It's been a while guys, but I'm just trying something new. Tell me what you think!
Ellie x Fem!Reader
Summary: Ellie takes off on a rampage, almost getting herself killed, and you're less than thrilled.
You’d found out about Ellie’s run in with a group of hunters far later than you should have, and from seemingly everyone in Jackson but her. She’d left for patrol the other evening as usual, and returned hours after she was supposed to, leaving you to wonder if your best friend was laying half dead in some ditch somewhere.
You remember her practically falling through your front door in the early hours of the morning, clothes torn and stained in blood. She’d evaded most of your questions with the weak excuse that she was tired and didn’t have the strength to explain, but that she would. She never did.
It was radio silence from her after that morning and she hadn’t said a word to you since, giving you nothing more than a polite greeting when you crossed paths. You’d been hesitant to mention it to her, you didn’t want to upset her by prying, but you were best friends and you deserved to know what was up. It had only taken you a couple days to plan what you were going to say and make your way over to her house, but you never got the chance to, Dina stopping you in your tracks before you could get any further.
“Dina? What’s wrong?” She looked distressed, almost worryingly so.
She hesitates for a moment, shaking her head and taking a deep breath before speaking, “It’s Ellie. She snuck out last night and no one’s seen her since.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Again?” You were less than pleased, moving past the girl to continue making your way to Ellie’s house. You could hear the rushed footsteps of Dina trailing behind you as you sped walked through the streets of Jackson.
“Wait, what are you doing?” She questions, finally catching up to you with quickened breaths.
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m going to look for her.”
“Hold on.” Dina moves to stand in front of you, placing her hands on your chest to stop you from trying to push past her, “Think about what you’re doing. You have no idea where she is and you just want to run blindly after her?”
You avoid her eyes, gently taking her hands off your chest, “She’s gonna get herself killed if I don’t go.”
“So are you. Look- just stay and we’ll figure something out together.” She’s desperate with her pleas, eyes trained on you to try and get you to reason with her. She hated how determined you were sometimes. Your mind was already made up, however.
“Let me find her, Dina. I promise I’ll bring us both back in one piece.” You meet her eyes as a way of showing her that you meant what you were saying, and although every part of her body told her not to let you go, she relented.
She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, softly pushing you back, “Don’t be an idiot. I know that’s hard for you, but just…try.”
“I will.”
//
You were going to kill Ellie when you found her.
She was less than subtle, leaving her…plan? You didn’t know what it was, but it told you exactly where she was going, and she did a shit job of hiding it in her room. It comforted you that where she was headed wasn’t much further from the end of her patrol route, straying only a few miles from her usual course.
She was nowhere to be seen though, no horse tracks or dead bodies. You didn’t know whether you should be comforted or unsettled by that fact, but you continued on anyways. As you headed further east from where you’d initially abandoned the patrol route, you started to see the scattered bullet cases of what seemed to be Ellie’s pistol, no gunshots though.
This particular area hadn’t been sweeped for a little while, so the risk of infected lurking around was high and you hadn't really come prepared. The blaze of the sun landed directly on your back and you were losing energy fast, not bringing a horse becoming the stupidest thing you’d done that day.
Trapsing through the brush, the click of a twig snapping had you pausing in your tracks, head swivelling around to find the source of the sound. When the coast appeared to be clear, you decided to sprint the rest of the way to the building you’d had your eye on for some time, closing and barricading the door behind you.
You wiped the sweat from your forehead, leaning against the nearest wall as you caught your breath, “Fuck. Where the hell are you, Ellie…” You grabbed some supplies that were laying around the building, but for the most part, it had been rinsed. That gave you a little hope that maybe Ellie had come through here but you were grasping at straws.
Walking further into the building, you came across a door that had been slightly left open and didn’t like the vibe you were getting from it, so you grabbed your gun from its holster and peaked your head inside. The first thing you noticed was the array of bodies on the floor laying in pools of their own blood, and imagined the worst.
You pushed the door further open, careful of your footing, and raked your eyes over the mess that had been made of these men. You bent down to get a better look at their outfits, “Hunters… Ellie must have done this.”
You straighten up, stepping over the bodies and looking around the room for any sign of someone else having come across the bodies. She’d made quite the mess, your point only being furthered when there were more bodies in the next room, blood splattered all across the walls. You’d had little time to take it all in before the sound of something crashing sounded in the hall outside the room you were in.
“Shit.” You gripped your gun a little tighter as you snuck up to the door, peaking your head out to get a look. It was suspiciously quiet, but you walked out anyways, squinting down the dark hall and trying to even out your breaths.
You flinched when the lights in the hall flickered on, turning around to find a hoard of clickers all detecting your presence with the sharp gasp you let out. They all screech, running towards you as you take off down the hall, shouldering through the door at the end and finding it jammed, “Come on! Open you stupid thing!” You turned to see the clickers getting hazardously close, slamming your body into the door over and over until you finally fell through it, hastily getting to your feet and barricading it before they could get through.
