anyastark:

Anya had been working long hours and Sarah had spent a lot of time doing Avengers work. Lately it seemed like they only saw each other in passing. Tonight that was going to change. Not to mention Sarah was nursing some injuries and Anya was going to pamper her.

Anya had left the office at a reasonable hour and had made a few stops along the way. There were a few items that pampering required. She left them in the car while she went inside. After chasing Sarah to their bed, Anya retrieved the items from the car and headed to the kitchen.

Once everything was ready Anya headed to the bedroom. "Close your eyes," she called from outside the bedroom door.

nextgen_misc:

Morning came to New York and with it a brisk wind making it seem colder than it was. The weak winter sun did little to warm things up and a layer of frost covered cars and other objects left out in the cold winter air over night. The city that never slept was becoming more alive with activity as her residents started their daily routines.

High above the city the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier flew, keeping an eye on the city below.

It seemed like any other winter's morning in New York, but today would prove to be far from ordinary.

nextgen_misc:

The timely save by the Anti-Registration forces brought the Exiles to the group's secret headquarters. The rescued heroes were brought back and offered medical aid, food and a chance to rest away from the pro-registration forces. The Exiles explained who they were and what their mission was and were invited to stay for as long as they wanted.

A few hours later more rescued heroes were brought back and this time it was the six Avengers. They entered the secret underground base and escorted to the area where they could get cleaned up and get medical treatment for their wounds. They would get the chance to meet everyone when they were done and came out to the main area with everyone else.

anyastark:

The alarm rang and a fist came out from under the covers and slammed down on the alarm clock. It was waaaaaay too early to get up. Anya had stayed in the lab way too late of course and morning was already here. She wasn't sure what time it was when she stumbled up to bed, but it hadn't been that long ago.

Anya considered her options. Get out of bed and go to class or sleep and worry about class later or possibly tomorrow? Right now the latter was the better option and the one she was planning to go with. Staying in bed all day was a nice option.

nextgen_misc:

There was a flash of light and the Exiles appeared in a new world with a new problem to fix.

They were in a crowd just outside a courthouse in New York city. The area around the main entrance was filled with people and the media. New York's Finest tried to keep the mass of people back, but the crowd was persistent in getting in close. Two uniformed officers stood near the rear door. One officer opened the door and the other helped the prisoner out of the car.

Captain America exited the police cruiser and the two officers flanked him. Camera flashes went off in a dizzying pattern. Reporters tried to shove microphones in front of Captain America for a quote.

The officers started to lead him up the steps toward the main entrance.

nextgen_misc:

It was time for the Exiles to move on. Their job in this universe was done and there were many more out there that needed to be fixed or saved.

They were given an hour to say their goodbyes before they moved on.

shield_maiden:

Svalin and Tryggvi just landed on the small lawn in the back of the Avengers Mansion. Svalin had been getting antsy and decided to take Tryggvi out for a flight around New York. They were both feeling too confined. At least at the Defenders compound there was room to move around and a nice ocean breeze. There were too many tall buildings in New York and they were all too close.

Svalin dismounted and immediately removed the saddle. She let it fall on the ground and then removed the bridle. She smiled and lightly rubbed Tryggvi's nose before placing a kiss on his forehead. "Thank you, my friend. 'Twas a most enjoyable flight."

rogue_star:

Sarah is about as nervous as it gets. A double date was one thing, but she had Anya and Steve along then, and Anya has usually been her social occasion security blanket. And now she has a whole week alone with Molly, who is quickly earning 'as wonderful as it gets' points.
She'd done everything she could to set things up properly. Anya had the trip and reservations in hand, of course. She still had to get help showering and all, so it may have been a bit of a letdown there - not quite so easy to surprise your date with strawberry scented shampoo, slightly tight jeans and the rest when your date helped wash your hair and get you dressed. Ah well.

The wheelchair also isn't quite ideal, but the people on the plane, and then the airport attendants were nice enough to help out so Molly didn't have to do everything. Sarah is also getting use of her arm back, so she can manage short distances on even ground pretty well. Tomorrow should be better still. The limo was a bit tougher, but between the two with super strength and a little help from the chauffer they managed.

Even with all she's seen though, the gates take her aback. "Wow... this place is huge."

rogue_star:

Sarah would like to spend as much time with Anya and Molly as she can while she has the tiny chance she has. But with things happening there, there's someone she needs to make at least a little time to talk to. Her arm is healed enough to work her own wheelchair, and she'll be out of it in a couple days. It'll do for now.

She approaches Bucky's temporary quarters at Avengers Mansion and knocks.

rogue_star:

This isn't quite according to plan, but its far better than nothing. The Exiles have been given a little bit of downtime in this world to recover, before their next mission. So she has a little bit of time with Molly, anyway. And a night out with her best friend, said best friend's boyfriend, and, of course, a date. A real honest to goodness date. Despite being in a wheelchair, Sarah is on cloud nine.

