Stood at the cold face
Stood with our backs to the sun
I can remember being nothing but fearless and young
We've become echoes, but echoes, they fade away

Her body felt colder as she appeared on the quinjet. She expected to only see Steve Rogers; as that was the person she was searching for when she recited the ritual. Instead, he was joined by others including Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Vision, and who she deduced to be Wanda; the scarlet witch.

They were all bickering, and by the ashamed expression Vision and Wanda wore, she assumed the blame was placed on them.

"I thought we had a deal," Natasha's voice was much softer then Tatum expected. She thought highly of the trained assassin, actually admired her slightly. "Stay close, check in, don't take any chances," She listed off through gritted teeth.

The back door of the quinjet was starting to close. Tatum watched through the small opening as they lifted off the ground, the nightlife below getting increasingly smaller the higher they went.

"I'm sorry..." Wanda sheepishly replied, "We just wanted time." Her arm was strung across Vision, who looked in a rough shape; although it was hard to make that conclusion because of the way he looked.

Tatum analyzed the aircraft, wishing much more that she was here on earth rather than some flying saucer in the middle of space. The Avengers were suited up and Tatum wondered if they ever took their outerwear off.

Tony didn't express much liking towards Captain Rogers, but that didn't mean he didn't speak about him. Sure, she had seen him on television and infomercials, but seeing him in person; she was almost star-struck. His hair was longer then she was used to seeing in pictures. It was brushed back, and he grew out a lengthy beard. She actually thought he looked better, but with being on the run after the Sokovia Accords, it made sense to her. Not much of a disguise, but made him a little less recognizable. She was also surprised to see how tall he truly was next to her 5"7 frame.

She lurked behind them for a moment, eyeing them as they all faced the front of the jet. Sam was piloting it. His hands clutched to the steering control tightly as he hovered in the air.

"Where to Ca- What the fuck." He did a double take as he leaned over his chair, locking eyes with Tatum. "Who the hell are you?"

In unison, four more heads turned her way.

Hastily, almost as fast as Tatum, Natasha bolted over and lifted her leg to do a round house kick. Normally, Natasha would've hit her foe in the side, knocking them over.

Tatum just watched them, blinking as the spot where Natasha had kicked dissipated into mist, then reformed itself. Natasha almost fell over from the lack of contact, not having predicted the failed connection.

Natasha frowned in bewilderment, pivoted and then span to go in for a punch.

Her head swirled again in a weird mist, then pieced back together.

"What the hell..." She muttered under her breath. Her dark brows twitched as her face wrinkled in confusion.

"Uh-Cap? What do I do?" Sam called from the front, trying to decide whether he should look at the girl that had mysteriously appeared on their ship, or their path of flight.

Steve took a stride towards her. "Who are you?" His voice was strident.

"I can explain," She held her arms up innocently as she took a cautious step towards them.

"Woah! Woah..." Natasha jumped in front of Steve, startled by her movement. she pulled a blade out from her pocket, protectively holding it in front of her.

Tatum cocked her head, "I gotta tell you sis, while that's a pretty sick weapon you got there, it's not going to touch me."

"What are you?" Steve took a bold step forwards, lifting his hand in the air to touch her. She watched, and the others waited hesitantly for him to make contact. As expected though, his hand swiped right through her, and her body distorted for a moment before forming back.

They all analyzed the young girl who mysteriously appeared on their jet, not announcing her arrival to anyone until Sam had noticed her.

"Are you a ghost?" Sam asked from up front.

"What?" She grimaced, "No. No I'm not a ghost." She dropped her palms down again. "I'm here on behalf of that dim-witted big-headed asshole you folks call Iron-Man. You know, pretty short? Dark hair? Not that great looking despite being a billionare?"

"How do you know Tony?" In any other situation, Cap would've chuckled at the girl's comical description of Tony; but at the moment he was stunned with stupefaction.

"I'm a relative of his, it's a long story," She replied. "I don't have much time though."

"Stark has family?" Natasha shared a look with Steve.

Tatum knew this wasn't going to be easy, and she expected a lot of questions but her and the others hadn't really discussed a plan before she went under.

Vision straightened, Wanda holding him as he looked to Tatum. His eyes went wide, and he was hit with realization. "Ms. Tatum Stark." Wanda muddled over his knowledge of the girl; as did everyone else.

Tatum nodded, surprised he was aware of her existence, but then she remembered who Vision was and how he came to be those few years ago. "Yeah, yeah. That's me." She saluted them, "Reporting for duty."

The others didn't seem to appreciate her humour.

"It's a pleasure to acquaint you." Vision bowed his head.

