Ava Starr/Ghost

The woman known as Ghost was being hugged tightly to her adoptive father as they waited in a room together. She hadn't truly felt the need to hug or be hugged by him on most days, but this... felt necessary.

They'd been taken to a helicarrier, a massive flying ship, that was currently floating above the Avengers Tower. Apparently, it was called the Enterprise, something that her father had found funny.

Ava sighed, looking at him. “How long do we have to wait?” she asked, indicating the white room they were waiting in, two chairs and a simple table being the only things inside. She winced as the constant pain that always filled her flared for a moment. She was still wearing her Ghost suit, though she'd removed her helmet. But the Ghost suit really didn't help as much anymore to prevent the pain.

“I don't know, Ava,” Bill said, giving her a soft look. “But Fury promised to try and help us. To help you.”

“Was that before or after SHIELD turned out to be HYDRA?” Ava asked, her voice becoming vicious.

Bill winced, his arms tightening around his daughter. “After, technically... They offered me my old job. I think, with their resources-”

“Who's to say they won't just keep doing what they were before!?” Ava went intangible, moving away from her father to stand in the center of the room. “Just turning me into a weapon, feeding me lines about they'll help me!”

“Ava...” Bill said, standing up as well.

“You know it's true!” Ava shouted, spinning to glare at him. “Why did you call them!? Why didn't we just escape? What if they just keep using us!?”

Before he could respond, the door to the room opened. A woman, tall and fit, wearing a blue jumpsuit with her black hair done up, strode inside. Behind her was a young man. He was slightly shorter than the woman was, with dark skin calling to an Arabian or possibly Indian heritage, long hair pulled back into a ponytail, and short scruffy beard, his large bare arms revealed by the Iron Man t-shirt he was wearing. The woman smiled at the pair.

“I'm not planning on doing any such thing,” she said simply.

Ava and Bill shared a look.

“Who are you?” Ava asked coldly.

“I'm Maria Hill, Director of BRIDGE,” Maria said, crossing her arms behind her back and gesturing to the man behind her. “And this is Mahmoud Schahed, Dial of the Reserve Avengers.”

“Reserve?” Bill asked, curiosity in his voice.

“We're thinking about a name change,” the young man said, smiling. He had a dimple in his right cheek when he smiled, something that made him look even younger.

“I thought we were meeting Nick Fury,” Ava said.

“He's in the midst of picking up someone we are considering under threat,” Maria said. “That said, I can help you with any concerns you have.”

“And if we just leave?” Ava asked.

“Ava...” Bill said softly.

“No, I want to know!” Ava felt her body twist through existence, unable to stay together through her agitation. “What if I don't want your help!?”

“...” Maria looked over at Mahmoud. He looked out of his depth. After a moment, he shrugged. Maria turned around frowning before speaking. “We'd want to at least some way to contact you. And you would have to sign a contract promising not to use your powers to hurt others or for ill-gain, with the understanding that such actions will result in BRIDGE coming after you.”

“BRIDGE?” Bill asked.

“Bureau of Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Development, and General Enhancement,” Mahmoud explained. “We really wanted to spell 'bridge',” he finished sheepishly.

Ava ignored that. “You'd just let us go?”

“No,” Maria said with a frown. “The fact is, your powers are unique. Others might try to find you the way HYDRA did, try to kill or use you. But you would be allowed to refuse any help we might offer. All we'd do is keep in eye on you, to keep you safe and keep you from causing harm with your powers.”

Ava scowled, stepping forward. Mahmoud, to her surprise, stepped forward as well.

For a moment, Ava met eyes with the brown-skinned man across from her, noting his nerdy shirt, ridiculous backpack, and bright green watch. He looked like a geek. A muscular geek, but a geek. But he was simply meeting her eyes, not flinching as she felt her body tear itself over and over, shifting her around into flickering images.

“How about you see what we want to do to help you?” Maria offered.

Ava looked over at her, which Maria seemed to take as acceptance. “We're pulling experts on Quantum mechanics in, and have some of our people studying your machine,” Maria said, looking at Dr. Foster. “We've actually made some headway into that.”

“Using quantum batteries,” Mahmoud said. “It's something we made for our equipment. We'll be able to plug you into the Quantum realm. We're just dealing with something... unexpected, but Tony, uh, Tony Stark that is, says he's confident we can help you.”

“And what do you want in return?” Dr. Foster asked, the older man crossing his arms. “I won't do anything that hurts Ava, especially if you keep forcing her to kill.”

Maria crossed her arms, sighing. “Well, I'd hoped to possibly invite her to join the Avengers-”

“Not happening,” Ava spat out, shifting briefly around the room. “I'm done.”

“Then I suppose we'll simply do our best to cure you,” Maria looked at Dr. Foster. “Will you be accepting our offer of employment, Doctor?”

Bill seemed surprised. “Um... what would that entail?”

