Chapter 24 - Falling pieces

(An: I've changed the timeline around a bit. Here is a day after Mercy's meeting. Roughly 4 months since Reapers first appearance and in one week from the date of this chapter the meeting takes place. Let me know if there's aby confusing details there.)

Jessica POV (1 week prior to the meeting)

{Bang} Landing heavily on my back I desperately rolled to the side and got a glimpse of the heavy boot that landed where my stomach had been.

I winced slightly, trying not to imagen how I would have ended up if that hit had landed. Pushing off the ground I tried to move backwards to get some distance but Reaper (or Captain Reyes as he prefers) followed me moving at near blinding speeds to reengage.

Abandoning my attempt at retreating, I used my backwards momentum to throw myself into the air.

Twisting my body at angles that still hurt even after months of practice, I threw a kick downwards towards his head. Knowing he had an annoying habit of phasing through any attack I overcommitted.

I made sure to keep enough force dispersed to land safely. Reyes body jolted as he forced himself to a stop and dispersed his momentum throughout his body.

The result would have been funny if it was anyone else. Watching him expand like a balloon as he struggled to hold the energy at bay.

I, however, have had the misfortune of feeling this energy firsthand. So, the second I landed I turned and ran for the nearest cover I could find. I didn't bother looking back even when the distinctive sound of massive amounts of air being displaced began to rattle across the floor.

I jumped just as a loud explosion came rushing up from behind me. I didn't fully make it through the door, and I ended up flying into the far wall of the office I'd jumped into.

I was mind blown at first when seeing all these abandoned buildings in New York. Hell's Kitchen is a dump but it's an overcrowded nosy active dump.

On the other hand, the slums he's brought me to are completely desolate. The only use these buildings ever see are when the beggars come back from the streets to take cover from the weather.

I had always thought there wasn't enough space in New York city. That the businesses couldn't keep up with the demand. But now it's clear that the companies are trying to sell as little land as possible to keep up the novelty.

Hundreds of people who could use jobs and proper living conditions are forced to endure inhuman conditions so that companies can keep up the hype around land in New York. Disgusting

Its mid-January now, it's hard to imagine that so much time has passed since Kilgraves 'death'. I've yet to talk about it and Reyes seems to be content enough with my performance not to use it as motivation.

Honestly, it's become near impossible to deny that this is reality. Kilgraves illusions could never be this detailed, sure he could make things out of nothing and twist them to his desires. But eventually no matter the illusion he'd have to show me something about the people I knew to keep it entertaining for him.

I've seen Trish or more like Reyes has shown her to me while making not so subtle threats on how quickly he could end her life, and she's the real deal. Her appearance, her actions, and definitely her attitude.

I chuckled to myself while reflecting on watching her cuss out at a bunch of Starbucks employees for giving her milk instead of cream. As I slowly stood up grabbing onto the corner of an overturned desk to help myself up.

I wasn't at all surprised to see Reyes already at the door. He always seems to know where I am. I'd asked him once back during our second week of training, if he had put a tracker on me or something. But he had dismissed the question with the same arrogant smirk I couldn't see but knew he had on his face as I struggled to my feet gasping for air.

"I'm impressed." His voice carried across the room as I stood with my hands on my knees panting. I had to stop myself from wincing as it carried across the room.

During our initial contact I had thought the dark raspy voice he used was some kind of ability or device. But when he never turned it off even while he 'slept' (I'm convinced he doesn't actually sleep at all) I had finally worked up the courage to ask. That was the first and only time I've ever heard his real laugh.

It still sounded creepy as shit and God knows I could have gone my life never hearing it but in the end I'm glad I had heard him laugh.

If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have been able to see him as a human but instead some kind of demonic monster from Hell. Every day he stays inside to train me, or mark out targets I need to take care off before he disappears off to somewhere he refuses to show me – not that I've asked – knowing that I'm forced to obey his commands.

Sometimes I just want to give everything up and turn down an order just because I'm certain even as he killed me that he'd have a surprised expression.

But I won't ever run away from this, following after him while forced had still been my decision. Under his orders I've tortured countless criminals physically, emotionally, psychologically. I broke them down until they'd spill whatever Reyes wanted to know. I've never killed anyone though.

Reyes allowed me to draw a line for myself and even if I know I shouldn't be I'm grateful he never pressures me into crossing it.