Or being wheeled across cloud 9 when Molly has time to get to it, anyway, since Sarah is still needing a lot of help, til the third degree burns finish healing. So far, Molly hasn't seemed to mind - which continually amazes her.

rogue_star:

Sarah gets brought back to Xavier's after her fight with Holocaust, nowhere else has the facilities to deal with these kinds of injuries.. She never regains consciousness on the way home. Indeed, its most of another day before she does. Even by then, she still has broken ribs, a recovering dislocated shoulder, numerous radiation burns, and third degree burns up both arms, her hands are still black. Her sight will recover, but her charts say that she doesn't seem to have much of it currently in her right eye - the one on the side of her face that's mostly black and blue.

They've got her full of enough elephant tranquilizers to let her rest comfortably. Even so, eventually, she does regain consciousness, blinking her blurry eyes.

"Where?"

rogue_star:

Everyone's memories came back to them, once they had a few reminders. Avengers Mansion made a good rallying point. Some were harder to find than others, but Anya managed most of them, the Tallus did the rest once Sarah asked it.

Time to get back to business.

Sarah waits in the main meeting room, letting everyone get assembled before she delivers the bad, bad news.

rogue_star:

After her talk with Anya, still trying to hold herself together, Sarah goes looking for Molly, starting with checking her room.

anyastark:

Anya's life was getting back on track, for the most part. There was still one thing that was left unresolved. Anya grabbed a few things from the Avengers Mansion, stuffed them in a bag and then took a cab to Xavier's. During the ride over she ran through in her mind what she would say a million and one times. This was not going to be easy, but it had to be done. She may have been brainwashed into being Lady Mandarin, but she remembered everything she did and said. Including that which was said and done to people she cared about.

She grabbed the bag and climbed out of the cab.

Taking a deep breath she opened the gate and went to find Sarah.

princessbruiser:

There's pizza on the coffee table, two two-liter bottles of Diet Coke, a big bowl of popcorn, and a gallon of Americone Dream in the freezer with Molly and Sarah's names on it. Molly "reserved" the lounge for the evening, and after going through all of the movies in the Mansion, assembled a pretty decent pile of movies that she thought Sarah would enjoy. A couple of Disney, some chick flicks, an action movie or two, and since Molly was feeling brave, she might as well throw in the original Nightmare On Elm Street while she was at it.

She finished setting up comfy pillows along the sofa, and grabbed the quilt from off her bed. She was dressed in her comfiest pajamas and ready for a night of vegging in front of the t.v. and indulging in junk food. She'd left a note earlier on Sarah's door to meet her downstairs in the lounge, in her pajamas and ready for a full night of movie-watching.

Molly grinned, looking at her set-up. For her first "girl's night in", she'd done a pretty good job. Now, all she needed was Sarah and she'd be all set.

anyastark:

Anya removed her helmet and stepped out of the suit of armor. She was drenched from head to toe with sweat despite the suit's environmental controls and the shorts and tank top she wore were plastered to her skin. Anya did always tend to run a bit on the hot side and it had been quite a workout. She sat down and straddled the bench in the locker room. She laid back and stared up at the ceiling.

All of her limbs felt rubbery and she didn't think she could move. She didn't want to move. This bench was nice and comfy. She could stay here a day or two.

She sighed and knew she would have to move. She had things to do. There was a new suit of armor that needed to be worked on.

anyastark:

Anya paced back and forth in the small cell. She was bored. Lady Mandarin and Temujin were gone, but she was being kept here for observation for awhile. At least they had given her the (modified) Kindle she owned.

Though right now she was tired of reading. She just wanted her laptop. If she had her laptop she could be writing code and right now she'd worship the person who brought the laptop to her. She could at least distract herself a little better not to mention get some of the projects she had been meaning to do finished.

She had hoped Sarah would be down to visit so Anya could beg for forgiveness. It tore at her heart and her soul what she did to Sarah. There was penance that needed to be done and forgiveness that needed to be begged for.

They could have at least given her a cell phone so she could talk to people.

Anya grumbled and kept pacing.

nextgen_misc:

The media watched the battle from the safety of Ellis Island while on Liberty Island the battle raged on.

anyastark:

Anger seethed under the calm surface of the redhead sitting in a holding cell at Xavier’s Institute, but she didn’t focus on it. There would be time to act upon it later. There would be time for vengeance after she got out of here.

Lady Mandarin looked calm and serene as she sat in a lotus position with her eyes close in the middle of the cell. Her mind was focusing on the nanites going through the computer systems that controlled the door and locks to the cell and the other systems in the building.

She would get out of here and free her lord from his prison. Then they would deliver vengeance upon those responsible for her lord’s capture and rebuild his empire.