"You too," She threw him a courteous nod back. Her eyes darted back to Natasha and The Captain.!"Anyways, I don't have much time before they get me." She continued to speak, not allowing Natasha to intervene; who she assumed was going to question who 'they" ' were. "Just listen to me, and I can explain everything in a few days when I charge back up again."

"Charge up?" Natasha asked.

"Cap?" Sam repeated, trying to tow the attention away from Tatum. "Where to?"

They all leaned towards Sam, "Home, Sam. Take us home."

Tatum licked her lips, awkwardly waiting until their attention drew back to her. She was overwhelmed meeting so many people all at once.

"Is it working?" She heard Peter's voice ring in her ears.

"I don't know- Just be quiet kid." That was definitely Tony.

She clutched the side of her head, squinting her eyes as she tried to focus. There was a buzz in her ears, as if there was bad reception or something. Her ears rang like tinnitus and her head ached slightly.

"Think she can hear us?"

"I don't know," Tony growled, "How would I know if she could?"

"Oh Satan," She cursed, hitting the left side of her head with her palm. "Shut up!" She rubbed her temples to rid the headache that was transforming to a migraine.

"What the hell is going on with her?" Wanda asked, speaking for the first time since her arrival. They stared at her like she was having a drug-induced episode or a schizophrenic occurence.

"I-It's Tony." Tatum elucidated. "He's being too loud, as usual."

"She said something." The doctor announced in her head. "I heard her say something."

"So did I," Peter chimed in "I did too. She said 'loud' I think."

She tried to tune them out. She clenched her jaw, tucking her golden hair behind her ear as she returned back to the others. "I can hear them, I'm with them. I'm here too, but not really. My body's with them."

"And how in the hell did you manage that?" Sam yelled from up front.

"Astral-projection," She retorted, "That's a story for another time though. Captain, I need to speak to you."

Steve nodded, brows lowering discerningly as he looked at the girl. he took an apprehensive step towards her, and he swallowed. "What is it?"

"Tatum, if you can hear me," She heard Tony in her head, "Ask him if he got my message. If he did, what the hell is he doing right now?"

She licked her lips, squinting her eyes to try to focus on Tony's voice. When she had received the message, her eyelids flew open and she looked back to a startled Steve Rogers. "He told me to ask you if you got his voicemail."

Cap nodded at her, uneasiness still etched on his structured face.

"He want's to know where you guys are..." She gestured around them, "Or where we are, rather."

"Scotland," He answered, still frowning.

"Scotland? What? Okay... uh-"

"We were rounding up these two," Natasha added, pointing to the huddled couple in the corner of the aircraft. Wanda shot her a guilty look.

"Think she heard that?" Peter questioned.

She rolled her eyes, causing Cap and Natasha to share a look that said 'what the hell is wrong with this girl'. Normally, she'd call them out on it but she was running out of time.

"Pete, shut up."

"It'll be confusing for the girl if too many of us talk." The wizard added, supporting Tony's order.

"Right-Sorry... Sorry Tatum."

She sighed at the boy's apology. She would kick his ass later for wasting time.

"So where are you-we- going now?" She asked, pointing towards the front of the aircraft. "Back to the compound?"

"Precisely," The Captain answered. "Despite recent events-"

"The accords?" She gathered, right brow arched.

"Yes" He nodded, "So you're up to date?"

"On most things," She answered, shrugging. "I don't listen to his rambling all the time, though."

Cap had a hint of a smile on his face, that vanished as quickly as it appeared.

"So you're going back to the compound, what's the plan?" She asked, crossing her arms. Her questions were hastily spat out.

Natasha cocked a brow, mimicking the same pose as Tatum as they waited for Steve to reply. "Rhodey's there, I'm assuming you know who that is?"

She nodded.

"We gotta round up everyone we can get and figure out what to do." Cap explained.

"With the world being assimilated by aliens, right?" She lifted a finger, "By the way, they are ugly mother-fuckers, but quite strong."

Natasha frowned, "Yeah we know. So what are you here for? What's your MO?"

"Tate, ask them if Vision still has the Mind Stone." She looked at Vision, who still had the yellow stone centered on his forehead. She had no need to ask, she looked back to Natasha.

"Stark, the wizard, Spider-boy and I are stuck in a flying space-doughnut in Satan knows where," She continued, "We're headed to Titan."

"Titan?" Cap asked. "Why aren't you turning back?"

"Hey, Cap?" Sam called out, eyes still remaining towards the front of the aircraft.

At the same moment Sam adressed Steve, she heard the chirping of the first bird.

"Shit," She cursed.

