Looking at the familiar shield encased in ice, her heart sped up a little. She had spent the last day traveling here with a faint hope in her heart. The last hour getting inside the Valkyrie was the worst part, but she had to make sure that Steve was in here. She crouched down and wiped a layer of frost off the piece of ice in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Steve’s head encased in the ice. A face she hadn’t seen in almost sixty years. A single tear started to form and before it could roll down her cheek it froze almost where it started. She stood up, wiped the tear away and then looked at the man who had joined her on this trip, he stood in awe as he looked down at Steve encased inside the ice. After a moment he looked back up at her and said, “I am ready whenever you are ma’am.”
Peggy nodded her head in confirmation before they both made their way back outside of the plane. It wasn’t exactly what she remembered, but then again most of it was encased in the ice. Only a few parts of the giant black plane were exposed to the world, most of it was hidden under the ice. Not wanting to waste time, she pulled out one of the shrinking discs, pushed the button and threw it at the wing tip in front of her. A second later and the wing and plane were gone, but on the ground in front of her was what looked like a broken foot long toy plane. She looked over at Coulson, he stepped beside it and picked it up. It didn’t take them long to load it inside an ice chest that they prepared beforehand. They wanted to make sure they were back in base and the Valkyrie was its normal size before they pulled Steve out and began to thaw everything. Once they were done, they boarded their transport and headed back to base.
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To say that Bill Foster was stunned would be the understatement of a lifetime. A man who he never thought he would meet again, had shown up at his hotel room in Argentina. After Bill answered the door, the man not only greeted him with an apology, but gave him a hug and asked if they could talk. Still in shock he invited the man inside where they were now seated.
Bill looked at his old friend and still didn’t know what to say. Hank looked around the room for a few moments before he locked eyes with Bill and said, “Bill, I really am sorry for how I treated you. When I lost Janet, I didn’t handle it well at all. I lashed out at everyone close to me and I really want to say that I am truly sorry for my actions. You were a great friend and you didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Bill sat in silence for a while as he examined the man in front of him. The sadness in the man's eyes was still there. But the anger that used to be there was gone and replaced with what looked like a spark of hope. Bill reached over, placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “Hank, I forgive you. I might have acted the same way if I was in your position.”
Hank nodded his head in response but didn’t say anything else. Bill studied him for a moment longer before he removed his hand, sat back in his seat and asked. “How did you even find me by the way?”
Hank laughed for a moment before he said, “Honestly I don’t even believe it myself, but someone told me that you were here and that you were taking care of Elihas Starr’s daughter Ava who was suffering from molecular disequilibrium.”
Bill stood up shocked as he looked down at Hank, after a moment he looked at a closed door across the room. Hank glanced at the door but said nothing as he waited for Bill. Bill sat down defeated after a few seconds. His gaze never left the door as he asked, “When did you go back to S.H.I.E.L.D.? Actually it doesn’t really matter anyways. If S.H.I.E.L.D. gets their hands on Ava they will use her and turn that girl into a weapon. I don’t want that to happen, but I don’t have the resources to help her myself.”
Bill lowered his head and looked at his hands in defeat. Hank reached out and patted Bill on the shoulder as he said, “You know Ezekiel said the same thing. That is one of the reasons he sent me to find you and Ava.”
Bill looked up at Hank and asked, “Ezekiel? Does he work for S.H.I.E.L.D.?”
Hank shook his head and said, “Not really, he is working with people from S.H.I.E.L.D., but he is not part of it.”
Bill had a little spark of hope in his eyes as he asked, “So you came to find me and Ava for this man Ezekiel? What was the other reason you came for?”
Hank's eyes shimmered as he smiled, before he said, “Janet is alive and I need your help to rescue her. Ezekiel said that by helping to stabilize Ava it will also help us in finding a way to get Janet back. Or at least that is what he believes.”
Bill looked at his friend in shock, his lower jaw dropped open for a second before it snapped closed and he asked, “Janet is still alive?! I mean I know you had theories on what could happen if someone goes quantum, but it was all guess work.”
Hank nodded his head and then said, “I’ve thought about it for years, but at this point I didn’t think it would matter even if I made something to go into the quantum realm.”
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“Then what happened? What changed?”
“Ezekiel.”
