The Ant and the Boot

Coming back to life is not a pleasant ordeal. All the pain of living, of breathing, of simply existing comes back to you in a brilliant flash of bright light that stings your shocked mind back into wakefulness, even after it’s powered down and decided to die. Your heart burns in your chest from the electricity pulsing through it, forcing it back into life after it has beaten its last. I gasped for air, my collapsed lungs pushing against cracked and broken ribs, sending pain up through my chest into my skull.

Something had changed about me when I came back to life. My head burned with brilliant blue, electricity snapping underneath my skin. I tore at the armor on my body until I found the release switch, the Mark 13 coming off with the sound of groaning metal. I lay there shaking, staring at my hands as bits of blue lightning jumped between my fingertips.

“Dove,” a voice choked. A hand touched my face and I looked up, seeing Natasha. She was crying again, something I never thought I could possibly see twice. A man I didn’t know stood at her side, resting his hand down on her back. He must be Clint.

I worked my fingers, feeling my body shift strangely. The broken bones snapped and crackled as they came back together, pain blossoming inside me as they healed. I didn’t understand: what was happening to me?

“What did you do to my body?” I asked. As I moved the blue lights danced behind my eyes, my skin almost rippling with strange blue light. Natasha steadied me as I sat up, gesturing at the discarded Tesseract. I noticed that not only had it been cleaved in two along its center, broken like a weak rubics cube, but on one of the halves the Tesseract had had two more cubes removed.

“We thought giving you some of its power would jump start your body,” Natasha explained, her cool veneer beginning to return to her face. “Much the same as what happened with Stark, Banner, and Captain Rogers.”

I could feel the power, moving through me like molten lava. It burned my veins, my heart, my mind with its intensity. I didn’t know how to control it.

Calm down, I thought, willing the power to be benign. Please, calm down.

And it did, its fiery waves toning down to a calm second heartbeat. The electricity between my fingers ceased, letting my head clear.

I was alive.

I didn’t have time to really dwell on this, though. I could still hear the sounds of war raging above, which meant that I had to start helping again.

“Loki has – well, had – the Tesseract. He wants to go after earth again I think. He has his powers back and he has allies,” I told Natasha. She rested a hand on my shoulder.

“I know. It’s alright.”

I nodded, pushing myself to my feet. I felt wobbly and still needed Natasha’s help, my body still drained from being – well, dead.

“Hold it,” Clint said, standing in front of me. He glanced at Natasha.

“Natasha, before we take her out there, shouldn’t we see how her power manifests itself? Not to be rude, but Banner turns into a rage monster that loses its mind sometimes. Shouldn’t we see if she can control herself?”

Clint glanced at me.

“No offense to you, kid. I’ve just… I’ve been touched by that thing.”

I nodded. “None taken. So have I.”

I looked around for a moment. My blood still stained the ground, dark and red. It stuck in my hair and on my suit, making me still look like a dead person.

“What happened?” I asked, looking at Natasha.

“Your suit malfunctioned. We think it couldn’t handle the power of the Tessaract,” she replied. A guilty look flashed in her eyes. “We didn’t realize you were actually falling until it was too late.”

I nodded solemnly.

“And how did you break the Tesseract?”

“It just came apart. It didn’t seem to want to be whole.”

I stared at the halves of the strange cube, minus the two segments I had eaten. It had let me use it. I honestly thought it was a permission thing rather than a happenstance, the new part of my mind having an almost-sentience of its own. I probed it gently with my mind and felt it ripple and dance, much like the stars did in my final moments of life.

“I guess it’s time to face what I’ve become, huh?” I asked

I closed my eyes, focusing on that second heartbeat. It pulsed calmly in my mind, flowing over my mind like a gentle stream and twining through my thoughts like silk. It was blue and shining – not an evil power on its own, but frequently misused. I took a deep breath, focusing on that brightness.

“Show yourself,” I whispered.

The stream of power grew into a rushing current, flowing down through my veins and out my toes, eyes, and fingertips. I opened my eyes and watched the world brighten and clear, everything vibrant and alive with a frosty whiteness around the edges. I looked down at my fingers, watching a silvery blue aura radiate out from my skin. My back tingled strangely and I looked around, shocked to find three sets of frosty white-blue wings, feathery and soft, spreading out from my back. I beat them experimentally and was pushed half a foot into the air. I hung there for a moment before letting myself descend. I held out my hand at a nearby piece of crumbled stone and willed power through myself. A lance of white light shot out of my palm, almost spear shaped, and destroyed the rubble on contact. I stood there stunned, watching the stone crumble into stone and white light.

