[Dreams of the Waking Man: End of Dreaming II] No Sacrifice
fast-forward!
warnings: Earth-339. sci-fi. post-apocalyptic (not to be confused with post-Apocalypse, because he doesn't show up for another few hundred years). OCs: 'the twins' are Laura's kids, James and Juliet. multiple character deaths. language: pg-13 (primetime tv plus f***, s***, and g**damn).
pairing: none/gen (background Luke/Jessica, Reed/Sue, Billy/Teddy, Nate/Wade, and implied Tony/Steve).
timeline: 2042; after years of minor skirmishes, Schmooples proposes peace talks between her Valse Faction and the Sovereign Nation of Providence.
disclaimer: i doesn't owns the movies, comics, or characters. or the assorted objects of pop culture reference.
notes: 1) the title is a reference to the Pat Benatar song "Invincible." all the titles from the End of Dreaming sequence will be. 2) Danielle Cage is now a gunner on the Avenger. 3) a battery is a set of guns that either share the same control room or share controls directly. 4) a rail cannon works by using electro-magnetism to super-accelerate a metal slug. the amount of electric charge involved is sufficient to leave a pretty wicked plume of plasma in the projectile's wake. 5) the carriers would obviously have to be pressurized in order to keep stable atmosphere levels during altitude changes. rapid pressure changes have a heavy effect on the inner ear, and can cause loss of consciousness. 6) "sitrep" = "situational report," a summary of the current situation. 7) "loft engines" are the engines that keep a hovering structure like a helicarrier aloft. 8) a salvo is a round of projectile fire (from guns, bows, mortars, whatever). 9) a firing solution is the set of calculations involved in taking a shot. acquiring one is just aiming. 10) the expression "to fall off the wagon" means to lapse back into alcoholism after a period of successful sobriety.
No Sacrifice
Dani snaps awake on autopilot when the all-hands siren sounds overhead, is already zipped into her uniform and lacing her boots before she even opens her eyes. Around her, the rest of her crew is doing the same.
She’s been a gunnery chief for ten years now-far longer than any career military officer should be stuck at a rank below her actual skill, but she likes her job, and she likes her crew. The third rail cannon from the starboard bow is an old and familiar friend (they named her Camilla), and she isn’t sure she wants to take responsibility for more than just herself, a fire controller, and a pair of gunner’s mates. They’ve seen a lot of action over that decade, Dani and her crew and their battery-because Tony likes to be on the front lines and likes to turn to the left-and they’re used to each other.
Sometimes, she worries that his age is making him predictable.
Maybe her own age is making her predictable, too.
Hell, just look at the twins. They’re not even thirty, and Juliet is a fucking tactical genius, a hair-trigger, turn-on-a-dime girl with the tenacity of a pitbull and a new trick every second of the day. She will captain a carrier, Dani knows it. And she’ll be fucking good at it.
“This sucks,” groans Peters. “I thought we had the day off, because of the peace talks.”
“Somethin’ ain’t right,” says Benson. “Commander Stark wouldn’t drag us outta bed today without a damn good reason.”
Porter nods. “We better get to our gun, then. Cage? Cage! You awake?”
“Naw, I sleep with my eyes open,” Dani says, blinking while she ties off her other boot and stands up. “Let’s go. And if you ever ask me that again, I’ll slug you.”
Starboard three bulkheads, aft one, and down the ladder into their own private little compartment of hell. The gun control rooms are all heavily armored and full of important electronics, so they get to a sweltering state during pitched battle. Dani hopes this won’t be pitched battle (a light scuffle at the worst), but as soon as all three of her crew have taken up stations, she hops back onto the ladder and cranks the hatch shut. If there’s a hull breach in any of the adjacent bulkheads, that hatch is the only thing between them and loss of consciousness from decompression.
She settles in and slips her earpiece on while she starts the charging sequence. “Starboard third battery online, rail cannon charging.” Camilla takes exactly eight seconds to charge standard ammunition during the day, nine point seven at night.
After a brief pause, she hears Tony’s voice in her ear. ~“Gunnery Chief Cage, pass your main gun off, I need you in the war room.”~
She only hesitates a split-second. “Respectfully, Commander, no fucking way. If something’s happened to my father, I’d rather get revenge first and cry later. Can I have a sitrep, or should I just start firing?”
