onto the Star of Ishtar.

I could feel it. Raza was right. We were connected after all.

The Star of Ishtar blinked green and slid open with an ominous hiss.

Inside was a young girl.

I could hear our heartbeat beat loudly in tandem, like a drum finding its tune.