"Rest early today. Tomorrow, you will finally prove yourself worthy of being my disciple." Disciple huh, that's an awfully convenient word to use when you're trying to cover up the fact you torture someone for hours every day and then tell them afterwards that they missed all the lessons you had been trying to teach.

Sighing quietly, I stood up straight and response. "Yes sir." Well at least it's an upgrade from Kilgrave's egotistical nickname for himself. Young Master. Ugh, just thinking about the fact I had called him that makes me want to get a new tongue.

I watched silently as Reyes slipped into the shadows of the room. Maintaining my straight back posture for a few extra seconds in case he was lingering around. When none of the shadows showed any obvious distortions, I dropped my stance and dragged my sore body to my makeshift room.

From what I can gather this building used to be some kind of family-run business. I don't know what kind of business since this place clearly hasn't been used in years, but the family had lived on the floor above the business and after Giving me the locations of some water and electricity companies.

I had bashed their heads in until they agreed it was in their best interest to ignore any operating losses and provide the building with electricity. I had done that particular job dozens of times over the past 3 months as we moved from location to loaction in patterns that left my head spinning just by seeing them drawn on a map of the city.

As I dragged myself up the stairs and into the bathroom, I idly wondered what 'test' I needed to pass tomorrow as I stripped myself out of the tight jogging outfit, I trained in. For whatever reason Reyes seems to get a kick out of giving me clothes that aren't my size.

Close but never fit. Some of them had looked so closely that I'm convinced he had them custom made just to fuck with me. For the first few weeks I wore clothes that were too big, trying to hide as much of myself as possible. Every time I had skin exposed, my skin crawled as if someone was breathing on it.

I've gotten slightly better at it now to the point where I can shower properly instead of rushing to turn the water on and off before my clothes hit the floor. But after being tossed around by my clothes for the hundredth time in a row my anger had overpowered my fear and the next day,

I was wearing a skintight jogging outfit, that had been the first and only day I've ever landed a hit on Reyes, and it had cemented my liking for skintight clothes.

Stepping out from under the water I allowed my thoughts to drift to the darkest corner of my mind where I keep my craziest theories about Reyes and his goals.

But as we've spent time together and fought, I've only grown more certain of one theory. There are two Reapers. I'm not sure how and I'm not sure if there both Reyes but I know for sure to different people with the same abilities, voice, and costume are training me.

At first, I hadn't really noticed, too caught up in trying to stay alive and push through the tasks he gave me.

But as I slowly adapted the signs started to become clearer. The first big difference that set me off was the way they started their fights.

Reyes is the first Reaper, and he always starts the fights off passively, observing me and waiting for me to approach him. The other Reaper is aggressive he doesn't give me any choice but to fight him.

I'd learned on day one that running or flying away wouldn't keep me safe from either of them.

After I picked up on that difference the rest seemed to be much more obvious. Reaper 2 was tense, he never relaxed around me and always seemed ready to kill everyone in a 5-block radius if someone so much as sneezed in his direction.

Reyes on the other hand...it isn't that he isn't tense but that it's a different kind of tension. Reaper 2 was always hyper focused on his surroundings.

Over the months I've developed something of a skill to know when he was observing me, and Reaper 2 swept his senses over me at least twice every 5 minutes.

Reyes only checked maybe once every 15. He was always looking up as if he could see something neither I nor the other Reaper could.

As if there was something in the sky that he just had to find and then everything would all fall into place.

Sometimes I'd feel it in the air, the slight vibration as something fell into place or the rumbling of thunder as a piece broke apart and fell. I don't know what it is about but every time I get that feeling of a piece falling into place terror grips me and refuses to let go.

I know it's irrational to fear sounds I'm making up in my head but it's like as each piece falls, he's taking something from me.

Something that fundamentally at the very core of my being I knew to be mine. And he just took it and used it as a piece in his puzzle and it felt so wrong!

Wrong to the point that even though he's nicer and a much better teacher I spend every second I'm with him agitated and hoping Reaper 2 will take his place.

Settling down onto the bed in what I assume was the master bedroom. I flicked on the television and watched as a woman with bright blond hair wearing a lab coat appeared on the news.

"That's right, Thanks to the generous support provided to me by Oscorp I've managed to produce a Painkiller recipe that is not only 3 times cheaper to make but 50% more effective."

