𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝟖

—♛—

𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 she read her book—Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, obviously—though she found herself rereading the same line over and over again. Her thoughts were far too troubled to actually pay any attention to it.

It had been a couple of days since she had gotten home from Germany, and Amelia still hadn't called. With every hour that passed Kara's worry grew exponentially in size, and she found herself hardly able to keep her thoughts off of her best friend.

Every time she called Maximoff, she was told the same thing: Amelia was still unconscious, and no, Kara, you can't murder Tony, you'll go to prison. So, she restrained herself.

She had FaceTimed Jean the day before for an update when Maximoff hadn't picked up her call, and, other than also advising against murdering Tony, Jean had reassured her that Amelia would be fine. Eventually.

And if it wasn't obvious enough, Kara was still mad—no, furious with Tony.

She hadn't talked to him in those few days, and that only allowed her pent-up rage to build more and more inside of her. Helen had reassured her that she had already given Tony a piece of her mind, but that wasn't satisfactory enough.

This was Kara's attempt to pry her mind away from all of that. Harry was now facing the dilemma of trying to research how to deal with a dragon, which, in any other case, would have been exciting for her to read and would have captivated her attention just like it did the first time she read it. But even that was proving to be difficult for her now.

Her internal battle with herself was saved when her phone rang, and her eyes immediately looked over to see who it was. Her hopes were slightly diminished as she saw that it wasn't Amelia or anyone from the Mansion, but she did find a small amount of comfort settled over her when she recognized it to be Peter.

With a small sigh, she put a bookmark in between the pages before getting up from her bed and grabbing her phone.

"Hey, Peter," she answered softly as she laid back down on her bed.

"Hi. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she reassured him.

"Has Amelia called you yet?"

"Nope," she sighed, her lips settling into a frown as she stared up at her ceiling. "As far as I know, she's still unconscious."

"I'm sure she'll wake up soon," he encouraged, though he didn't sound all too confident. "At least she's getting a lot of good rest."

"She was blown up," Kara agreed with a small shrug. "Anyway, what's up? Why'd you call?"

"Wow," Peter scoffed, feigning offence, though Kara could hear his grin through his voice, "I can't just call my girlfriend because I want to?"

"You can," she reassured him with a smile as she rolled over to her side. "But you never do."

"That's just because I text you," he pointed out.

"Mhm, exactly," she retorted. "So why are you calling me?"

"I just wanted to know if you wanted to come over. Ned's coming too."

Figuring that this would be the perfect way to take her mind off the Stark family and her various feelings toward them, Kara nodded. "Sure. Now?"

"Yeah."

"All right. I'll be there soon."

"Great. Bye!"

A small smile appeared on her face. "Bye."

Once she had hung up, Kara quickly changed out of her pyjamas and into a t-shirt she had gotten from the Decathlon a few months previous that she tucked into a pair of jeans. After swiftly applying light makeup and brushing her hair, Kara teleported to her usual super-secret spot outside of Peter's apartment and made her way up to his floor.

May opened the door after Kara had knocked, and she gave her a bright smile. "KareBear! I've missed you!"

"I saw you last week," Kara pointed out with a small giggle as she was pulled into a hug.

"Two weeks too long," May replied with a grin. She patted Kara's shoulder before nodding her head towards the hallway and telling her, "Peter's in his room. Ned'll be here any moment, too, I bet."

Kara nodded, and she headed towards Peter's room, whose door was closed.

Peter smiled as he opened the door and beckoned her inside, and he sat down next to her as she plopped onto the bottom bunk of the bed.

"I know I already asked this on the phone, but are you okay?" Peter murmured worriedly, his eyes then taking in the circles under Kara's eyes that were a little darker than normal, and the small frown that she had unconsciously pressed her lips into.

"Yeah, I'm just . . ." Kara sighed as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm just worried. She's never been out for this long . . . and she looked really bad before Maximoff took her back to the Mansion . . ."

"I mean, if she's badly hurt, I'm sure someone would've told you," Peter pointed out as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Professor Xavier, or her Peter, or Jean, or . . . someone."

"That's true," Kara agreed with a stiff nod.

"She'll be fine," Peter murmured as he pressed a kiss onto the top of her head. "She'll call soon."

Their attention was then drawn to the door as it opened, and a grinning Ned came in.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. He then paused, noticing the troubled expression on Kara's face and the small frown on Peter's lips, and he scrunched his face. "I think I came in with the wrong vibe."

"Yeah," Peter agreed as he wrinkled his nose and nodded.

"What happened?" Ned questioned.