“Fuck! I am so done with this shit man…” You heaved with your hands pressed against your knees, bent over trying to stop your rapidly beating heart. You kicked a random stone on the floor in frustration, shaking your head, “God so help me, you’re dead when I find you.”
//
After the run in with the clickers, you opted to stay out of the buildings wherever you could. No sign of Ellie yet, but you were getting closer, you could feel it. You’d seen a campfire that was recently put out, the logs still warm, and knew she had to be somewhere close. The sun was setting slowly but surely, and you were just about done for the day, but you couldn’t give up now. Ellie might need your help, and that was the only thing keeping you going.
It was only when you’d reached a clearing, a rather obvious path having been made in between the bushes and tall grass, that you started to hear the commotion. There were gunshots ringing out through the air and yelling coming from the town just over the hill you were on.
“Ellie…” You were sprinting down towards the chaos without a second thought, climbing the fence that separated you from whoever was down there, and running headfirst into a massive gun fight. You could see Ellie crouched behind a car, shooting at the guys opposite and taking them out one by one, but she looked like she could use some help; so you leant against a nearby dustbin and aimed your rifle at the men you could get a good eye on.
When the first shot rang out, Ellie was more than confused when it wasn't shot to hit her but couldn’t see exactly where it had come from, so she paid no mind to it. You were hitting headshots on the guys that tried to sneak up on Ellie, cheering internally every time you watched them drop to the floor, but after a while the fight became a lot more close range and you couldn’t shoot without risking hitting Ellie.
She was doing pretty well, launching her axe at them and barely taking any hits herself, that was until one of the men caught her from behind and knocked her to the ground. It all happened so fast, one minute you were watching her fall, and the next you were running towards the guy. When you were close enough, you grabbed the axe Ellie had dropped on her way down, heading towards the man who had his hands wrapped around her neck and swinging the axe at his head.
He choked on his own blood as you kicked him off her, kneeling down to swing the axe into his face over and over again. Once you were satisfied, face covered in his blood, you dropped the axe and stood up with a pant.
“Y/N?”
You dragged your eyes away from the man to look at Ellie, her face riddled with confusion. You didn’t have the words for her right now, so instead you just stepped back, refusing her offered hand. You pressed your hands against your eyes, shaking your head as she called out to you.
“Y/N…”
“Are you fucking insane?” The speed in which you swivelled around to face her shocked Ellie, her mouth falling shut at the question, “What were you thinking running out here? You could have fucking died, Ellie! Do you understand that?”
“I had to…”
“Don’t bullshit me, Ellie. You didn’t have to do shit! Not alone, you didn’t.” You took a shaky breath before speaking again, you really didn’t want to yell at her, “You had me worried sick, Ellie.”
She steps towards you, wiping away a drop of blood from your face, “I know…I’m sorry.” When you don’t refuse her touch, she pulls you closer and into a hug, sighing against you.
You melt into her touch, hands reaching up to wrap around her waist and tightly grip her shirt, “Why didn’t you tell me? We could have done this together.”
She looks down, nodding remorsefully, “I know. They just- they knew about what happened to Joel and they were talking so much shit…I shouldn’t have let them get to me.”
You pull back to place your hand in hers, gently rubbing your thumb over the soft skin, “They’re assholes, and you had every right to want them dead. But we're a team, wherever you go, I go.”
She squeezes your hand in hers, looking behind you to see which way you came, “How did you find me?”
You shrug, “You’re terrible at hiding things from me.”
She chuckles, playfully nudging you away, “Fuck off.”
You don’t spare another glance at the mess behind you, making your way back to Jackson with your hands tightly interlocked between you. You catch Ellie smiling over at you and raise a brow, “Your charm isn’t gonna make me forgive you, you know.”
She just smiles wider and pulls you closer to her body, “I know. But its working, right?”
You roll your eyes at her, trying and failing to stop a smile from forming on your own face. She was gonna be the death of you.
//
Dina was more than happy to see you both walking through those front gates, making sure to give Ellie an extra hard smack on the arm for running off. You could only laugh, shrugging at Ellie’s pout, “She’s right.”
Ellie had chased you back to your house, claiming that you were in for it when she caught you. When you burst through your front door, laughing like a child, you were in for it, alright. She had kicked the door shut behind her, grinning softly at you from the door. You were curious as to what she was planning, frowning suspiciously at her, “What are you doing?”
She quietly laughs to herself, walking over to her desk chair and slumping down into it, “You were worried about me.”
You stare incredulously at her, confused as to why she’d ever think that you wouldn’t be, “Are you serious? Of course I was worried about you, asshole. You’re my best friend.”
She hums, spinning slowly side to side in her chair, “Sure, but…I saw the look on your face when you killed that guy. I don’t know, it just seemed a little deeper than wanting to protect a friend.”