“Working with our research and development team to help us with some of our projects,” Maria said. “We are interested in your knowledge on Pym Particles of course, especially since we've had no luck contacting Hank Pym,” Maria raised an eyebrow when Dr. Foster's fist clenched. Ava scowled at the name of the man who had ruined her biological fathers' life. “Well, more that he refuses to talk to us. For now, your insight could be invaluable.”

The older man rubbed his chin, sighing slightly. “...Ava?”

She looked around. The man, Mahmoud, was eyeing her calmly. Seriously, thisguy was an Avenger? Maria was just as relaxed, while her adoptive father was simply waiting for her response.

In truth, she had no idea what to think. SHIELD, HYDRA, BRIDGE. What was the difference? She'd spent years, being led by false promises, killing people, giving up pieces of her soul for the mere chance to get rid of the pain that had plagued her since childhood... But some part of her wanted to reach out and take another chance. Just once more.

“Only if Dr. Foster is there,” Ava said, still glaring at Mahmoud as she spoke to Maria.

Bill looked between Ava and Mahmoud before sighing. “Okay. Then we're in.”

“Great,” Mahmoud said with a smile.

“Excellent,” Ava replied more coldly.

They kept eyeing each other, Mahmoud apparently confused. Ava wasn't sure what she disliked about him. Maybe it was the careless way he carried himself, as though he'd never faced real issues. Maybe it was the way he was clearly challenging her. But he rubbed her the wrong way.

------

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

“What the hell was her problem?” I grumbled after meeting Ava Starr and Bill Foster. What should have been a cool moment, meeting Goliath as played by Morpheus, had been ruined by Ava's hostility.

And the thing is, I wasn't sure what I'd done wrong. At one point, she'd stepped forward as though about to attack and I'd stepped forward to intercept. And it was as though she'd never been so insulted. It wasn't like she hated me I guess, more that I was the sort of person who she couldn't get along with. I just didn't get it. And I tend to be the sort of person who obsesses when people dislike me. I can't help it. It's a flaw that doesn't come up often, but if someone ends up disliking me, I tend to obsess about it for years after, resenting them. Imply I'm stupid, unfunny, annoying, whatever it is, I'll think about it for the rest of my life. It ain't attractive, and I try to do better. But right then, trying wasn't helping.

I was musing on this in my room, during my downtime. Trying to push the thought away, I looked around for something to get my mind off it.

My eyes panned to the video game system and TV, and I thought about seeing what video games were like in a Stark-designed world. Then I dismissed it. After the Omnitrix, I just couldn't see much interesting about video games, at least not right then. I turned on the TV anyway, switching it to the news, then grabbed my BRIDGE issue tablet and powered it up as I paced.

I had some messages waiting already. Skye reminding me of my appointment to make her armor and hang out. The contract from Stark Industries merchandising department I had to sign. Mostly to use my image, aliens, and property in their products, which I read slowly before signing. Fitz-Simmons had finished their new machine, and the Claytronic maker was officially in working order.

After a frustrated moment, I tossed aside the tablet and laid back against the couch. It was supposed to be my downtime. But I couldn't think of anything to do and everyone else was busy...

Fuck it.

I got up and went to the window, reaching for the Omnitrix when there was a knock on the door.

“...” I stared at the door for a moment, then back outside the window, where New York awaited. Another knock at the door came. I sighed and turned away from the window, walking towards the door and opening it.

Clint, Creel, Bucky, Sam, Steve, and Tony were standing there, all of them holding paper bags. I blinked. “Uh... hey guys. What's up?”

“Sup!” Clint pushed his way inside, the others following. “I heard you were moping in your room.”

“I wasn't moping,” I grumbled, watching as the superheroes and former supervillains strode into my room. “What's going on?”

“Movie night,” Tony said cheerily, the billionaire holding bags full of junk food. “Well, day I guess. Hill gave us a few hours to relax, so we came down here.”

“You don't mind, do you?” Steve asked, concerned. “I didn't know they were springing this on you,” Steve gave Tony and Clint a glare. Both men grinned at him as they put down the food they'd brought.

“No, I don't mind,” I said, deciding to go with the flow.

“Good, because I'm getting drunk,” Creel said, heading towards my kitchen.

“Can't,” Sam called out to him. “We've still got to get back to work after this!”

“Plus, I don't have alcohol,” I said, grinning at the disappointed look on Creel's face. I walked to my couch and sat on the floor, leaning back against it. “What are we watching?”

“Frankenstein, Alien, and The Thing,” Bucky answered with a grin. The former Winter Soldier seemed to be almost trying a bit awkwardly to have fun, sitting down on the couch with more energy than required, but none of us commented on it.

“Jarvis?” Tony said, grabbing a bag of barbeque chips.

“Already playing sir,” the AI said.