Kara sighed. She was going to have to word this carefully. "There was a battle between the Avengers, and—"

"The Avengers fought each other?!" Ned asked in shock, his eyes widening before a grin spread onto his face. "Who against who? Who won?"

"It's complicated," Kara mumbled.

"Amelia got hurt," Peter quietly told Ned. "She hasn't woken up yet."

"Oh . . ." Ned breathed out, his eyebrows furrowing. "Sorry."

Kara gave a small shrug. "I heal—I mean" —she cleared her throat— "Psionic healed her, so I don't think she's too badly hurt. But I'm still worried."

Peter, whose grip on her shoulder had tightened at the slip-up, let out a small sigh of relief as he saw that Ned had overlooked it.

"Psionic was there?" Ned questioned in disbelief, his eyes wide once again. "What about Spider-Man?"

"He was there, too," Peter told him with a nod.

Ned squinted his eyes as he turned towards Peter and inquired, "How do you know?"

Peter froze, but Kara quickly interjected, "I told him. And Uncle Tony had told me everything as soon as he got back."

"Oh. Okay." Ned shrugged as he grabbed Peter's chair from his desk and slid it over towards them. As he sat down, he questioned, "Who won, though?"

"I'm pretty sure Uncle Steve's team did," Kara sighed before she stood up. "Anyway, I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

Sure, she didn't actually have to go, but it did give her a good few minutes to collect herself. Obviously, Ned was going to ask questions; that should have been expected from the start. He was a curious boy, and this was definitely something he would want to know more about.

Hopefully, he would drop it soon, though, and Kara knew there was a pretty high chance of that. Even something as interesting as the Avengers fighting each other couldn't stop Ned from letting his mind wander to other things, so everything should be fine.

With a final deep breath of reassurance, Kara nodded to herself and opened the door. When Kara had come back to the room, it seemed as though Ned was in the middle of telling a story to Peter.

"And then, the dragon swooped in, a-and stole my eggs! And remember, my children were in those eggs! So, the dragon took them and laughed like a witch and she—" Ned paused as Kara crossed the room and sat back down next to Peter. Looks like she was right. "Oh, you're back!"

"Please, continue on with your" —she made a small motion with her hands— "whatever it is that you were talking about."

"Right, so the dragon left with my children, and obviously, I had to find them right! And then I realized: she was the dragon from Shrek!" Ned exclaimed, his eyes wide.

She leaned into Peter's side as he wrapped an arm around her waist, and whispered, "What exactly is Ned talking about?"

"The dream he had last night," Peter answered.

"And when I got to the castle, Donkey and Shrek were there! I was totally fanboying, and asking for autographs, but then you know what happened? Shrek ate the eggs! The ones that had my children inside of them!" Ned cried out, waving his hands in the air.

Kara's eyes squinted. "Okay, but why were your children—"

"Don't ask, you don't want to know," Peter interrupted her, shaking his head.

"All right then, but who is the children's mo—"

"Oh, that you definitely do not want to know." Peter placed his hand on her knee, shaking his head even more wildly than before.

"The fairy godmother from Shrek," Ned said at the same time, shrugging.

"Oh, what?" Kara crinkled her nose in disgust, her mind now very distracted from her initial distress. "Doesn't she die in like the second movie?"

"Not in my dreams." Ned shook his head, a sly smile coming to his face.

She quickly decided that she'd like to focus on another subject, so she asked, "What do you guys wanna do?"

"Let's watch Shrek 2!" Ned decided as he clapped his hands together excitedly and nodded.

"Shrek 2?" Peter repeated in confusion with furrowed eyebrows. "Why not the first one?"

Ned shrugged. "The fairy godmother isn't in the first one."

"Right." Peter nodded slowly. "Let's go."

He got up, leading the other two to his living room where May was reading a book on the grey couch.

"Hey, kiddos," she greeted as she looked up from her book, her reading glasses resting on the tip of her nose.

"Hey, we're gonna watch a movie," Peter told her as he gestured to the TV.

"Oh! I'll go to my room then," May said as she got up, closing her book as she headed towards her room. "Call me if you need anything!"

"Okay, let me just find . . ." Peter mumbled to himself as they sat down, grabbing the remote from the coffee table in front of them. He went onto the search bar of Netflix and looked for Shrek 2, but there was no avail.

"What? Shrek 2 isn't on Netflix?" Ned's eyes widened as he stared at the screen in horror. "What about Shrek the Third?"

Peter looked that one up but received the same 'No Results' screen in return. "Nope. Guess we'll just have to watch a different movie."

