Chapter 30

"Lydia," I was woken up by the sound of someone calling my name. I turned my head to see Astrid by the door. I smiled at her.

"It's time," she said and waited for me to get up.

Several months passed as we waited for the events for the Avengers to take place. The girls from the Red Room had completed their training and have been deployed to their targets. I kept 10 of them around here to guard the people.

I was really impressed with how strong they were. It would look like if you combined the Black Window and Captain America together. The serum in addition to the suits made them an extremely tough opponent. I made sure to ask Astrid to train them not to rely on the suits. It's a luxury to have them, but if somehow, they were disabled then they can still fight or survive.

I equipped my armor and headed out. Astrid was waiting for me outside and led the way to the building where we monitored events.

"There's a spike of energy here," Astrid said and pointed to a screen. The screen enlarged and it showed a SHIELD facility.

"Finally," I said in excitement. Loki is finally here. I wondered how he was able to use the Space stone's energy to teleport. Is it because of the Mind stone?

I looked at my right hand and felt relief that I had placed runes to hide its energy when its not in use. If Loki did trace the energy, then he would have teleported to me instead. That would have been awkward.

"Do we have anyone there?" I asked. Astrid eye's glowed for a split second.

"Yes, two girls," she responded.

"Send a message to evacuate. If possible, have other people evacuate. The building will collapse soon," I said as I watched.

"Sending now," Astrid said.

"Shouldn't you go and stop it?" I looked at her and she had a concern expression. I closed my eyes as I thought about it.

"You're right," I said, and she smiled. Astrid's had started to express her emotions more frequently now. It was something I had noticed before but now it is more noticeable.

I surrounded myself in energy and teleported. I teleported above the base. I could see many vehicles exiting the base. I closed my eyes and extended my senses. I could feel all the metals inside the buildings. I felt the collapse of the Space stone's energy and the building started to break apart. I lifted both my hands slightly with open palms. I flicked my fingers and connected to the building using telekinesis and magnetism. I rotated my hands slowly and moved certain pieces to prevent the complete collapse of the buildings. I scanned, with telepathy, the inside of the building to search for anyone inside. I sensed some people in the outer edges of the building. They were quickly running to escape. I focused in the center to make sure no one was there. I let go once everyone made it out safely.

The building collapsed as I was no longer holding it. I looked and spotted Loki heading off in the distance. I teleported myself out before I caught the attention of anyone.

I waited a few days before Loki appeared again. I watched from a monitor as he let himself be captured and taken away. This was the first-time seeing Steve Rogers. He looked the same as I remembered.

"Astrid, do we have Sentinels ready?" I asked as I watched the monitors from my chair.

"Yes, we have a total of 50 now," she replied.

"Stage them outside of New York. Have them stay in stealth mode. Have the girls go there as well," I said.

"Erik, gather a team and meet me in New York City. A large battle will start soon," I spoke through the comms link.

"Understood," he replied.

I teleported over to the outer edges of the city. I waited several minutes before I heard the sound of several people landing behind me. I turned to see Erik and 4 other people with him. The four people kneeled in front of me and waited for a command. They had their suits fully activated as they kneeled. I recognized Selene and Ariki right off the bat. The third person looked like a woman. It probably was Nina. The fourth is a person I haven't met face to face before.

I looked at Erik after I looked at Nina for a few seconds. He simply nodded and looked at the city. I turned around as well to look.

"So, what's this battle," Erik asked.

"There is going to be a portal created above the city. An army of mindless creatures will drop and attack senselessly. You four are to focus only on protecting the civilians and help them evacuate. The Sentinels and the girls are also staged here. Erik and I will focus on the creatures," I finished explaining. Erik nodded in understanding. He activated his helmet which made him look even more menacing.

"This is an order, protect the civilians at all cost! No one dies today!" I shouted as I opened a channel to everyone. A resounding confirmation echoed in my ears.

Suddenly a blue beam shot from the Stark building and created a large portal in the sky. I had a serious expression as a swarm of small ships descended on the city.

Erik and I both acted at the same time and flew upwards. We stopped once we were more in the center of the city.

"Erik," I said, and he extended his right arm. I widen my eyes slightly as I felt his energy reach out. I looked at him from my corner of my eye.

Impressive…he has become even more powerful. I shifted my gaze to look creatures pouring out. It's different from what I remembered. The number of creatures were insane.

Erik made a fist and hundreds of the creatures were crushed and fell to the floor. Even the giant ones were damaged. I extended my energy out and used magnetism as well. I targeted the ones he missed and crushed them.