~“Two minutes ago, we received communication from Commander Cage that the peace talks were a sham and the Valse Faction had killed the delegation and several of the military personnel aboard the Sanctuary. He locked himself on the bridge and crashed the ship into the city. We’re standing by for orders from Providence, but I, for one, would like to turn the Ifrit into Swiss cheese.”~
“Copy that, Commander.” There’s a roiling sensation in her gut, but she tamps down on it. Going into hysterics won’t help anyone. If her father’s dead, he’s dead. Something this big wouldn’t happen-wouldn’t be allowed to happen-unless it was averting something worse. She trusts in that, the way Val and Frank do, the way Steve does.
Did. They killed the delegation. Steve, Pete, and five adjutants to take care of the paperwork.
Dani takes aim at the top of the Valse Faction ship, waits with her finger on the button. All she needs is a firing order and a clear shot of the bridge.
The order comes over the speakers instead of her communicator.
~“Attention, crew of the Avenger, this is your Supreme Commander speaking. If your gunners would be kind enough to target the bridge and loft engines of the Ifrit at this time, that’d be super-duper. In exactly five seconds, I’d like you all to drop that ugly piece of slag out of my sky. Pleasekaythanksbye.”~
“You heard the man,” Dani calls over her shoulder. “Let’s drop that bitch like a rock. First salvo down her throat in two-one-fire.”
The stabilizers are too good for them to feel the thud of the big guns, but they can hear the muffled staccato of all the starboard batteries going off.
On her viewscreen, the bridge of the Ifrit is consumed by a cloud of fire and smoke. “Second salvo on her nearest loft engine.”
“Acquiring firing solution,” says Benson.
“Waiting for main gun,” Peters adds.
Dani watches the meter slowly fill. “My old man did not ram his ship into Moscow so that demented time-traveling house cat could get away with killing Captain goddamn America. Fuck them and the ship they rode in on. Fire at will.”
The Ifrit never even gets a shot off. She falls like a rock into the trough left by the Sanctuary’s fall. At least their counterstrike hasn’t added to the civilian casualties.
An hour and one hasty debriefing later, the Supreme Commander has specifically requested for Dani and Tony to see him in his quarters.
Dani can feel tension and anger pouring off Tony as they walk briskly to the heart of Providence. He’s just lost the man who was his best friend and closest companion for most of his life.
For her part, she doesn’t know what to feel. Her father and several family friends are dead. Down in Moscow, something like two thousand people are dead or missing, and it’s not like the city’s population could afford that kind of hit. But they got the Ifrit, and as far as anyone knows, Schmooples was killed when the Sanctuary went down.
When they arrive at the deceptively modest Captain’s Quarters, Tony pounds on the door.
“C’mon in.”
So they do.
The room is lit dimly, except for a list of names projected in white on the wall. Beside the projected list, Dani can make out more names-hundreds of names. In the very middle, bigger and deeper than all the rest, ‘Tom Shepherd.’ She only remembers Tommy vaguely; her mother used to insist he was a terrible babysitter and a bad influence, and in the years leading up to the Big One, he didn’t spend much time around the rest of the Avengers.
Off to one side, almost as big, ‘Nathan Dayspring.’ She hardly knew the man, but everyone on the carriers knows the name; Commander Keller named her ship Dayspring when she took command after the suicide mission that destroyed the original Federated Skyfleet.
Clustered nearby, two more: Will Altman, Ted Altman. Teddy was a shapeshifter, and damn good at it; Dani (and Val, and probably every other small child Billy ever babysat) constantly demanded his Cap impression when she was little.
On the other side, a trio: Neena Thurman, Jessica Cage, Daniel Rand. Odd…she doesn’t remember when she got the news about Mom and Uncle Dan, or what she felt at the time. She was twenty-seven, so she was probably halfway across the world fighting VF. Looking back, she’s proud. They died like heroes. They died like Avengers.
Like her dad. Like Cap.
Dani hopes she’ll go out the same way, either putting a shot between the eyes of a tyrant or buying thousands of innocent lives. It occurs to her that the thought is somewhat morbid, but she chalks that up to getting older.