Cap and Natasha did a quick take towards her, then back to the pilot. "What is it, Sam?"

"There's a... a bird."

"What do you mean?"

There was another chirp. Confusion spread across their faces, growing and spreading like a wild fire.

It started chirping louder. They found the source of the noise at the front of the dashboard, standing at an open area where there were no buttons. It chirped again, flapping its wings as it cocked his head around, beak opening and closing.

"How did that happen?" Natasha asked, pressing her plump lips together.

"It's not real, don't worry about it." Tatum clapped, "Focus on me."

"Mr. Stark? There's a bird behind you." Peter informed them. At the same time the bird in her mind chirped, the bird on the dashboard beside Sam did as well.

"Nine minutes," She heard the Doctor say.

"I'm running out of time," she briefed the others. "I have to make it quick." Her eyes darted rapidly from face to face as she tried to rush her words.

"Tatum, tell them what's going on, tell them we're stuck in a space doughnut half way across the galaxy, headed for the purple bastard. Tell them we'll be on Titan in 5 to 6 days and that we're going to try to take down grimace." She smirked at the name-calling of Thanos, thinking about the short legged purple character that she saw on the television years ago.

"Stark says to tell you that we're in space, and that we're headed for Thanos. He doesn't want to fight him on earth, seeing as we all know how catastrophic he can be," They all nodded simultaneously. "Doc's got the time stone, we're gonna hold on to it. Meanwhile you guys gotta do what you normally do, save people and stuff."

Cap nodded.

"Keep the rock safe," She pointed to vision, primarily his forehead. "Make sure Thanos doesn't get it." She said the obvious, but the others still listened to her. "I presume there will be more coming, Thanos seems to have an endless army." She added.

"We'll take care of it." Cap responded.

"Cap, there's another bird."

Her head twitched towards Sam, who was staring wide-eyed at the small sparrow-like bird, who was also tweeting now. A few seconds later, another appeared. They all twitched around, cocking their heads and dancing around on the dash.

"What are they doing here?" Wanda asked.

"They're here for me." Tatum informed them, "They're not really birds. They're avengers of death. Just give me a few more minutes." She continued, "We wont make it to Titan for another five or six days. He'll want me to check in every once in a while, I'll do the best I can."

"So we're basically using you as a telephone? You're going to tell Tony all of this?" Nat asked in concern "How can we trust you?"

"Don't shoot the messenger," She lifted her hands in the air innocently, then cocked her head to the side to reconsider her words. "Well actually, I wouldn't die anyways; but you get the point."

"Mr. Stark theres more birds."

"I know Pete, I can hear them. I'm not deaf."

"4 more minutes." The Doctor enlightened her.

Her eyes darted from person to person. She couldn't believe she was actually astral-projecting from a spacecraft driving on auto-pilot towards a death wish, and standing in front of Captain America, Black Widow, Scarlett Witch, Vision and Falcon. She didn't desire to be there, but Tony dragged her into this mess. He better have gotten her out of it, too.

"Are you gonna tell us what you are? How you can do this?" Natasha asked. "If we're running out of time, the least you can do is give us some answers. How do we know you're actually with Tony?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Okay, fine blondie"

It was clear that the Black Widow didn't appreciate the nickname.

"I'm Tony's great great great Aunt" Had she gotten it right that time? "Or something or other. I don't know. I'm a 216 year old hybrid, there's some info about it at the base. I'm basically just using a spell to project myself here through an alternate reality type vortex. Stark forced me to lend a helping hand and now-"

There was another chirp, and she grew nervous as she saw the four psychopumps sitting carelessly beside Sam, dancing on the dash and tapping their feet against the hard plastic.

"Dammit Satan." They all made a face at her use of the word 'Satan' as oppose to 'God' when she cursed. "Just do me a favor and try to not get yourselves killed. We're all going to be a little while,"

"Three minutes"

"Ugggh!" She groaned, feeling like she had barely had a chance to speak to them. "I'm going to try to check in tomorrow. How long do you think until you get back home?"

"A few hours yet," Sam hollered back. "Tell Tony that we said 'Screw the accords' and that we're going back home for the others, then we're going to duck out to wherever we have to and bring the fight to us."

"How will you be so sure they'll follow you?" Tatum asks.

"We aren't." Cap answered. "That's about as much of a plan as we got, though."

She nodded, muddling over the information. Her eyes dropped to the floor. "Okay... yeah."

"Two minutes."

The birds chirped louder, jumping and dancing ina frenzy which startled Sam. "What's up with them?"

"They're waiting to take me," She explained. "Look- Okay so when you get back to the base, I'll check back in and we'll go from there. Got it?"