She opened her eyes. It was time. The work done on the systems was complete. She was not going to sit in this cell a moment longer. She unfolded her legs and stood up. A deep breath and a simple command. The locks disengaged and she walked out of the cell toward freedom.

rogue_star:

Sarah remained unconscious through the flight to the states, and all the way to the east coast, though Talia did what she could for the worst of her injuries. Her healing is good - but it'll still take plenty of time.
The X-Men's facilities are still overtaxed, but they do have healers, and possibly the best chance of freeing Anya's mind, so that's where they end up.

By the time she awakens, she's bandaged, some of the most severe of her wounds are tended, and only 90% of her is in active pain at the moment. At least til she tries to move, then it hits about 97%.

rogue_star:

From the tales of James Rhodes, and the Lady Mandarin armor, Sarah figures out where she's at. The Valley of Spirits, and within it, the palace of the Mandarin. For most, its a forbidden place, and for anyone, a foreboding one. Were it not for it being Anya, she'd likely hesitate here before encroaching further. "Oh Anya, what have you gotten yourself into?" she whispers.

She's gotten herself as patched up as she can. Her jaw is reset, though that was painful. Her rib is wrapped, her leg and forehead bandaged, both bandages already soaking through. Tomorrow, she's going to be one big bruise, if she even lives that long.

At her best, she's driven Temujin off, but he wasn't to be taken lightly. And this time, he has help, she doesn't, and she's definitely not at her best.

Still, she's healthy enough to announce her presence by taking Mjolnir to the front gates, turning them into splinters. Sure, she could be stealthy, but he probably has this place rigged with all manner of traps and security, and she doesn't want to be the one who gets surprised. So she sets to just demolishing things as she goes, to force Temujin to come to her or need a new castle.

"Release Anya, you bastard!"

anyastark:

Hong Kong. Macau. Shanghai.

Lady Mandarin and the Abomination had been busy carrying out the Mandarin's orders. There were pockets of resistance to the Mandarin's control of the Underworld in each city and the two of them were the means by which the Mandarin brought those resisting under his control.

They descended into Beijing and Lady Mandarin set Abomination on the ground before she herself landed.

It was time to carry out her lord's wishes.

rogue_star:

With the members of KISS given the power of rock, and Dr. Doom defeated, the Exiles begin to fade from the world...

Sarah wakes up with a splitting headache. She knows she's sore all over, but can't quite place why. There's a few faint memories of faces, but she can't put a name to any of them. Last thing she remembers was kissing Anya. She has a sense that was a while ago, but everything in between just isn't coming to her.
She's wearing a strange bracelet, but it doesn't seem to do anything - no clues to where she came here from, and no obvious way to remove it. The shield and hammer are in her hands, so at least that's good, though a sign she may have been fighting. That would explain the soreness.

Its daylight out, causing her to blink a couple times against the day as she wakes up more. Open countryside, nothing that will immediately tell her where she's at. Not up for flying quite yet, she starts with trying to stand up.

rogue_star:

She's been sitting quietly on her bed for three hours now, just staring at it. She turned her comm off first thing, trying to clear her thoughts.

She'd spent ages and all the goodwill she'd gotten from SHIELD trying to find her teammates, and found they weren't on this world.
She'd endured Misha's insistence she just relax, make friends and accept she had a family here now.
She'd started to believe Anya suggesting that maybe, just maybe this was her world now, and had gone through the first stages of mourning her parents and friends.

And she'd been about to ask Anya if she'd help her make plans for her 18th birthday, only a few months away. Her 'sweet 16' was spent invading a Sentinel concentration camp. Freeing all those people was a wonderful feeling, but she also knew most of them wouldn't make it, with or without help from the X-Men and the underground railroad, and they'd almost lost Firefly.
Her 17th was spent in a new world, recently bereft of all the things she'd come to know with the Exiles, along with the fleeting hope of making things ok again. And, of course, watching Anya's birthday party not long before, and feeling horribly out of place.

She'd screwed up her courage, tried to figure out who to invite, and was finally ready to go apologize to her parents at their non-graves, the Tomb of the Uknown Soldier seemed fitting, to ask them to understand that she needed to live her own life. And she'd prepared to ask Anya to help with a real birthday party - and was still debating, with a few butterflies, asking if Anya might even be her 'pretend date' if they did it somewhere private.

And then it showed up, just appearing out of nowhere on her right arm.

She's been in her room since, alternating between crying and trying to find a new reserve of willpower, like she always did. She was a Rogers, after all. This time, it just wasn't there. Only the words it kept telling her.

'Galactus' ship's temporal shields screwed things up, but we're back on track.
You still have work to do, kiddo.
Kiss dreams of a normal life goodbye and let's get back to work.'

Worst of all, she knew exactly what she had to do.