Wade is just digging the last stroke of the final R in ‘Peter Parker.’ “Commander-General Stark, Gunnery Chief Cage,” he says, blowing tiny flakes of paint and metal away from his handiwork. “Thought you kids might want to do the honors yourselves. There’s a good spot up top for Cap, and the left side’s got a decent blank for Luke-whose unlikely support, by the way, I’ve always appreciated.”
“Yeah,” Dani says. “Well, he always believed in you. Cap did, too.”
“How long have you been in here carving today?” Tony asks, and his voice sounds low and rough.
“Four hours now,” Wade tells them. “You didn’t honestly think this happened by chance, did you? Sometimes you have to sacrifice a rook to get the queen. The entire civilian complement of the Sanctuary was distributed to the Mockingbird and the Progress three days ago, along with two thirds of her military staff. What was left was the optimum roster-I’m sure you can appreciate that.”
“Did Steve know?”
“That if he went onto that ship hoping for peace, he’d end up dead?” Wade bluntly asks.
“That.”
“Yep.”
Dani jumps a little in surprise when Tony punches Wade. Sure, Tony doesn’t look much past fifty (thanks to life extension treatments), but Dani knows he’s pushing ninety and it’s jarring to think of such an old man punching someone.
“Careful,” Wade blandly says, popping his nose back into place. “You could hurt yourself doing that.”
“How could you just let him-” Tony blusters, but Wade just raises his voice to talk over him.
“Oh, yes, how could I just let Captain America save five thousand lives? My God, what was I thinking? Eight-ball, give me the maximum projection if Cap had lived today.”
~In 6% of branches stemming from such an alternative, the population of the Sovereign Nation of Providence five years from now is approximately forty-seven thousand. The average projected population under revised conditions is only fourteen thousand. Under current conditions, the maximum projected population is forty-four thousand, while the average is nineteen thousand.~
Wade starts in on a different name. “The numbers game, I plays it. But I did leave the decision up to Steve.”
“Game?” Tony says through clenched teeth.
“Yes,” Wade replies. “And I play it better than you and Reed ever did, thanks to Eight-ball. Plug in the variables, run the simulations. Give up Luke, take out Schmooples. Give up Cap, get an extra five thousand people. I said, ‘Steve, old buddy, how’d ya like to save five thousand lives?’ and he said, ‘What do I have to do?’ So I told him, ‘Well, that’s the depressing part: ya gotta die,’ and he said, ‘Point me in the right direction.’”
Dani has to admit it sounds like Cap.
“And you were all-too-happy to point the way, weren’t you?” spits Tony.
Quick as anything, Wade grabs Tony in a headlock and forces him to look at Dani. “You do not have the monopoly on human suffering, pal. Somewhere in that woman’s brain is a little girl who just lost her daddy. I know you didn’t give two shits for yours, but she loved hers, and I get to live with the fact that I sent him to his death so that I could kill nine hundred sixty-seven civilians and a fluffy white kitty.” He lets Tony go. “Compared to that, I didn’t even think twice about trading Cap for five thousand, just like I know you wouldn’t have thought twice if our positions had been reversed.”
Tony leans on the wall, picks a flake of paint free with his thumbnail. “The difference is that I never much liked Nathan.”
“And I always admired Steve.”
Tony looks at the names again. “What’re you using, a screwdriver? Would’ve been much easier with a laser etching tool.”
Wade opens his hand. He’s been using a multi-tool of some kind-the philips head. “I like the screwdriver,” he says, and closes his hand around it again. He digs the T in Tommy’s name a little deeper. “It gives me time to think.”
Dani zips open a cargo pocket in her jumpsuit and flips open her own multi-tool. Something in her chest loosens as she presses the titanium tip into the comparatively soft paint-and-steel surface of the interior bulkhead. She can’t dig the letters as deeply as Wade does (then again, she remembers seeing Wade and her father bending steel bars in a drunken contest at some point). Still, there’s a certain relief to be found in using the strength of her own hands to deform metal so that it’ll always bear her father’s name.
The three of them work together in silence for a while.
“I need a drink,” Tony says quietly. “Or five. Or twelve.”
“Oh, yeah,” says Wade. “Fall off the wagon. That’s a great way to thank your boyfriend for his noble sacrifice.”
“Fuckyou,” Tony hisses, but breaks off. “Sorry,” he mutters. “How the hell did you do it, back then?”