You cross your arms defensively, kicking your foot into the ground as a means to not make eye contact with the woman, “Well yeah, you’re important to me, that’s why I went all haywire.”
“Is that the only reason?”
She was trying to get something out of you, but you weren’t quite sure what. She had this expectant glint to her eyes, leant forward in her chair as she waited for you to answer her, “I don’t know what you want me to say, Ellie.”
She huffs, standing from the chair with so much accidental force it slams back into the table and knocks over your pencil pot, “You don’t just- you don’t…travel miles away from home and almost get yourself killed because I’m your best friend.”
“Sure you do-“ You weren’t quite sure what excuse was about to spill out of your mouth, but it was left to fall on deaf ears as Ellie suddenly stepped forward, pulling your face to hers and kissing you like it was the last thing she’d ever do.
At this point, you think you understood what she’d been asking of you only a few minutes prior, but you didn’t care, instead wrapping your arms around her waist and pulling her closer to you. You could feel her smile into the kiss, pinching her hip to make sure she wasn’t getting cocky, to which she groaned exaggeratively and broke the kiss to laugh at herself.
You could only shove her away with a laugh of your own, turning to find some fresh clothes to change into, “You’re such an idiot.”
She giggles, racing to get into the shower before you, “But you love me!”
a/n: I apologise for not posting anything for a while, studying for A -Levels is killing me, but here's a little something for the troubles :)
//
"Go inside boys, I'll be back in a few minutes."
You couldn't help but smirk at the words, making sure to flash the twins a gentle smile as they wave at you before running inside their house.
"They get a little faster every time I see them, you know?"
Wanda sighs, running a hand through her hair as she fans herself, "Tell me about it, my back is on the verge of breaking."
You lean your bike against the white fence, tightening your rucksack on your back, "I could watch them if you want? I never really have anything to do after school anyways."
Wanda waves you off, fixing her dress, as if there were any creases anyways, she's too perfect for measly creases. "That's quite alright, they're at a friends house tonight anyways, I'm just getting them ready."
You hum, shrugging, "Well, if you need anything, you know where I am."
Wanda softly bites down on her bottom lip, pondering for a moment before clearing her throat, "Now that I think about it, I actually have a few things that need looking at. You know, new appliances and what not."
"Oh, sure. I have homework but I can come round later?"
Wanda puts on her flashiest smile, titling her body forward ever so slightly, just for theatrics, "That would be amazing, Y/N. I'll see you then."
You watch as Wanda saunters back into her house, hips swaying so captivatingly. You don't miss the flip of her hair as she peaks at you over her shoulder before shutting the door.
//
Your palms were sweaty as you approached the Maximoff residence, eyes drifting to the two shadows flittering across the closed blinds to your left, no doubt the twins.
Before you can lift your hand to knock on the door, it flies open to reveal a dishevelled Wanda, two backpacks in hand and a tired smile on her face, "Y/N, you caught me at the best time."
She ushers you in, quickly closing the door and calling for the boys, who eventually sprint through the hall and into your view, "Y/N!"
"Hey boys, you being good for your mom?"
They share a sheepish smile, straightening up slightly and Wanda chuckles, "Of course they listen to you."
You smile at her and when she flashes you a grin, you have to look away, suddenly it was getting extremely hot.
"Alright boys, your friend and his mom will be here soon, get your shoes on."
The twins run off to find their favourite shoes, and Wanda breezes past you to place the twins' bags on the floor while she patters around the kitchen.
You watch her glide around the room, too gracefully considering the imbalance in your knees, and pull a few things from various cupboards.
"Can I get you anything? I'm making dinner but you can have whatever you want."
"I'll just have some water please." You swallow a little difficulty as she flicks the hair off her shoulder in her haste, grabbing a jug of water and a glass before she speaks.
"So, you got any plans for the weekend? Any parties?" She questions, pouring the water into a glass.
You chuckle, shaking your head, "Oh I don't really do that kind of stuff."
She frowns in confusion, sliding the glass over to you, "What, you don't party?"
You shake your head once again, a little embarrassed.
She hums, observing you closely before leaning back against the counter and placing her hands back on the marble, either side of her, "So you're one of the good ones, never does anything bad, homework always done on time."
You nod, scratching the back of your head, "Something like that."
She smirks, chuckling to herself, "I remember when I was in high school. God, I was always going out with my friends, as long as there was a party being thrown, I was there. My parents hated it, said I was too reckless."
Wanda rolls her eyes, dusting her hands off before stepping around the kitchen island, closer to you, "I loved taking risks, the thrill was the best part."
Your breath picks up as she nears, eyes scanning your face menacingly, "That.. sounds fun."
"Oh believe me, it was a lot of fun." Only a few centimetres away from you now, her eyes flicker down to your lips, but the sound of shoes stomping down the stairs pulls her away from you.