"Plug the whole," I said as I threw all the crushed creatures back to the portal. Erik used both his hands to gather more and move them to the portal.

We both suddenly felt a huge weight on the portal and struggled to maintain the metal there. We were pushed back slightly from the feedback as something forced its way through the portal. A creature I don't remember crashed through and landed on the city. It tumbled buildings from the shockwave of its crash landing.

"That's…new," I said. To be able to force its way through both of ours powers is no easy feat. This creature looked like a twice the size of those flying giant ones. It even has armor all around it.

"An ape?" Erik asked.

"I guess it does look like one," I said laughing. I heard a crackling sound as lightning gathered above it and struck it. It roared in anger and it looked for the source. I looked to see Thor eager to fight.

"Let them handle it, focus on the small ones," I said as I continued to target them. Erik nodded and continued to target the smaller ones as well.

'Lydia, there's a nuke heading your way' Astrid said in my ear. I looked for Ironman and saw he had positioned himself to intercept it.

"Got it," I responded.

"What was that," Erik said as he continued to kill the creatures.

"There's a nuke heading our way," I said nonchalantly.

"…Fools," he said angrily. I didn't say anything as I knew he was right. Ironman had gotten a hold of the missile and directed it to the portal.

"Clear a path for him," I said to Erik. Both of us used our powers to crush and move the creates out of his way. Once he made it through the portal, the portal started to close.

"Catch him," I said without looking. I directed my gaze at the giant ape looking creature. It was still fighting even after the mothership was destroyed.

"…interesting…" I flew down to join the fight.

"I have faced stronger foes than you, creature!" Thor shouted as he swung his hammer to strike its face. The ape creature took the hit but launched its own attack with its left land. The fist hit Thor throwing him through multiple buildings.

The Hulk jumped high and started to attack the ape on its right arm. The creature looked hurt from the attacks but managed to slap the Hulk off, sending him through the ground. There was a large crater where he landed.

I took my sword and shield out and activated my energy. I gathered the power from the Space and Power stone to my sword.

"I'll make this quick…" I said and slashed the air. A dark wave of energy was unleashed and cut perfectly clean. The creature fell as it was sliced in two.

I descended and stood in front of the carcass. This was never supposed to happen. I've seen ape like creatures in Thanos' army but never this big.

"Who are you supposed to be? Another one of Thor's entourage?" an annoying voice said. I didn't bother to acknowledge him and flew towards the Stark tower.

"Hey!" Tony shouted. I looked for Natasha as she was the one holding the Mind stone.

I found her making her way to Loki in the crater that Hulk had left him in. I made my way there as well.

"Loki, it has been some time hasn't it?" I said smiling at him. He slowly lifted his head to look at me.

"It's you, what are you doing here?" he asked with shock.

"Well, I can't help but be forced to come back to stop this invasion of my home planet. I really hate it when that happens you know?" I said smiling more. He gulped as I released energy.

"I-I was only following orders…" he said slowly.

"Were you now?" I leaned closer and pointed my sword at his throat.

"Tell me… by who's order?"

"…Thanos," he answered.

"Hey! Don't you know its rude to walk away when someone's talking to you!" Tony said.

"Ah. The annoying voice is back…" I meant to say that to myself but said it out loud instead.

"Annoying?" he said frustrated.

"Who are you?" another voice said. I turned to look and saw Steve Rogers. Behind him was Natasha and Clint looking at me.

A loud crash was heard as Hulk landed roughly. Thor followed after him.

"Son of Odin! How's the jaw?" I said smiling. Thor looked at me confused but recognized me after a few seconds.

"You! Thief, what are you doing here?" He said as he pointed his hammer at me.

"I came…" I said and took my eyes off him and looked at what Natasha was holding.

"…for that," I opened my hands and pulled the spear out of her hands. The force was strong and too sudden for her to maintain a firm grip on it. I put my sword and shield away and held the spear in my left hand.

"That doesn't belong to you," Steve said. His stance was ready and firmly gripped his shield.

"And it belongs to you? Did you not steal it from him?" I said pointing at Loki.

"It's too dangerous for anyone to have that," Natasha said as she took a step closer. When I made eye contact, she stopped. She saw in my eyes my intent.

"Yeah and we stole it first, so give it back," Tony said as he raised his arms. The sound of his blasters charging up could be heard.

I looked at the spear and took the gem off from its container. I crushed the shell to reveal the Mind stone inside. I tossed the spear over to Steve who caught it.

"There you go," I said and started to walk away.

"This is too dangerous to leave in your hands,"

"And you can keep it safe? We don't even know you," Natasha spoke.