Holy shit. I mean wow what a discovery. I don't know much about the medical field but something like this will surely create waves globally right.

"Incredible, isn't it?" Hearing Reapers voices I nearly jumped out of my skin as I literally flew off of the couch and landed at the base of the fireplace before spinning around.

"Do you have to sneak up on me every time?!" Recognizing this to be Reyes from his slightly relaxed posture I allowed myself to express some discontent in my voice.

"Hmmm. Of course, just because you've been dismissed from sparing doesn't mean your training has ended." Tch, witty bastard he knows damn well that his other me told me to rest all day and hear him casually twisting the words around so he can bug me.

I was about to give a retort when I noticed he was still looking at the woman on t.v. Turning to look at her I didn't see anything particularly special minus the whole earth-shaking discovery part.

"Someone you know?" I asked, not expecting an answer. He never talked about himself. Besides his name and gender, I know nothing about him, either of them. So, when he nodded his head, it took me 5 seconds to realize he had done so as a response to my question. Feeling giddy at receiving a real answer I decided to trust my luck and ask another.

"How do you know each other?"

"She's an old acquaintance." Acquaintance? Hmmm, I doubt it. He seems really focused on her.

"Thank you all for coming out to celebrate this glorious achievement with us at Oscorp. I give my word to the people of the world that as soon as mass production can begin Oscorp will begin immediate distribution to all corners of the globe."

Focusing back on the screen as the doctor finished her speech, I looked to the side and saw that Norman Osborn's mouth was hanging open. Snorting, I turned my head back to Reyes only to immediately tense as every fiber in my body screamed at me to run, fight, scream.

Anything to get away from him. (Buzz, dong) the familiar vibrations sounded in my hear accompanied by what sounded like a heavenly bell and briefly for just a moment I looked up into the sky and saw it.

A giant boardgame of chess hanging over New York. Just as it appeared it disappeared, but the image would forever be engraved in my mind. Over the top of New York, I watched as the first pawn of the white team move forward.

Announcing the beginning of a game that would change the course of America and the world.

….

(An: since I couldn't post yesterday, I double checked and saw I had a chapter written for Vader so here it is.)

Chapter 2 – Who invited the guy with an inhaler?

1st POV Captain America

Dodging a blast from a Chatauri cannon. I quickly threw my shield back towards the Chatauri, turning to my left I grabbed a fallen piece of cement and threw it upwards towards a Chatauri speeder killing the pilot and causing the speeder to spiral into the ground.

The Chatauri army seemed almost endless as I kept fighting. Me, Nat, Ant-man, Susan Storm and Wasp were trying to keep the ground under control, but we were slowly being overwhelmed by their endless numbers.

Stark, Thor, and Torch were killing as many as possible while in the air but the pressure on everyone was continuing to build. If Reed didn't manage to shut down the portal soon, we would all be exhausted to death. The only good news was that the Hulk seemed to be getting stronger as the fight went on instead of weaker.

Unfortunately, the Hulk is a double-sided sword and the stronger he gets, the angrier he gets, and the more people end up dead. The Thing is sticking with him to make sure he doesn't throw a bus that's still full of people or anything but other than that, well. I'm very thankful we won't be paying for the damage we caused.

Seeing as the area we were in was pretty much cleared Nat and I started to move Eastward where Wasp had requested support when all the sudden mad laughter sounded and rang throughout the surroundings.

"Cap an unknown just fell through the portal and is rapidly falling towards your left." Stark reported over the comms, looking over at Nat who nodded her head I put my hand to my comm to respond.

"Okay me and Nat will go take a look can someone cover Wasp?"

"I'll take care of it." That voice I believe belongs to Doctor Hank Pym, otherwise known as Ant-man. I haven't had the time to formally meet the man, but I've heard nothing but praise for him from Stark, so my hopes aren't high.

"Okay then will move to confront the unknown." Starting our walk in the direction Tony specified an impact drew my attention to my right where the Invisible Women landed.

Sparing her a glance I turned back towards the front. Help is always appreciated when dealing with an unknown threat. {Boom} Hearing a loud sound coming from my right I looked at Nat and Susan before starting to run in that direction with them running slightly behind me.