"You should try it sometime, take a risk," she whispers before stepping into the hall to gather the boys and take them to the car waiting outside.
Safe to say that glass of water didn't last very long.
//
"This is really good, Miss Maximoff." You hum, pushing another spoonful of food into your mouth.
Wanda watches you practically inhale your food and chuckles, "Please, call me Wanda. And slow down, you'll choke."
You blush, nodding quickly and swallowing your mouthful, "Sorry."
Wanda stands from her place at the table, checking the watch on her hand and briefly raising her eyes to look at you, "It's far too late for you to be going anywhere, Y/N. I think it's best I call your mom and tell her you can stay for the night."
You thought about it for a moment, while your mom would be more comfortable with you staying with Wanda, she'd be less likely to expect you home so early the next day if you were with a friend. You were 18, you didn't know why it still mattered, but it did.
And you wanted to stay as long as you could, to make sure Wanda got everything fixed of course.
"Actually, I think I'll just tell her I'm with a friend, she'll understand that better than if she knew I was here."
Wanda frowns, but obliges soon enough, making sure you message your mom before finishing your food, she'd hate for her to be worried sick at this hour.
"Finish up, there's something I want to show you." She grins before leaving the room, and you speechless.
//
"What is all this?"
"Lights we never got fixed, they've been sitting here for a while."
Wanda had led you out to her backyard where fairy lights were scattered around, but they weren't on. She walked you over to the electric box that controlled the lights, and you could tell it was busted.
"How did this even happen?" You asked, observing the cut wires and broken levers.
She laughs, hugging her arms close to her body, "The boys were messing around with it."
You chuckled, turning to her, "I should've known."
"Can you fix it?"
You tilt your head side to side as you think, "I think so, yeah. It doesn't look too damaged."
For the next 15 minutes, Wanda alternated between watching you work and watching tv in the living room, claiming it was too cold outside. Once you'd finished however, you told her to wait at the door and cover her eyes.
She was a little puzzled but did it anyways, and you hoped with all your heart that you'd done a good enough job as you flicked the switch. You waited for a silent moment, thinking that it hadn't worked, but then the lights all flickered on.
You smiled, turning to Wanda and telling her to open her eyes, when she did, the first thing she looked at was you. Sure, the lights were cool but the way they reflected off your eyes was captivating her more.
"What do you think?" You asked, a little apprehensively considering she hadn't said anything yet.
Her slow steps towards you were slightly unnerving, but when she got to you, all she did was smile softly, "Thank you."
The corners of your lips lifted as you watched her look at all the lights, and in a moment of pure confidence, you leant forward and kissed her.
She gasped quietly, eyes closing as she adjusted to the kiss, but it was over as quick as it had started. Her shallow breaths fanned across your face as she tried to take in what you just did.
"What was that?" She asked softly, eyes flickering between yours.
"Me taking a risk." You answered before kissing her once again, Wanda's arms wrapping around your neck as you pulled her in by the waist.
You'd known Wanda for a while, but never like this. She was so soft and so warm, and you never wanted to let her go.
She broke the kiss slowly, stroking her thumb across your bottom lip, "Let's go inside."
//
There wasn't any part of Wanda that wasn't silky smooth as your hand traversed across her skin. Her hair was splayed out across the pillows and her eyes were on the verge of closing, she was beautiful.
Her melodic sighs and moans were music to your ears as you kissed along the valley of her breasts, her stomach, anywhere you could reach. Her nails were buried in your hair, massaging your scalp and making you hum in satisfaction at the sensation.
"Come here." The whispered command had you lifting your head up to face level with the woman, gazing into beautiful green eyes and gently laying your body completely over hers.
She tilted her head up to kiss you slowly, savouring the feeling of you so close to her while pressing her hips up into you. You knew immediately what she wanted and wasted no time in trailing a hand down her abdomen.
Wanda Maximoff was a sight for sore eyes, and when your fingers pressed against her core and her mouth dropped open in a silent moan, eyes never leaving yours, you knew she was the best sight you'd ever lay your eyes on.
"Right there, oh." Wanda gripped your back tightly when your fingers slipped inside her, whimpering against your shoulder as her blunt nails pressed into your skin.
You dipped your head to attach your mouth to her breast, sucking softly and drowning in the deep moans Wanda lets out as she bucks her hips into your hand and her chest further into your mouth.
You worked Wanda like nobody ever had before and she was breathless from the pleasure. Her eyes were screwed shut and her chest rose and fell against yours as she called your name so quietly into your ear.
Wanda was an image of perfection and you'd have done anything to see her like this forever, but you could see she was getting close. Her breathing was getting shallow and you could feel her twitching against your fingers as you reached spots she didn't know you could.
When her body froze momentarily and she sucked in a sharp breath, you knew she'd reached her peak, and kept a slow pace inside her to help her back down.