"Thor, I suggest you tell your friends to back off," I said as I started to walk away.

"Yeah…that's not gonna happen," Stark said as he hovered in front of me. I looked at Thor to talk some sense into them. I sighed when he did not move or speak.

"So be it," I spoke.

I really didn't want this to turn into a fight, so I connected to everyone's mind and made them fall asleep. I left Hulk alone as I knew it would take more concentration to do something with him. Everyone else collapsed.

"What have you done thief!" Thor shouted.

"I made them fall asleep. I don't want to fight," I said as I looked at him. Thor hesitated but Hulk roared and charged at me.

Hulk threw a right punch at me which I caught. I maneuvered closer to him and threw a punch at his stomach. I held back a lot of my power because I didn't want to hurt him. He wasn't expecting the power from my punch as he struggled to get air into his lungs. He fell to his knees and I grabbed his head.

"Sleep," I whispered, and he closed his eyes. He started to reduce in size and change back a human. I looked at Thor who was stupefied with how I handled Hulk. I would have liked to actually fight for longer to test out my limits but its wasn't the time or place.

"Did you have trouble with him before?" I smiled at him.

"N-no. It was easy for me to handle him. He was no match for my power," he tried to boast. Loki just rolled his eyes.

"Didn't you get tossed around like a rag doll? You have no room to judge," I smiled at Loki. He quickly remembered what the Hulk did to him and sneered at me.

"I actually have more questions for you…" I paused.

"Did you know what the stone was doing to you?" I asked. Loki looked confused as did Thor. Thor looked confused as well but remained in place.

"Did Thanos know what the spear contained?"

"…" Loki stayed silent. He looked confused at the question.

I looked at the stone in my hand and looked at Loki. I was confident that if I activated it, my body would be able to handle the stress. My current telepathy abilities prevent me from accessing Loki's mind, but with the stone, I could do more.

I gripped the stone and walked Loki. I placed my right hand on his head and activated the stone's power. I willed my intent to read through his mind with the stone and the power rushed out. I flinched a bit from the power, but I was able to handle it. The armor helped a lot with channeling and regulating the power gushing out.

Loki screamed in agony as I forced my head into his head. There were several barriers, the stone easily passed through them. Everything happened so quickly. It was like a film reel of Loki's life. Everything he has experienced. Everything he has learned. All was exposed by the stone.

I felt the overwhelming amount information start to enter my mind. From the Ancient Ones teachings, I knew I would instantly die if I let the information flow come into my head. I activated the Power stone to help with my body and channeled more power from the Mind stone. As the information was coming in, I created a pocket inside my mind to contain and organize the information.

I felt a small headache as there was damage occurring to my brain. My healing factor kicked in and started to repair the damage. Even with the Power stone activated, it still managed to cause damage. The amount of information the Loki had was immense.

"Stop!" I heard Thor speak. He attempted to push me, but the corruption of the Power stone threw him back.

I let go once I felt the information stop. Loki lost consciousness and fell backwards. I deactivated the stones and let a sigh of relief go. I focused on the most recent memories from Loki and found that Thanos did in fact know he had the Mind stone. He's intent was to retrieve the Space stone from Earth. It seemed like even Loki fell into the mind-altering abilities of the Mind stone. He's obsession of becoming King was used against him.

I started to comb through Loki's memories of his magic. It opened a whole new world for me. The theories and rune structures were so different from what I was taught. It was like telling a child about microorganism and showing them with a microscope. Opening a whole new world of magic.

I was so captivated in my own world that I didn't see someone land in front of me. I felt something touch my chest and snapped out of my trance. I looked to see a white substance attached to my chest armor. I followed the string to see a person in a blue and red suit.

I was shocked to see Spiderman here. From my memories, I couldn't narrow down which Spiderman this is. It could be Marvel's Spiderman, but he seemed older.

He tried to pull on his web only to pull himself closer to me. He dug his feet into the concrete floor only to have the same result.

"You're going to have to do better than that kid," I taunted.

"I'm not a kid!" he shouted. His voice was young, but it was hard to tell his age. The thought of using the Mind stone crossed my mind but I didn't want to harm him.

"Come on, come on!" he yelled as he continued to pull. His heels were digging into the floor as he was trying to pull me.

I suddenly heard thunder and saw Thor launch an attack. I tore off the web so the kid wouldn't get zapped. He fell backwards from the force he continued to use. I took the lightning hit head on. It harmlessly flowed into my suit's nanites.

"You know that doesn't work right?" I said looking at Thor. He roared as he charged at me with his hammer.