Bill looked confused as he asked, “Ezekiel? You said his name, but why is he so important?”
Hank shook his head as he said, “I can’t tell you here. But if you come and join us, I will tell you everything.”
Bill looked back at the door for a while before he asked, “You are going to help me cure Ava?”
“Yes, I would still help Ava even if you don’t join us.”
Bill stood up and as he did, he reached over and offered his right hand to Hank. Hank took it with his own right hand and was pulled up by Bill. With their hands still clasped together, Bill shook Hank's hand and said, “It’s good to be working with you again, old friend.”
Hank smiled a little at that and pulled Bill into a quick hug as he said, “Same to you, Bill.”
After their hands released, Bill looked over towards the door and Hank followed his gaze. After a second Hank thought he saw something, but couldn’t make out what it was. It wasn’t until Bill said, “Ava honey, it’s not polite to eavesdrop on people.”
The next second a young girl's ghostly head came out of the door, she looked a little embarrassed at Bill and said in a meek tone of voice, “Sorry.”
“It’s fine Ava, come here please. I want you to meet someone who is going to help me find a way to cure you.”
The ghost girl who looked no older than thirteen years old walked fully through the door, but the door was still mostly visible behind her. She had on some lite pink pajamas. In her hands was a little white teddy bear she clutched tightly to her chest. Her head dropped slightly as she walked closer to Bill and Hank, she would flicker in and out of existence, sometimes completely solid, other times she disappeared completely and would be closer the next time she reappeared. She finally stopped when she was next to Bill but did nothing else.
Bill reached down and gently touched Ava’s head as she became completely solid again. He looked down at the girl with a hint of sadness in his eyes as he said, “Ava, honey, this is Hank Pym. He is the smartest man I have ever met and he is going to help me with finding a way to cure you.”
She kept her head down as she said, “Daddy said Hank Pym is an asshole and that he hated him.”
Hank kneeled down next to Ava and said, “He wasn’t wrong, me and your father used to work together, we were… friends. But he tried to do something that upset me greatly. In return I did everything I could to do the same to him. Unfortunately because of that, I am an indirect cause of why you are suffering and your parents are no longer here.”
Ava finally looked up at Hank, there was a little bit of anger in her eyes but they were also filled with a deep sadness. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she started to tear up. She turned her head away and started to cry, as she did her body phased in and out of existence. Bill was the first to react and he knelt down next to her and said, “Ava, honey, I know it’s hard but please concentrate. You need to settle down and concentrate or it will just hurt more.”
It took about a minute, but she finally calmed down and became mostly solid again. Bill pulled her into a hug after that and just held her in silence for a while as Hank watched. When Bill finally released her from the hug, Hank reached out slowly, he placed his hand gently on her shoulder and asked, “Ava, will you let me help find a way to cure you?”
Ava looked at Bill, who smiled at her. Before she looked at Hank and nodded her head yes in reply.
Hank removed his hand as he stood up, he then looked at both Bill and Ava and said. “Let's get you both packed, I have a place where we can work. We just need to make one stop before we go there.”
Bill stood up with his arm around Ava’s shoulder as he asked, “Where do you need to stop at and where is our work space at?”
“The work space is a secret base I can’t really tell you the location of. But the stop is so we can pick up Hope. She is a little older than Ava, but I think Ava could use a friend while she is with us at the base.”
Bill smiled at that and said, “That is a great idea, but is that going to be allowed?”
“Doesn’t matter if they like it or not, I am working with them, not for them.”
Bill just nodded his head and said, “We are pretty much ready to leave now, I had planned to leave here later today, so we are almost fully packed up already. Ava, can you change out of your pajamas and we will leave after that?”
Ava nodded her head in response and then walked into the next room by going through the wall.
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Fury shook his head again as he looked at the list in front of him. Three names stood out the most to him, mostly because they are the names of kids. Erik Stevens, Grant Ward and Mary Sue Poots. But next to that was Ezekiel’s reason for finding them and trying to recruit them. He memorized where to find them, before he closed the document and then shut off his connection to Ezekiel's hidden network. He let out a sigh as he stood up from his seat, he knew he couldn’t trust anyone else with this task besides maybe Peggy or possibly Coulson. But he also knew she would be busy with Steve for a while and Coulson couldn’t disappear for too long.