When she eventually caught her breath, she was smiling and clutching you closer to her, "That was amazing." Her warm pants of air against your cheek had you laughing, moving the hair from her face and really getting a good look at her.
You loved what you saw.
"Since.. you never go to parties and stuff, where'd you learn to be so good at that?" She smirked, laughing as you hid your face in her neck and kissed it repeatedly, "I'm just asking!"
You groaned in embarrassment, kissing her to silence any further questions. She hummed, tangling her fingers in your hair before pulling away, "I think you'd better clean me up." She grinned, eyes sparkling with mischief.
She laughed as you smirked, kissing messily down her body and praying that this night never ended.
Translations: ты чувствуешь себя хорошо (you feel so good) /ты можешь быть таким упрямым, детка (you can be so stubborn, baby)
//
"You'll never be content."
Wanda's soft words severely contrasted the sting of her nails gliding over your skin, wounding the surface of your body with sickening intent.
You could only manage a hollow whimper, sliding from the depths of your chest to the back of your throat. Your lips were desperate over the smooth column of her neck, teeth sinking into the flesh and feeling the vibration of a soft moan from the woman beneath you.
The sensation of toned legs wrapping around you and tugging you closer flashes through you like static; a hand trailing across her chest and smoothing over her waist.
You'd been reckless today, blindly seeking out any danger you could find just for the thrill of a fight, and she had noticed. You'd done a decent job of hiding the bruises but when she'd hurriedly slipped your shirt over your head in the throes of her passion, there wasn't much you could do.
Your words were meaningless at that point, you knew that. But you'd talked her down from her distressed outburst and made promises you knew you couldn't keep.
She'd let you touch her and whisper sweet nothings into her ear; she needed to know you were here and not dead in some dimly lit alley way with a hole in your chest.
Shaky hands lifted your head to be level with hers; soft, plump lips moulding against yours and pulling you in. She pierced through your rough exterior, your facade, and settled herself within the deepest parts of who you were.
Her hands held only your cheeks so delicately and yet, you could feel her everywhere; across every inch of your skin. A puff of air mingled with the parting of your lips, viridescent eyes scanning your features, engraving them in her mind.
She was a force of nature; a disturbance in the balance, the tip of the scale. Wanda was a celestial being, carved with the most precise elegance and grace.
What did that make you?
"You'll never be content until you've gotten yourself killed. Until I've lost you."
It wasn't fair, you weren't being fair. She'd lost everything a person could lose and you still chose to risk putting yourself on that list.
There were so many things you wanted to say to her, feelings you wanted to articulate and pour right into her. But your throat only constricted like a snake coiling around its prey; chest cavity caving in painfully. And in that moment, you knew you'd let her down.
Betrayal was evident in her eyes, scattered across her face and bleeding through the cracks you'd made in her. She could no longer look at you and you hated that you were the reason why.
There was newfound determination in her movements, hands threading through your hair and grasping at the roots no longer with that same delicacy from before.
With little effort, she pushed you further down her body, and like clockwork, you knew what she wanted. You couldn't give her what she truly needed from you, but you could give her this.
A weighted sigh seeped into the air the moment your mouth was on her, calloused hands slipping around her thighs and pulling her closer.
"Oh, ты чувствуешь себя хорошо."
Her words were silky smooth as she whispered them, and you were grateful to have taken the time to learn her native dialect. It was yet another part of her that she wasn't afraid to share with you, a part she trusted you immensely with.
"ты можешь быть таким упрямым, детка."
You didn't need to look up to know her eyes were screwed shut, imagining different circumstances, a different answer from you, an answer at all.
It was in moments like these where the two of you were so much of the same mind. Both in the same predicaments as all the nights prior, both so close and yet so far from one another.
She tasted bittersweet on your tongue; irrevocably pure in nature, tethered to you. The same purity that resided within her, you were tarnishing with every step out of the door. She didn't deserve that and you hoped to every being that she knew.
As a reminder that you were, in fact, still present with her, you risked a chance; slender fingers travelling the expanse of her torso and grasping soft breasts when she showed no sign of discomfort.
The heat of your mouth and the warmth of your hands never failed to reel Wanda in, make her forget. She both loved and hated you for the power you had over her. You'd been her life line since the day she trusted you with her heart, you'd also been her greatest trouble since then.
You had always been so headstrong and at first, it was flattering, but now she worried you wouldn't make it home to her each night. She'd collapse within an instant of you leaving her, withdrawing yourself from her, and she knew that you knew.
You could feel the thoughts spiralling around her mind, so with the most genuine intent, you slid your hand from her breast and interlocked it softly with hers.
Another promise, the only one she knew you'd keep.
When her moans grow more powerful and hips begin rolling into you, you know she's close. Your tongue traces its most familiar steps, working her to her climax. She whines and she pleads, she begs you to stay and leave the world to fend for itself.
She wants you to fight for her, not for everyone else. Not for anyone else.
