FINDING HOME

SUMMARY – Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER – All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER 12

Steve was sitting in the middle of his full size bed in the cramped motel room, his head bowed and shoulders hunched over, as he read through all of the case files he'd been sent today.

After the conference call with the rest of the team, Thor had left in search of food for the two of them, and Steve had tried to find something in the mass of information that might help him bring Isabella home.

To no avail thus far. Surrounded by the images of burnt flesh and bloodless, lifeless corpses, he'd been unable to find anything at all. Just more unanswered questions.

Why drain the blood? How had they drained the blood? (There were no discernable puncture wounds on any of the victims, but the ME had written it off since they were so badly burnt.) Who was V? Why did V want to hurt Isabella?

Something was not adding up for him. The notes…

The murders of Charles Swan and the Dwyer family had been vicious, brutal, bloody affairs. There was uncontrollable rage clearly on display there. Messages addressed to Isabella, literally nailed to their chests. It was personal. He still didn't understand what the motive was exactly, but there were clues that created at least something of an idea.

'what I'm owed' 'avenge him' Somehow, V felt Isabella was to blame for a loss, likely of someone they loved, and so they were killing those she loved in turn, paying back what was owed. And the endgame was Isabella dead, as vengeance for the loss of 'him'. But who was he? And did that mean that V might be a woman? A grieving woman lashing out violently at the one she blames for the death of her lover? It was a theory at least…

But the messages left at the other Jacksonville crime scenes, while obviously drawn by the same hand, held no anger, no passion. They were emotionless, short, simple, unsigned.

It didn't make sense. V clearly hadn't intended them to be directed at anyone in particular, so why write them at all? What was the motive in killing seven people with no connection to Isabella?

The babysitter might have been able to tell her something about the family's patterns. The co-worker might have known bits and pieces of information about Renee's personal life. But a barista that happened to make Isabella's step-father's morning coffee from time to time? It didn't make sense…

And the killings in Seattle made even less sense. No one with ties to Isabella or her family. No messages. No obvious motive. And everything about those crime scenes was clean, planned, almost mission-oriented.

It was such a stark contrast with the murder of Charles Swan that he could barely believe the same person had been responsible. And all the missing persons whose bodies never turned up at all? What the hell was going on there?!

Frustrated, Steve tossed down the open file in his hands, letting it join the others in the mess of bloody images he'd spread across the bed in front of him.

He laid back on the pillows and looked up at the ceiling, as if expecting the answers he sought to be scrawled in blood above him. Something was very wrong here, and he hated not knowing what it was he was missing.

Clint's parting words to him kept replaying in his mind now. 'I can't explain it, but I just know there's still a big part of this we don't have a clear understanding of yet, and I don't want to see either of you get hurt.'

He was right. Steve didn't understand what was going on here. He felt out of his depth, and he couldn't shake the feeling that his team was wading into dangerous waters here…

The door swinging open suddenly shook Steve from his thoughts as Thor returned, bags of food in hand.

"I found a diner in town," the God told him, "Burgers and fries and pie," he continued, as if the fact that he'd managed to scrounge up some dessert in this tiny rained out town would make everything better somehow, "And I found a liquor store," Thor continued, finally catching Steve's attention as he pulled bottle after bottle of whiskey from the other bag.

"You know neither of us can actually get drunk off of that," Steve reminded him.

"Regardless, food and drink might help to lighten your spirits. And Tony always says that the men of Midgard often have their greatest of breakthroughs while drinking," he explained, handing a burger and a bottle to Steve as if that settled all arguments.

And so they drank, and ate, and drank, and laughed, and drank, and told old stories, and drank some more.

Before either of them knew what had happened, they'd burned through several tall bottles of whiskey, and though neither of them was feeling the effects of the considerable amount of alcohol, they both seemed calmer and less defeated.

"You know that we are going to find Isabella alive, don't you?" Thor asked him when they fell into a companionable silence.

"So you keep telling me," Steve muttered, "How can you be so sure? With everything we're seeing here? After everything V has done…"

"She is a survivor, Steve," Thor persisted, "Even Lady Natasha is impressed with everything she's done that we've seen so far. Her enemy is terrible, and we are now seeing just how violent V can be. But Isabella escaped. She knew what was coming and she ran. She travelled nearly your whole country, completely undetected, and then disappeared altogether so that even the Man of Iron cannot seem to find her. It is clear that V is powerful and dangerous, but our team is also powerful, and if we cannot find her, perhaps V cannot either. So she should be safe until we can find her, and she will keep herself alive until we can get to her."

"Powerful," Steve whispered, his eyes suddenly widening with realization.

"What?" Thor asked, following confused as Steve jumped up from their place on the floor and ran to his bed, flipping through the pages of police reports there.

He finally found what he was looking for and started reading from the personal notes of the Seattle PD Detective he'd read through earlier, "'No man can kill without leaving some piece of themselves behind. A hair, a fingerprint, a piece of skin, their image on camera. Something. Every killer, no matter how well trained or how much experience, eventually slips up. Every single one. This thing leaves nothing behind. No evidence, no witnesses, no video footage, nothing. It is an unnatural violence the likes of which I've never seen before. I don't know what it is, but it is no man.'"

"You think the killer might not be human?" Thor asked, sounding somewhat distressed at the prospect that Isabella might be being hunted by some unknown creature.

"This detective certainly did… A few months ago I would have thought that was impossible," Steve admitted, "But I am sitting in a motel room with an immortal God from another realm. Bruce and I were both born human, but no one in their right mind would classify us as normal humans now. You've seen the things we've fought together over the last few months. It's certainly a possibility."

"Then we shall explore it," Thor stated firmly, "We will determine what it is we are meant to be fighting, and we will face it head on. I don't care if V is a man, woman, God, or Frost Giant. We will find Isabella, and we will protect her."

Steve agreed wholeheartedly, and he already had a few ideas on what they might be looking at now that he'd accepted V likely wasn't human…

Collin was freaking out. He'd heard everything from his post behind the motel. Sam and the others had all phased out to take Josh back to Sam's place, so he was alone in his own head right now, and he had no idea what to do.

Steve and Thor were most decidedly NOT HUMAN. They had said so themselves.

And their slightly off scent, seeming immunity to the effects of alcohol, combined with all the wild tales he'd heard them sharing with one another throughout the night…

Steve had fought in World War 2, but he didn't look like he could be a day over thirty. He wasn't a vampire, not by a long shot, but was he immortal?

And he'd actually called Thor an immortal God. What the hell did that mean?!

Collin needed to talk to the pack, and quickly. But Sam would be upset if he left his post, and no one was expected to relieve him for hours. Could this wait that long? Would Sam be sending Embry back out to finish his patrol shift, or someone else to cover it?

It was moments like this that he really missed having Bells around. She would have calmed him down in three seconds flat. And she would have known exactly what to do now. Hell, knowing her, she'd probably know exactly who these guys really were and whether or not they were dangerous.

Great Spirits, he just missed her so much…

A/N: Sorry about the long wait between updates. Just one more week until final exams are over and then I should be back to writing more often. Can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the update. :)