"Oh, thank God," Kara sighed in relief, saying this a little louder than she had meant to.

"Kara!" Ned sent her a glare. She stuck out her tongue at him in response, to which he just laughed and shook his head. "Oh! The Bee Movie!" Ned pointed as Peter scrolled past it.

"Oh, yes, there aren't any fairy godmothers whatsoever in that one." Kara nodded in agreement.

Peter clicked the start button, prompting the familiar Dreamworks opening animation and music to fill the screen.

The usual little animated boy appeared, clutching a bunch of balloons. He began to writhe in fear as Barry flew around him which unfortunately caused him to let go of the balloons too late and fall (to his death perhaps?). Barry rested on the crescent moon, his arms folded behind his neck.

Was Barry . . . a murderer? One may even go as far as to call him a . . . Killer Hornet.

Kara snuggled into Peter as the movie began. She laced her fingers through his, him tightening his grip as her fingers settled.

As the screen turned black and the narrator began to talk, Ned spoke along right with him in perfect unison. "'According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible,'" he recited, as if he had heard this a million times—which he probably had.

"Honestly, I would ask how he knows that by heart, but after hearing what he said today, I think it's better not to ask him things," Kara mumbled to Peter, who laughed quietly.

"I'm surprised you've only figured that out now," he murmured back, an amused tone lacing his voice as they watched Barry prepare for his graduation.

The movie continued, with Ned sometimes speaking a line at the same time as the character, there being no pattern as to which line or character.

As Barry and his gang began to sue the human race, Kara could feel her eyelids begin to droop. Not because the movie was boring or anything, but she hadn't really gotten a lot of sleep in the past couple of days, and, oh, Peter's sweater was so comfy . . .

Kara drifted off into sleep, a dream becoming her new form of entertainment. It seemed to follow the situation she was in, weirdly enough. Ned had become a bee (he had his normal face, but a bee body), and was on a quest for vengeance to get his egg children back from Shrek and his gang. It did not end well for Ned, to put it simply.

Kara was awoken by someone gently shaking her shoulder, and she let out a soft groan.

"Kara! The movie's done!" Peter whispered softly into her ear, not wanting her to be too hastily awakened. "We're going back to my room!"

"Hm? Five more minutes," she murmured sleepily, not opening her eyes.

There was a moment of silence before she felt someone scoop her up bridal-style. She slowly opened her eyes to see Peter (thankfully) being the one carrying her, his hands carefully gripping her tightly to make sure that she didn't fall.

Once they got to his room, he laid her down on the bed before sitting on the edge of it. Ned came in a few moments later and shut the door behind him.

"I can't believe you fell asleep while we were watching the greatest cinematic masterpiece of all time!" Ned exclaimed, his expression crestfallen as he looked toward her.

"I don't remember us watching any of the Harry Potter movies," she giggled softly, still a little sleepy from her nap.

A look of horror dawned upon Ned's face as he shook his head and questioned, "How are we even friends?"

Kara tucked her hand under the side of her face, resting on it as she faced the two boys. "Because you love me."

—♛—

For the entirety of the next day, Kara never let her phone out of her sight. Whether it was her checking her notifications, switching it from her pocket to her hand or vice versa, or just straight-up staring at the screen and waiting for a contact to pop up, the amount of time she spent with her phone was worrying.

Specifically, worrying her mother.

"Kara, you know looking at the phone isn't gonna make her magically call, right?"

Kara looked up from the lock screen she had been staring at (a picture of her, Peter, and Ned, all of whom were wearing safety goggles as they peeked over the camera) to see Helen raise her eyebrows at her while she sat beside her on the couch and folded her arms.

"I know," Kara sighed as she put her phone down, though she kept it face-up. "But I can't focus on anything else."

"She'll call eventually," Helen soothed her, putting her hand on her back and rubbing it gently. "Just give it time."

"It's been three days," complained Kara with a small pout as she glanced over at the phone.

"That's not a long time," Helen pointed out, the corners of her lips tugging upwards.

"It is when—"

She was cut off by the sound of ringing, and with widened eyes, both Kara and Helen turned to see that Amelia's contact had appeared on the screen.

"See!" Helen grinned. "The one time you weren't looking at your phone."

Kara only gave a quick nod in response before grabbing her phone, getting up and speed-walking to her room as she accepted the call.

She didn't bother to wait for Amelia to say anything as she exclaimed, "Ames! Oh my God, are you okay?!"