She spills into your mouth with a final, satisfactory moan; hips lifting from the bed, and you consider her words. Her heavy breaths keep the doubts at bay, pushing them back and off of the shore at the forefront of your mind.
You don't think you'll ever be able to live without a fight, without the adrenaline of life or death. But she isn't asking you to, she never has. When you realise this, you know without a doubt who you'd rather fight for.
You manoeuvre yourself back on top of Wanda; placing a feather light touch to her cheek, and when her eyes open to reveal glossy green, you finally find the words.
"You, Wanda, are a chaotically beautiful war that rages within me. It tears me down and it lays me bare. Despite this, it's a war that I won't ever stand down from. It's also one i won't lose."
You'd never blatantly laid out your love for Wanda like this before, it was unfamiliar to you both, but as the words reach her ears, all she can do is kiss you with the strength of a million unsaid words.
The music flowing through the speakers scattered around the room bored you to no end, the swaying of bodies on the dance floor and sappy couples making you regret your decision to come even more than you already did.
Junior prom, one evening where you can either dance with your friends, your date, or sit alone drinking non-alcoholic punch for the whole night. Unfortunately for you, you were drowning in the fruity drink and had been since the party started. Your best friend was on the dance floor; giggling and twirling in her boyfriend’s arms while you sat alone, twirling a red solo cup in your hand.
The only thing stopping you from rising from your chair and leaving was the fact that you had a perfect view of Wanda Maximoff, smile wide and crimson dress hugging her body with elegant precision. She looked amazing, and you would have told her if she hadn’t so eagerly accepted Jarvis’ promposal at the simple receival of a single rose and a dashing smile.
You had nothing against Jarvis, he was a good guy, but the green monster inside you lurched right into your throat whenever he was near. There was only a handful of things you knew about him, but one thing you could say for sure was that he didn’t deserve Wanda.
You didn’t question his ability to be a loyal friend, but when it came to being a good boyfriend; he was toeing the line. He was lousy, punctual at first but once he got used to a certain dynamic, he gave up on fighting for it; that wasn't what Wanda deserved.
From where you were sitting, you could see her relaxed expression as she rested her head against Jarvis’ chest, hands wrapped loosely around his neck. You didn’t exactly know what the scene before you made you feel, all you knew was that it was getting increasingly stuffy in the room, and you needed to be anywhere else.
Your hands were already tugging your tie loose when you made your way over to the snack table, picking at the variety of unhealthy foods and shoving them in your mouth. You were getting curious glances from the people around you, but you didn’t care, you were never one for appearances.
“Hey.”
You swivel around at the voice, greeting none other than Tony Stark, Jarvis’ brother, “Tony.”
Tony smirks, nudging your shoulder, “Lighten up, Y/N. I thought we were friends?"
“We were never friends, Tony. What do you want?”
Tony licks his lips before turning to point at his brother and Wanda, “You been staring a lot tonight, or have I gotten it all wrong?”
You scoff, crossing your arms. You already knew where he was going with this and prayed this conversation wouldn’t end in a fight, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t be naïve, Y/N. You’re jealous and you’re doing a shit job at hiding it, so…” Tony stepped closer, his eyes scanning your face with pity, “I’m gonna say this once, leave my brother and his girlfriend alone, or I’ll personally seek you out, and make you regret messing with me.”
You raise your brows in humour, “Is that supposed to scare me?”
Tony shrugs, fixing your tie before stepping back, “Don’t test me, Y/N.”
You chuckle, and as you look around; you can see the groups of eyes focused on you, “Listen Tony, Wanda isn’t his girlfriend. I don’t think he’d know how to keep one even if he tried.”
“You better shut your mouth.” Tony sneered.
“What’s going on here?” Wanda’s gentle voice reaches your ears and suddenly you can’t remember what you were arguing about.
“Y/N here is letting her jealousy get the best of her tonight. Actually, do you want to tell Wanda yourself? I think she’d love to know.”
You clench your jaw, turning your attention back to Tony as he mocks you. Almost everyone in the room has gathered around the growing tension, whispering between themselves as they watch it all play out.
Wanda creases her brows, looking between Jarvis and Tony, “I’d love to know what?”
“Nothing, he’s being a jerk.” Your attempt at defending yourself falls short as Tony smirks at you, pouting in mock empathy, “She’s so madly in love, she can’t keep her eyes off of you.”
There’s a collection of gasps that are heard in the next moment, Jarvis subtly puling Wanda closer to his side while she tries to fathom what Tony just said. You avoid Wanda’s gaze when it lands on you, your best friend moving to stand beside you.
“You’re an asshole Tony, you know that?” She defends.
Tony just laughs, waving her off. “Yeah whatever, you’re both pathetic.”
That gets your attention and you're glaring at Tony in the next second, “What did you just say?”
Tony saunters towards you, poking his finger into your chest, “I said, you’re both pathetic.”