"Did you forget?" I whispered as I dodged his strikes. He answered with more roars as he continued to swing his hammer. I dodged easily. His attack patterns were beyond obvious.

All the commotion woke the other people. They slowly rose and watched as Thor was swinging his hammer.

"Enough," I put my hand up and stopped the hammer. The shockwave from the impact caused the windows to shatter. I kicked on the chest causing him to be sent off into the building. The hammer fell in front of me. I activated all three of the stones and grabbed the hilt. I was met with a lot of resistance, but the hammer rose.

"Dejavu, right Thor?" I grinned. Thor make his way towards me again and attempted to call his hammer. My arm shook slightly but I held the hammer tightly.

Everyone was still as they saw Thor unable to retrieve his hammer.

"Hey uh… goldie locks, you wanna get your hammer back?" Tony asked.

"I can't…" Thor responded. He grunted as he was reaching out.

"Who are you?" Steve asked.

I made eye contact with Steve. He is probably the easier person to talk to among the group here. I let go of the hammer and faced Steve.

"My name is Lydia Howlett. I only came here for the stone. It is too dangerous to be left in your hands," I said.

At that time, Erik had landed next to me along with his team. They all kneeled except for Erik.

"Everyone that could be helped has been successfully evacuated. Should we leave?" Erik's voice came out almost distorted from his helmet. It made sense, since it was standard practice to do that for this combat team.

"Yes, issue the order," I replied.

"Wait!" I heard a voice call. I turned to look that it was Steve who called out.

"Go ahead," I ordered the people and they took off leaving me alone with them.

"Hey! That looks like my propulsion technology," Tony yelled.

"How can we trust you?" Steve asked.

"You can't, but you should know you stand no chance against me," I replied. I have become the first person to ever hold three stones. The power I hold is enough to fight the threats that come here. If I get a hold of the Reality stone, then I could become even more powerful.

"You never know until we try," Steven replied.

"Listen princess, how about you just hand over the pretty stone and we call it a day?" Tony said nonchalantly and waved his hands to give him the stone.

"I'll be protecting the Earth from more serious threats. Try to pay attention to the casualties next time you decide to have a large-scale battle," I said to Steve ignoring Tony again.

"And one more thing…you should be cautious of your enemies from the past. They have not been eradicated," I said and teleported away.

I teleported to the outskirts of the city. I had an excellent view of everything from here. Astrid reported that were some deaths that have yet to be determined but most of the population made it out safely. It was overall a success.

Astrid did report something I didn't know how to feel about.

"People are very resourceful. They managed to get a lot of videos," Astrid said as she displayed multiple video streams of the girls and the Sentinels but what was more interesting was the videos of me and Erik.

"Ugh," I couldn't help but sound.

"I'm sure you know what this means. You're going to have to make an appearance. Sooner or later people will begin to connect the dots. It'll be easier to come out now and announce to the world who you are," Astrid paused as she displayed different images of the company.

"As for the company, I think they'll take the news well. They have become very loyal to the company with the amount of benefits they receive. The issue would lie on what the government does," Astrid concluded.

I looked at her with pleading eyes. She staggered back a bit and refused to make eye contact.

"T-that doesn't work on me! It's your mess!" she exclaimed.

"Astrid, please!" I said and hugged her.

"No!" she refused.

"Please!" I begged.

"No!"

"You would leave me!?"

"What are you even talking about?!"

"Then you'll do it?"

"No!"

I ended up just doing what Astrid suggested. I made an appearance much like Tony did when he announced to the world who he was. I made the press conference outside of the hospital I created. A swarm of reporters crowded the entire area.

I wore a professional dress that Astrid said would be ideal for the occasion. As I walked up to the platform multiple flashes of light entered my view. I looked down to avoid the bright flashes.

"I want to start off with congratulating the nurses and doctors here for their amazing work. I am glad that our technology has helped saved many lives during the attack on New York City. As many of you have seen from the videos, I participated in the response team that defended the city," I paused as the reporters started to raise their hands and speak all at the same time. The camera flashes resumed, and I squinted my eyes from the sudden flashes.

"To clarify, I am a mutant. My ability is high regeneration, meaning I can heal quickly. This ability stopped my aging. I've been hiding my identity for many years due to the fear and persecutions surrounding mutants. I can no longer stay hidden. If I must be punished for defending the city, then so be it. To the people, I hope that you can realize why I did what I did. To the mutants, if you seek a home, I will welcome you. I will continue to have my hospital open and provide services to all as long as I am able to. Mutant or not. We need to look past our differences to pave the road for a better tomorrow. That is all," I said and left the podium.