Soon, we were watching classic horror movies together. I looked around and found myself grinning. It's good to have friends.

------

Samuel Sterns/The Leader

In his lab, Sterns worked carefully, putting the final touches on the chemical he'd been putting together for the past few minutes. As he worked with the blue liquid, John Garrett walked into the room.

“Hey, Big Head!” Garrett said jauntily. “All done?”

Sterns held in his anger. Garrett was rude, uncouth, and useless. The only use he had, as far as Sterns could tell, was that he had men under his command. The HYDRA leaders had some sort of use, but Garrett? Sterns only held his control with great discipline, an easy task for a genius of his caliber, and something Garrett didn't deserve.

“Yes, I believe I am,” Sterns looked up as another person walked into the room. “Young Raina. You have the final component?”

“Yes, Doctor Sterns,” Raina said with a bright smile, the young black woman wearing a pretty silk blue dress with flowers all across it.

“You sweet talking my girl, Sterns?” Garrett asked with a grin as Raina handed Sterns a blue vial.

Sterns held in his thoughts on that. “Raina has been helping me. She really has quite the gift for genetics,” Sterns poured the contents of the blue vial in with other chemicals. “Sadly, synthesizing this has been quite difficult, and some of the versions I've created broke down. But this is the final and completed serum. Thankfully for you, I've gained quite a bit of experience in alien genetics recently,” Sterns poured all of it into a glass and handed it to Garrett. “Go ahead and drink that.”

“What, just like that?” Garrett eyed the blue fluid within the glass. “I thought it would be a bit more... complex. Although I do like that one of my fellow death cult members is handing me kool-aid.”

“Yes, very quaint,” Sterns sighed. “Now, please leave.”

Garrett blinked at Sterns. “Thought you'd be more excited about this stuff, Sterns. You know this Jesus juice can bring the dead back to life, right?”

The gamma-enhanced genius smirked. “Yes, I do. And while I'm sure less intellectual minds would find that interesting, I foresee far better things in my research.”

After a moment, the other man shrugged before drinking the blue liquid. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Garrett gasped, his back twisting as he stumbled. Raina and Sterns watched him calmly as he fell to his knees, eyes wide. “What... what is this?”

“Power, I suppose,” Sterns said simply.

“With Dr. Sterns help, I've been able to make incredible progress in my research,” Raina added with a sweet, cold smile. “With all of the enhancements already in your body...”

Sterns turned and walked away, leaving Garrett to heal. Raina followed.

As the gamma-enhanced genius walked through the halls, he could hear Garrett laughing deliriously in the background. All according to plan. When Sterns had realized that there was a sort of genetic memory in the blood of whatever alien the vials Garrett had given came from, he'd come upon a plan.

Garrett was an issue. For all of his crudeness, he had men and resources that he'd allowed Strucker to use. Garrett gave Strucker manpower that the leader of HYDRA wouldn't otherwise have. But, if Garrett became so obsessed that he decided to cut ties with Strucker... well, Sterns hadn't had to work very hard to make sure the serum he'd given Garrett would give him an extra dose of the genetic memories within them.

“Raina,” Sterns said as they walked together.

“Yes, doctor?” Raina asked politely.

“Is Project: Blood Diamond ready?”

“Of course,” Raina said, following Sterns through the castle. “The subject is now under our control, and the crystals have been placed in the particle infusion chamber. She's been injected with the purified serum you created, though I should warn you we had to use the only one you created.”

“Wonderful,” Sterns said with a smile. “Do you know the story of how HYDRA obtained her?”

“They found her in Mexico, right?” Raina asked.

Sterns chuckled. “Yes, they did. And that was when HYDRA came into conflict with another organization. When HYDRA took her, this organization attacked them. Now, I haven't found any records of what that group was called. But they followed this young woman wherever HYDRA hid her, calling her 'Black Sky'. HYDRA and this organization killed each other across America, all over her.”

Raina stared at him, surprised. “Why did this organization stop?”

“In an ingenious maneuver, HYDRA faked her death in an explosion,” Sterns smiled. “But make no mistake. If this organization is still around, and they find that she is alive? I do believe they would do anything they could to capture her.”

The pair walked into a room. Inside, the subject of their conversation was sitting placidly on a bed as scientists roamed around her.

“Are you ready, my dear?” Sterns asked the blank-faced girl.

She'd changed since he'd last seen her. Still thin, almost painfully so, but her once matted black hair was now clean and combed. She wore white patients clothes and looked up at Sterns. Sterns noted that unlike others, she didn't seem to notice his massively enlarged head, only meeting his eyes placidly.

“Estoy feliz de cumplir,” the young woman said.

“Ah, my dear girl,” Sterns said fondly, shaking his head. “Such a sweetheart now. Please,” he gestured to the large gray metal tube that had opened up to reveal a space large enough to sit in. “Enter the chamber.”