As I ran, I tightened the straps on my shield as an odd sense of foreboding came over me the closer, we came to our target. Finally, as we rounded a demolished grocery store, we came face to face with IT.

What looked like a man was standing there unmoving like a statue staring at us. Immediately every muscle in my body tensed as my instincts screamed at me to avoid fighting this "thing" in front of me. Looking behind me Nat seemed to be in the same state and while I couldn't see Susan – She had gone invisible before they turned the corner - any longer, I assume she is in a similar situation.

"Hmm. Are you residents of this planet?" The figure in front of me spoke but his voice came out robotic and muffled due to the mask he was wearing. Seeing that he didn't immediately start trying to kill us I took the initiative to start conversing with this unknown. "I am Captain Steve Rogers of the Avengers. What are you doing on the Earth?"

"So, this planet is called Earth? I've never seen any record of a planet like that. Well, no matter if you are a resident of this planet, I wish to use your intergalactic beacon so someone may come and pick me up."

Listening to his voice more closely I concluded that the person in front of me was indeed a man. However, what is an intergalactic beacon? Did Earth have something like that now?

Honestly, with the week I've had I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I looked to my left at Nat to ask her but the figure seeing how I didn't respond started to speak once more. "If you are trying to buy time for your invisible friend there is no point. I am not your enemy, if I was you would have long been dead."

Seeing how she'd been exposed Susan quickly returned to my right as she reappeared, I did a once over to make sure she didn't receive any injuries before turning back to start speaking once again.

However, before I could a blast landed to my left shooting rubble and debris everywhere. As a group of speeders passed us. 10 Chatauri jumped down landing around us and the mystery man. Raising my shield, I was about to start giving orders when suddenly all the Chatauri froze and rose into the air while clawing at their throats.

Looking for the source I watched the mystery mans raised arm and his hand curled in a vice-like grip. Squeezing his hand closed all the Chatauri around us suddenly had their throats crushed before they fell to the ground. Looking back towards the mystery man I gulped in shocked terror. Who the hell was this in front of me.

While I was reeling in shock Natasha quickly walked past me and started speaking to the masked figure "Earth is not in possession of an intergalactic beacon. This invasion is our first proper interaction with alien species."

"Hmm. That's odd. Considering the power, you already have, I would have thought your race would at least be multi-planetary but it's like all the technology in your world went to strengthening its inhabitants."

Vader spoke after feeling around and noticing that even the normal people who were screaming and running around were significantly stronger than the humans who were found in other parts of the galaxy. "Your race reminds me of the Mandalorian's. Naturally born warriors each and every one of you."

Mandalorians? Is that another type of alien? Well questions can wait till later. We need to get back to fighting fast before the ground is overrun by the chatauri. Nat had the same idea as she spoke to the figure once more

"While our planet isn't yet galactic there is currently an Asgardian fighting with us and he is capable of traveling throughout the universe. If you can assist us in repealing this invasion, he would likely be inclined to help you reach whoever you need to reach."

What? Does Nat want to ask this guy for help? We know nothing about him. For all we know he could just be acting this way to lower our guard. "Very well. People of Earth, I agree with your conditions. I will help you deal with this invasion and in exchange you will provide me with the assistance of the Asgardian."

Finished speaking the figure quickly made his way towards Nat. Tensing as he drew closer It was only now, I got a proper look at him Black armor covered his body while a long cape in the same dark shape flowed down from his soldiers and onto the ground. His face was covered by a mask that looked like it had an inhaler for a mouthpiece and what is that on his chest? I don't know, it looks like an important piece of equipment.

But the thing that became most obvious as he approached was the sound of his breathing {Kath Peh Kath Peh} Is his mask an inhaler or something? I don't know but as he walked in front of Nat, I moved my arm and slightly bent my legs so I could reach her in case he tried anything.

I watched as he raised his two fore fingers and lightly tapped Nat on the head before speaking. "Use this to communicate with me. If it isn't urgent don't bother me." Saying that the figure floated into the air and landed on a building nearby where he took what looked like a metal bar off his belt before he pressed a button and a shining red blade activated reflecting ominously off his suit.

As I stood there watching him, I could swear I heard music playing in the background as well. "Wow." That was all I could manage to say as I took in the sight in front of me. "Yeah" Susan next to me expressed her agreement "I hope he stays on our side" "Me too."