Wade dusts off another new name. “By remembering that my baby girl’s gonna need help saving the world in two thousand years, and that she’d probably appreciate it if there’s some world left to save. To be honest, I think I’m still in denial. I’m good at denial. Tellya what, Stark-you keep it together for another year and I’ll let you retire. You can spend the rest of your days drinking your liver to death in the Swiss Alps or something.”
“A year, huh?” Tony says, and blows a puff of air at his carving so he can stand back and survey his handiwork. “Okay. Three hundred sixty-five days and six hours from now.”
“Start a timer for me, Eight-ball.”
Beneath the list of names (which has shrunk to account for the finished carvings), a clock appears and begins to count down.
“If that’s all you needed, Commander,” Tony sighs. “I’ll be in the mess hall when you’re ready to go, Danielle.” And he leaves.
When the door shuts, Dani starts on the last E in her father’s name. “He’s not going to be here in a year, is he,” she says.
“He’s not going to be here in a year,” Wade confirms. “He’s the last of a set of six geniuses yoinked by time travelers. Has to happen to keep the human race from dying out later on. Eight-ball was very specific. But for the next several months, I still need him to command your ship. Keep up the good work, and feel free to mention any wild strategies that cross your mind, especially if they happen to involve tactics you saw in Blazing Saddles, because that is seriously going to work out for you.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m not kidding, Dani. You, Frank, and Juliet are my winning team. In twenty years, the fate of the fleet will be riding on your courage and the noble self-sacrifice of Logan’s snarky bitch son.”
Dani makes a face. If there’s one thing completely counter to Lieutenant Daken’s nature, it’s self-sacrifice. “Oh. Nice. So we’re doomed, then.”
He laughs. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Just trust me.”
“I do,” she assures him. “I can’t imagine having to do what you do. And I can’t think of anyone who’d do it even half as well. You’re a hero.”
Suddenly, he stops in the middle of carving a name (Margaret Rachen-something). There’s something pained and far-away on his scarred face for a moment, and then he slams the screwdriver into the wall and carves along the furrows of Tommy’s name with a desperate kind of fervor.
“I’m not a hero,” he says, and his voice is as low and rough as Tony’s was earlier. “You know how Tom died?”
She shrugs.
“When the carriers first lifted off, there was a lot of panic. A woman fell and twisted her ankle and dropped her four-year-old daughter, who would’ve been crushed in a heartbeat if Tom hadn’t left his post to save her. And then it was too late. He pushed and shoved and almost, almost made it. And Kate-Lieutenant Bradley-reached down to help him up, and you know what he did?”
Dani knows what an Avenger would do. And Tommy was an Avenger. “He gave her the little girl instead,” she whispers.
“That’s a real hero,” he tells her. “Not to cheapen what Steve did-because the guy saved people practically every day of his life-but sacrificing yourself for one stranger is real heroism. Anybody can be brave if they know it’ll save thousands. It takes someone pretty special to be brave for one little girl.”
“I think I know what you mean.”
He sniffs and wipes his nose and goes back to work on Margaret Rachen-something’s name. “I’m not a hero,” he says again. “I kill heroes. That makes me a villain.”
Dani shakes her head. “It makes you a leader. Sir.”
Wade pauses again and turns to look at her.
“Somebody who gives his life for one stranger is a hero. Somebody who gives his life for thousands of strangers is a leader. And maybe you’re still breathing…but you’re giving these people your life. That’s why we follow you. I know I speak for Val and Frank when I say we’d follow you into hell to kick the devil’s ass, sir.”
“I don’t think it’ll come to that,” he says with a wry grin. “But thanks.”
She salutes, waits for his nod, and leaves.
As she walks briskly toward the mess hall, she feels both daunted and encouraged. The bravest man she’s ever known has told her that everything she loves will depend on her courage.
She has twenty years to work her way there.
She’d better get started.
.End.
merianmoriarty has my formal permission to pimp my fics on various comms (if/when i ever abandon deviantART, i'll go ahead and join the comms myself and take care of getting things posted in the right places). no one has permission to re-post this ANYWHERE, but feel free to share or link.
« [End of Dreaming I] (We Can't Afford to Be) Innocent ● Dreams Side Story: [Dark Avengers] Unexpected ● [End of Dreaming III] This Shattered Dream »