I was in awe of myself.

“You’re beautiful,” Natasha whispered, hesitantly touching one of my wings. I noticed that the blood, once covering me, had also been purified from my body. I felt whole again – more than that, but I didn’t know a word to describe what I was now.

“You still with us, kid?” Clint asked, eyeing me.

I nodded. “Yeah, still here.”

“How’s the world look?”

“Shiny. And clear.”

He seemed to be satisfied, backing up from me.

“So, what’s your name?” he asked, looking slightly calmer. I raised an eyebrow.

“Dove.”

“Not that name. You’re Super now, with a capitol ‘S’. Super people have special names. I’m Hawkeye, Natasha’s Black Widow, you know the rest. What’s your name?”

I thought about it for a moment, looking over myself.

“How about Angel?”

“Taken.”

“Um. Valkyrie?”

“Also taken, by a demigod. The angel or bird theme fits, though.”

“And I can’t be Dove?”

“No, it’d be too easy to figure out.”

I had never realized how many Supers there were, but thinking about it I realized there were probably more than I knew about. I continued thinking, pursing my lips together.

“Persephone,” I replied, looking up at them. They glanced at each other, nodding.

“Unwilling goddess of the underworld, goddess who was favored by Hades and forced to be his wife. It fits,” Natasha replied, nodding. “Clint, to we have a Persephone?”

“If we do, she didn’t put her name in the registrar soon enough,” he said, smiling. “Welcome to our band of misfits, Persephone.”



It was torture being trapped there between Loki and Tony, knowing that no matter which one I chose I would leave the other behind. I knew I had to choose Tony, and I wanted to – but I knew that if Loki went down this path he would probably die. I couldn’t try to dissuade him because I had to appear strong in front of Thanos, or else he would never treat me as an actual threat.

I couldn’t look at Loki’s face. I just couldn’t.

“Fight me,” I whispered again, voice cold, trying to ignore the fear that pounded in my chest.

“You get ‘em, Persephone,” Clint said calmly, nodding. I slowly let the air out of my lungs, trying to keep my hands from shaking. I dropped the gun. It was empty, anyway, only there for show.

“We cannot harm her, Thanos,” Loki said quickly, rising to his feet next to me. “She is one with the Tesseract. To harm her would be to harm the Tesseract.”

Thanos growled, a low, threatening sound that reminded me of volcanoes and images of mines and the pits of hell. His giant hand balled into fists.

“We will take your offer for now, little godling,” Thanos whispered, “But when I come for you again you will remain in your cage. Your power will not escape me.”

With a gesture he motioned the Chitauri away, leaving Clint and Tony alone on the bridge. I tossed the half of the Tesseract I had brought with me at Thanos’ feet, watching him evenly as he stared at me with sulfurous red eyes.

“God of Mischief, I cannot lay hands on it. Take it for me,” he ordered. Loki stood, pulling the half of the cube into his arms. Thanos stared at me for another moment before leaping into the air, the ground quaking in his wake. His power held him, suspended, until he was pulled into his airship. Compared to the size of theirs, our aircraft resembled a goldfish next to a shark. The Chitauri also returned to the vessel, chittering as they climbed on their miniature crafts and flew away into the mother ship.

Loki remained there for a minute, watching me. I finally looked at him. A mixture of sadness and awe played at his expression, cleaving me in two as my mind still fought wildly against him and all he’d done to me even as I tried to think of a way to save his life.

“You are beautiful, my love,” he whispered, touching my face. I thought of those last moments of our dance, when he had seemed so happy.

“Loki, please, don’t do this,” I pleaded, putting my hand over his. “This cannot end well for both of us. Please, Loki, if you truly love me – don’t choose this fight. I’ll return with you to whatever world you choose, I’ll beg them to pardon you, I’ll remain your queen – just don’t do this to my people.”

Loki sighed. “You still don’t understand.”

He pulled me to him, gently pressing his lips against mine and cradling my face in his hands. We stayed like that for a long time, closer than we ever had been though farther apart than any two people should be. He rested his forehead against mine, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

“We’ll be together soon, Dove,” he promised. I shook my head.

“Not like this. Down this path we will never be together.”

He ran his hand through my hair, his breath cool on my face. My hands balled into fists against his armor.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I…” I hesitated, swallowing.

“I love you too, Loki. Please don’t do this.”

He smiled sadly and pressed his lips to mine once more. Then, with that gentle smile I had seen so rarely, he threw himself off the edge of the bridge, his power lifting him into the aircraft above.

I hadn’t been able to save him, I thought. In the end, I just wasn’t enough.