You shove him back, using his moment of surprise to kick his groin and watch as he doubles over in pain. Jarvis heads straight towards you, pulling you away from his brother but you're quick to elbow him in the stomach, grabbing the punch bowl and tipping it over Tony’s head before tossing it at Jarvis.
The principal is already on route to the fight, shouldering through the crowd, and you kick Tony once more for good measure before fleeing the scene with your best friend tailing behind you. The cheering from the main hall grows quieter as you run further away from it, panting as you reach the school's parking lot.
Your best friend’s boyfriend soon tumbles out of the doors, laughing as he reaches you, “That was awesome!”
“We’re definitely getting suspended.” Your friend exclaims, heaving from the run.
You push her playfully, rolling your sleeves up, “Whatever. Summer’s in 2 days, it doesn’t matter.”
You all take some time to catch your breaths and decide to ditch the prom and have your own night of fun. Making your way out of the parking lot, you all agree that you should get food first, but you’re interrupted by a voice calling out to you.
“Y/N! Wait!”
You turn to find Wanda holding her dress up as she runs towards you, and you brace yourself for the reprimanding you're no doubt going to receive, “What are you doing here?”
“That was a really dumb thing to do in there. What were you thinking?”
“I… wasn’t.”
She shakes her head, straightening out her dress, “I want to know if it’s true.”
You frown, not understanding where she was going with this, “If what’s true?”
“If you’re in love with me.” Her voice is timid when she asks, much less confident than at the start of the conversation. You fall silent, not really knowing what to say. You figure you should tell her the truth, but what good would it do you?
Her voice breaks the silence, your attention returning back to her, “Please, I just need to know.”
You take a deep breath before speaking, “Yes, it’s true.”
A flash of emotions pass across her features, none of them you can distinguish except for shock, “How…how long?”
You shrug, nervously scratching the back of your head, “I don’t know. A while.”
She turns back to the school doors, observing them carefully before looking down and sighing, “I should go back inside.”
You nod, dejected, making a point of saying something but she interrupts you before you can, “I should go back inside, but I don’t want to…”
You’re extremely confused at this point, even more so when she looks past you to your friends and smiles gently at them, “I’d much rather stay with you. The party’s kinda boring now anyways.”
"What about Jarvis?"
She tilts her head, humming in thought with a teasing smile, "He'll be fine."
You nod dumbly, jaw hung open slightly as she slips past you, slipping her hand into yours as she starts walking along side you guys. She chats animatedly with your friends, as if you hadn’t just attacked her date, squeezing your hand every so often as you ponder how the night ended up in your favour.
a/n: I apologise for this being so short but I thought it was cute enough without anything being added to it. Let me know if you want a part two :)
//
“You’re not supposed to touch the artwork.”
Delicate fingers cease in the air, curling into themselves as the perpetrator takes a few timid steps away from the painting. A string of apologies spill from her mouth as she turns to face you, eyes cast downwards; cheeks flushed.
“I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Your lips rise into a smirk at her embarrassed words, a small laugh slipping past your lips. Her head immediately snaps towards you, brows creasing into a frown as she properly acknowledges you.
“You don’t work here.”
You shrug nonchalantly, turning to face the painting she was just admiring, it really was beautiful. “Never said I did.”
Her jaw slacks as she tries to find the words to say, settling for shoving you with a scoff, “You jerk.”
You gasp in mock offence, rubbing the arm she just attacked, “Excuse me? What did I do?”
She flails her arms around; mentioning something about you ‘scaring the life out of her’, and you almost laugh at the absurdity of it all. She’s slightly out of breath by the end of her rambling and you can only grin.
“You done?”
She huffs, crossing her arms and flicking a few strands of hair out of her face, “Yes.”
A few of the people in the area had caught sight of her little outburst and she at least had the decency to blush sheepishly, clearing her throat. She swivelled her body, facing the painting once again.
“Claude Monet. Doesn’t really seem like your type.” You were just trying to get on her nerves at this point, and you smiled in silent triumph when threw a glare your way, falling right into your trap.
“How would you know?” You can hear the frustration behind her words and it only spurs you on.
“Well, Claude’s paintings served to capture specific feelings or experiences within them. You seemed more intrigued by the visual impact of the painting rather than the emotional.”
She paused at this, turning back to the painting and tilting her head at it. You shuffled closer to her, observing the art just as she was, “What do you see when you look at it?”
She frowned at your question, but when you gazed at her expectantly, she acquiesced, “Uh, I see a lily pond below a bridge. Maybe in a park somewhere?”
You hummed, “Okay. What do you feel when you look at it?”
She took a deep breath, trying to understand what you meant. After a few quiet moments, she shakes her head, “I don’t feel anything.”
You find humour in her impatience, pointing towards the painting, “See how the lilies are painted in various shades of pink while the rest of the scenery consists of different greens and greys?”
She nods. You continue.