Without hesitation, the girl rose up and walked over to it, standing inside and lying back as the three large rectangular lights on either side of her glowed within the chamber.

“Are you sure this will work?” Raina asked. When Sterns scowled at the perceived insult, she hurried to continue. “I trust your calculations, Doctor. But it seems... fantastic.”

Sterns slowly softened. “Yes, I suppose it does. But the chamber has been tested before, and I believe now we have found the perfect material to make use of and a subject most likely to survive the process.”

Strucker came through the door then, followed as always by Rana Williams in her Aberration form. Sterns held in a sigh of disappointment at the sight of Rana being so loyal. What a waste. Such beautiful power, all wasted in servitude to... Well. To each their own.

“Excited, Strucker?” Sterns asked as the chamber closed around the young girl within it.

“In many ways, yes,” Strucker admitted. “I was first put on this project by Whitehall himself. While Creel was quite the success, his abilities were far too... temporary, for our tastes. Seeing what you make here will be interesting.”

For once, Sterns didn't feel distaste towards Strucker. In this, both men were in total agreement. While Strucker could never match the incredible brilliance and magnificent intellect within Sterns, he was still a scientist.

“I suppose we should begin,” Sterns said with a smile. “One hundred percent.”

“One hundred, sir?” the black haired scientist at the massive cube device next to the chamber asked, shocked.

“Did he stutter?” Strucker said with a frown.

“N-No sir,” the scientist leaned down, his face distressed, and began to activate it. The gray cube held all the materials they'd chosen within, ready to be used for the process.

Sterns looked into the window on the chamber, where the girl was staring out calmly. “Now, according to all our research, a person who is already enhanced will more easily accept further enhancements. Raina, why do you believe that is?”

The young woman smiled. “Because their genetics are more capable of withstanding and healing side effects?”

A crude answer. Sterns felt disappointed, but he easily hid it with fake pride. “Indeed, my dear.”

Raina smiled, easily fooled. Sterns had her pegged. She wanted to be special, to become someone with power and beauty. Raina's sin was greed. It made her dangerous, but it also made her easy to draw into the influence of others. All Sterns needed was time with her.

He put away that thought to focus on the Particle Infusion Chamber. The panels behind the device began to glow.

“I am saddened we lost our original choice for this experiment,” Strucker said. “But losing Ruby Hale and gaining this young woman may have been to our advantage.”

“Does she even have a name?” Rana asked, standing next to Raina. Despite their similar names, the two couldn't have been more different, Rana towering over the smaller woman.

“Hm,” Strucker said, adjusting his monocle. “I'm not sure.”

Suddenly the girl within the chamber grimaced, gritting her teeth. Raina frowned, sharing a glance Sterns, who simply smiled.

The girl shouted, then roared, a surprisingly intimidating sound. Strucker stepped forward with a fascinated look in his eyes.

“How much?” Sterns asked the scientist at the controls.

“Fifty-nine percent infusion!” the man yelled, with far more emotion than Sterns really felt was necessary for what amounted to a medical procedure.

The girl shouted again, eyes snapping open. As they watched, her eyes began to change color.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Rana asked, the gamma-enhanced woman staring.

“It's the DNA of the material imposing itself,” Sterns said calmly. “How much?”

“It's accelerating! Seventy... Eighty... One hundred percent, that's all of it!”

The lights across the machine shut down, the panels behind it turning off as well. The chamber opened and the girl was revealed.

She was panting, her chest heaving as she sweated, soaking her clothes. The thin young woman stared around angrily, hissing.

Rana still in her monstrous form, stepping in front of Strucker, only for him to shake his head and step forward.

The girl's eyes glowed a bright yellow. No, they didn't glow. It was more like... they'd become that way. They had turned into smooth topaz-like gems, the light making them glitter.

“Show us,” Strucker said softly. “Show us what you can do.”

She twisted her wrists. From each hand, in between pinkie and ring finger, and her middle finger and index finger, four blue-green crystals shot out, two for each hand. They were shaped like curved blades, claws of crystal. The girl grunted in pain as blood poured from the holes the claws ripped in her hands to come out but didn't seem too bothered otherwise, the bleeding stopping almost immediately as the wounds healed around the claws. She focused once more, and a ripping sound was heard as she stumbled out of the chamber. From her back, shoulders, and along her arms, more crystals sprouted, piercing her skin and ripping at her clothes. She closed her eyes, and all the crystals pulled back except the ones in her hands, leaving her clothes to flutter to the ground as she stared at them with calm eyes. All the holes in her skin sealed, then healed over in moments.

“Incredible,” Strucker said, gently removing his coat and stepping forward. He eyed the blood on her body and claws before chuckling. “Truly,” he said, putting his coat around the girl. “You are a Blood Diamond.”

The girl stared blankly, her claws glittering in the light as topaz colored gems gazed upon them.