"Hey, Karamel," Amelia sighed, her voice sounding a little weak and thick. "Um . . . well, I could lie and say yes, but . . . not really, no. My head feels like shit and I feel like shit and everything's going to shit and—what about you, are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay," Kara answered with a scoff as she laid back down, letting her head rest against her pillow. "When did you wake up?"

Amelia was quiet for a couple of moments as she tried to come up with the answer. "Um . . . yesterday? Yeah, yesterday."

Kara's jaw dropped before she incredulously asked, "And you're just calling me now?"

"I'm sorry," Amelia quickly apologized, "I woke up and Peter helped me get clean, I fell back asleep, yelled at my dad, fell back asleep, and now here we are! I woke up, like, five minutes ago!"

Kara paused as she processed Amelia's words, and a moment later, she questioned with furrowed eyebrows, "Your dad visited?"

"Ugh, yes. He tried yelling at Peter so I screamed at him and then he told me about . . ." Amelia suddenly came to a halt, and she was silent for a few seconds before she tentatively inquired, "Wait, do you know?"

Kara squinted her eyes, shaking her head as she asked, "About what?"

"Oh my God, if he didn't tell you," Amelia groaned. "About Uncle Steve, Bucky, and Auntie Nat?"

"What about them?" Kara's eyebrows furrowed as sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "Did he find them? Were they arrested?"

"No, they . . . Kara . . ." She heaved a sigh before finishing, "They're dead."

"They're . . . dead?" Kara echoed in disbelief, feeling tears begin to form in her eyes. "As in . . . no longer alive?"

"Dead as in—what else would that word mean?"

"But . . . how?" Kara questioned in disbelief as tears began to pour down her cheeks, though she hastily wiped them away with the back of her hand. "I thought they escaped!"

"There was some sort of second attack, I don't know all the details," Amelia said hopelessly. "But yeah, they're . . . gone, and Wanda, Vision, and Uncle Sam went missing too."

"I'm gonna . . . I'm gonna kill your dad," Kara decided as she stood up. "Right now. I'll talk to you later, Ames."

"Don't go easy on him."

Kara tucked her phone into her pocket and opened her door to yell that she was going to the Compound for a few minutes, then teleported in front of Tony's office.

Even though she knocked on the door, Kara didn't bother to wait for permission to enter as she opened the door and marched in angrily.

"Listen here, you motherfu—" She paused as she noticed that Tony, who was sitting at his desk, wasn't alone—Rhodey was sitting on the edge of his desk, chewing on a sandwich.

"Oh, shit," Rhodey murmured, a grin growing on his face as he looked to Tony, who let out a deep sigh and put his head in his hands. "This is gonna be good."

Kara ignored him as she walked up to the desk and jabbed a finger in Tony's direction. "Why the hell didn't you tell me that they're dead?!"

Rhodey's eyes widened. "Oh, shit."

Tony looked down at his lap as he shrugged and muttered, "Well—you were upset, I was just waiting—"

"For what? For me to calm down about the whole taking my fourteen-year-old boyfriend to fight the Avengers shit, and then tell me that Auntie Nat and Uncle Steve fucking died so that I can get upset all over again?" she questioned incredulously, her voice growing louder with every word.

Tony scoffed. "Kara, you don't under—"

"No, Uncle Tony," Kara interjected angrily, "I understand completely, and I'm ready for you to cut the bullshit and just tell me!"

"Tell you what?" Tony questioned with furrowed eyebrows, glancing over towards Rhodey, who only gave him a shrug in response. "What do you want to know?"

"Are they actually dead?" Kara asked tentatively, hoping more than ever that his answer would be 'No.'

Tony heaved a deep sigh, his eyes flickering back towards his lap before he answered, " . . . Yes."

Kara bit her lip, though she gave a small nod; that was the answer she expected. "Why'd you do it?"

Tony paused for a second as he contemplated his words, then licked his lips before muttering, "I thought it was the right thing to do."

Kara rubbed her eyes before questioning, "Can I really trust you?"

He looked up in surprise as he replied, "Wha—of course, you can! Is this really that big of a deal to you?"

"A big deal?!" Kara repeated incredulously, her eyes widening while Rhodey shook his head and took another bite of his sandwich. Tears began to prick her eyes again as she shook her head profusely and shouted, "No, of course, this isn't a big deal! You know, it's just that people we love and have known for years are no longer alive! It's no biggie! It's—" She suddenly paused as her head grew light, and she stumbled back.

"Kara?" Tony questioned, his eyebrows furrowed.

She raised a hand to her forehead, her eyes quickly blinking as she mumbled, "Gonna pass out."