They all nodded. It seemed like they weren't so distrusting of her anymore, which was concerning sicne she had only had not even a twenty minute conversation with them and they were the 'Avengers'.

"We were just fighting with two of the aliens." Natasha directed at her, "The male seemed seriously injured, but the female wasn't. They just beamed up into the sky and flew off. My bet is that they'll come looking for us. In fact, I'm almost sure of it."

"You're saying that like it's a good thing," Tatum countered.

"Well that's what you wanted to hear, right?"

Tatum sighed, she didn't know what she wanted to here.

"Are the others safe?" Wanda spoke up, clutching Vision tighter to her.

Tatum stared at her for a moment, taking in her pale face and her petite features. Her hair was long and wavy, her clothes were stained with blood and debris. Curiosity tainted her face, and Tatum nodded. "Yeah, they're safe; as far as I know." She pointed above them, "We're all good up there, but I haven't spoken to anyone else yet."

"Good," Cap nodded, "That's good."

"59 seconds left Tatum,"

Another bird materialized in front of the, and one by one they all started hopping off the dashboard and onto the floor. They chirped louder, causing the others to cover their ears, and they all advanced towards her.

"That's my cue," She told them.

"Wait," Steve held out his hand to halt her.

"What is it, Stevie?"

He had no time to muse over the nickname that the total stranger had labelled him, so he ignored it. "Tell Tony to stay safe."

She nodded, surprised at his politeness. Had it been years since Tony and Steve had spoke? There seemed to be a sort of battle for power there, but the two seemed more like an old married couple then anything, Tatum thought. It was apparent that Steve stilled cared for Tony, despite the civil war that had happened so long ago. She knew Tony cared for him as well.

She nodded, giving him a gentle smile. "For sure, Cap. I'll pass it along."

He gave her one quick not, as if to salute her on her journey.

The birds started chirping loudly as they came closer and closer to her. She moved a couple steps back before saying her last words. "Oh, and Cap?"

"Yes?" He responded.

"I like the hair and the beard." She made a swirling gesturing around the lower half of his face. "Suits you, keep it up." She threw a playful wink at him, smirking before she chanted her spell. "Redde me meo, ut me meae. Fac nos unum iterum."

The five of them watched as her body drifted away like a sea breeze, nothing left but a cold air filling the room. They all just puzzled over what had occurred. it was all too quick for any of them to process. Cap thought about what had just happened, and if he trusted the girl.

There was no time for trust right now, they needed all the help they could get. What reason would the girl have to lie? What benefit would it have given her? Although, if Tony knew her, why hadn't he mentioned her before? How could she have possibly been his aunt? The girl hadn't looked a day over 17. She had said she was 216 years old, that was impossible. Although in his case, he should've looked much older than he really was, so maybe she was in a similar situation. He would be sure to file through Tony's stuff later to learn more about her.

"The birds are gone," Nat told him. Steve looked around to try to find them, he came up empty; confirming Natasha's observation. They vanished like a cloud of fog, as if they were never there. "What do we do, Steve?" Natasha addressed him.

He calculated over her words for a long moment. 'Keep the rock safe' 'Try not to get killed'

"We listen to her." Steve told the others. HE waited for a response, and when he saw them all nodding, he relaxed and moved to take a seat beside Sam. The others tried to get comfortable as they still had a while to go before they returned home. Steve heard Vision and Wanda muttering to herself, and Natasha lay horizontally across the seats in the back of the jet, trying to get some shut eye.

"What you thinking about, Cap?" Sam asked keenly.

'"I like the hair and the beard. Suits you. Keep it up." He never thought about his changed appearance over the couple of years. he hadn't had access to shaving supplies every single day, but maybe it looked better then he thought. Maybe he would keep it, if that's what others thought of it. He smiled to himself before speaking back to Sam.

"Nothing."

A/N: I know this is bad on my part, but I went back and made Tatum a little more hostile in chapter 4, towards Peter anyways. I feel like Tatum is very secure in her own personal bubble, and she doesn't want to open up to anyone, except she's sort of forced to with everyone else. As well as Peter is annoying it out of her.

As for this chapter, I hope you enjoy, and it won't be the last you'll see of these guys interacting with Tate.

I have a few future chapters written out, as there are specific moments that I had in my mind which made me write this story, but if you guys want to see anything in the upcoming chapters, I may incorporate it.

Enjoy, and please let me know what you think as I really appreciate it and love hearing reviews more then anything.

xx

ThatNerd1: Maybe we'll find out, or maybe we won't! What do you thinks under there?