"What?!" both Tony and Rhodey exclaimed, though she had no idea what happened next as her eyes fluttered to a close, and she lost consciousness.

In the office of Tony, Future Kara lay on the ground, her eyes fluttering open as Tony was crouched beside her, his lips settled into a frown.

"Kara? Are you okay?" Rhodey asked as Future Kara sat up, rubbing the side of her head.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, wincing slightly from the pain.

"The hell happened?" Tony questioned.

Before she could answer, the sound of something hitting the ground drew their attention to the side, where they saw Rhodey staring in terror at his half-eaten sandwich that was now on the ground.

"My sandwich!"

Kara let out a small groan as she opened her eyes, squinting at the sudden light as she slowly sat up. Rubbing the side of her head, she turned to look at Rhodey, who was watching her in concern.

"Kara?" he asked as Tony crouched next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Your sandwich," she realized as she pointed towards it. "You're gonna drop it. Be careful."

Rhodey's eyes widened, and he gave a quick nod as he put his other hand on the side of the sandwich so that he was holding it with both hands. He shifted slightly so that he was more balanced on the desk he was sitting on, but as a result, knocked over one of the computer monitors.

Kara winced as it crashed onto the ground, her nose scrunching as the screen cracked.

"On second thought, you should've just dropped the sandwich," she mumbled as she spotted the glare that Tony was giving Rhodey.

"No way," Rhodey scoffed, "this is Sam's recipe."

"What?!" Kara questioned incredulously. "Uncle Sam never gave me the recipe!"

"That's because you burned the kitchen down," Rhodey reminded her as he took another bite.

"Fair enough," she mumbled. "At least I didn't break a computer, though, right, Uncle Tony?"

"I'll deal with that later," Tony murmured before he turned his gaze back to Kara, who rubbed at her temple. "Listen, Kara, I don't know what you want me to do."

"I don't know, how about apologize?" she scoffed, shifting her attention back to the matter at hand. "An 'I'm sorry' would be nice right about now!"

Tony heaved a deep sigh, lowering his gaze to the ground for a moment. The only sound that filled the air was Rhodey's chewing.

After a minute, he looked back up at her, his expression the sincerest she had ever seen as he said, "I'm sorry."

There was about a minute of silence as she contemplated. He was being genuine—it wasn't hard to see that. And she knew she would forgive him sooner or later . . . .

Kara nodded in satisfaction. "Thank you."

"I was just trying to protect you, and I realize now that I was doing more harm than good. And I'm sorry," he continued with a small frown. "I know I was wrong, and it won't happen again. Probably."

"It did kind of hurt that it seemed like you trusted Peter over both me and Amelia," Kara mumbled, her eyes shifting over the cracks that now decorated Tony's computer monitor. "You've known him for what? A week? And you've known us for how long? Fifteen years!"

"I know, I know! Of course, I trust you more! But I knew that he wouldn't freak out like you guys would've!" Tony protested as he raised his hands in defence.

Kara scoffed, "Yeah, clearly that worked out well. So, instead you decided to feed him lies about Uncle Steve being crazy?"

Tony stared at her for a moment before shrugging and pointing out, "I mean, it worked, didn't it?"

"Okay, yeah, but that's not the point!" Kara groaned, rubbing her forehead. "You can't just lie to everyone so that you can get your way!"

"I know," Tony pushed, his forehead creased as he gave a short exhale. "It's all over now."

Kara stared at him for a moment with squinted eyes before heaving a deep sigh and nodding. "Fine. I kinda forgive you."

"Only kinda?" he questioned with furrowed eyebrows.

"You're crazy if you think I'm going to forgive you a hundred percent only a week after," Kara scoffed. "Especially after not telling me about Auntie Nat and Uncle Steve."

Tony gave a curt nod. "Understandable."

"How long will it take to get to a hundred percent?" asked Rhodey after he swallowed the last bite of his sandwich.

Kara shrugged as she stood up. "Not sure. Could be days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries—"

"She'll come around in, like, three days," Tony reassured him with a wave of the hand. "That's how it always goes."

Kara gave a small scoff. "Make it four."

"Oh no," Tony said mockingly. "Four whole days?"

She scrunched her nose. "Five."

A grin came onto Tony's face as he rolled his eyes and spread his arms out. "Come on, bring it in."

"Gross," she remarked, though she still stepped towards him and embraced him tightly.

Tony rubbed her back slightly before letting go of her and slapping her shoulder lightly.

Rhodey came up to her and hugged her. "Thank you for saving my sandwich."