“Claude understood that the pink would stand out amongst the other colours, is it not what your eyes are drawn to the most?”
The woman ponders for a second before answering you, “Yes, but I don’t understand how that has anything to do with me… feeling anything.”
“Attraction is a feeling, no? Your eyes are attracted to the allure of the lilies. There’s a feeling of admiration for the quiet elegance of nature, it’s peaceful existence.”
The woman’s brows raise in surprise at your articulation, eyes flickering back to the painting with newfound appreciation. She understands what you mean now, the minute details of the painting that she didn’t notice before.
She chuckles, impressed, “You really know what you’re talking about.”
You keep your eyes on her, admiring her while she admires the painting, “It’s less about knowledge and more about interpretation. The ability to appreciate beauty when you see it.”
Her gaze slides over to yours and her cheeks heat up under your gaze. She looks down, adjusting her purse on her shoulder with a small smile. She scans the room briefly, humming in thought before looking over her shoulder at you; an innocent smile plastered into her lips.
“There’s a lot of paintings here, I’d hate to misinterpret them all.”
You catch on to the hidden meaning behind her words, sighing dramatically as you check the watch on your wrist, “I suppose we can look at a few.”
She grins, holding a hand out to you, “Wanda.”
You slide your hand into hers, squeezing gently, “Y/N.”
School's out for summer and you've never been happier.
The gentle morning breeze flows in waves around the car as you speed down the highway, threading through the hair of the girl beside you. Amidst her questionable singing, she's giggling at your humoured smile and you can just about make out the red tint to her cheeks.
Wanda Maximoff was a potent force in your life and she had been ever since you were kids. She had this peaceful yet chaotic aura to her and you never wanted to let that go.
It was an annual tradition for the two of you to road trip every summer, visiting countless of places and people; making precious memories as you went. It was your favourite part of the year, the reason you pushed through exams and the tribulation that was school.
You'd loved Wanda in every way there was to love a person, but she still only loved you as a friend. You'd never outwardly spoke about it but it was better to accept the truth sooner rather than later, before you could get your heart shattered.
While you yearned for more with the redhead, you were infinitely grateful for the friendship that had bloomed between you and you wouldn't trade it for anything.
"So, I was thinking we stop off for some snacks, we could get those drinks you like. Get some gas too."
"Where's the nearest gas station?"
"There should be a map in the glovebox."
You paused at this, turning to the girl with an unbelieving frown, "A paper map?"
She nodded sheepishly, huffing as she adverted her gaze back to the road, "I thought it would be authentic, you know? Old fashioned road trip style."
You could only smirk, grabbing the map from the compartment and turning it around until you found what you were looking for, "6 miles east, just off that factory we found last year."
You pretended not to notice the wide smile pulling on to her lips as she watched you navigate the map.
//
"You want anything specific?"
Wanda handed you her purse as you stepped out of the car, humming in thought, "Surprise me."
You chuckled, shaking your head before nudging her playfully, "You're gonna regret that."
"Don't get me anything stupid. Y/N."
You blew her a kiss as you walked towards the store, smirking when she rolled her eyes. Stepping inside the small shop, you sighed as you saw that the shelves were all basically empty.
From first glance, you couldn't see anything that Wanda would like and feared she'd actually regret making you surprise her. You grabbed a few things you knew she'd be able to handle, crouching down to see to the back of the shelves.
You celebrated quietly when you saw her favourite candy pushed all the way to the back, taking the remaining two packets and picking up anything thing else you thought you'd need.
When you got to the till, you wordlessly handed the items to the man, your eyes glancing to the side to watch Wanda through the window. She was leaning against the trunk of the car, looking over the map with a focused crease of her brows. She looked adorable.
"She your girlfriend?"
Your attention focused back on the man at his words, and you shook your head sceptically, "No, she isn't."
You were curious of his intentions but didn't have time to ask because he was speaking again, "Make a move. You look pretty in love, man."
"I'm... what?" Your confusion was evident in your voice and the man just chuckled, placing down the item he was scanning to regard you properly.
"If you're not dating, then you're friends right?" You nod, he continues, "Okay, and from what I know, friends don't look at each other like that."
"Like what? I was just... I was just looking."
"With all due respect, that's bullshit."
You stared incredulously at him, glancing between him and Wanda outside, before laughing, "Okay, um, could you just scan the rest of these please? I'm kinda in a hurry."
He conceded, telling you your total and cashing in the change you gave him. Once he'd handed you your bags, you made quick movement of leaving but stopped when he called out to you.
"We all fear what we don't know, but if we don't try to learn, we won't."
You take a moment to absorb his words before stepping outside and heading over to Wanda, who immediately grabbed the bags from your hands once you were in reach.
"Took you long enough. You make a new friend?" She teased.
You rolled your eyes, getting into the car, "No, he was just being friendly."
Wanda's sudden shriek of excitement startled you, but your worry quickly died down once you heard what she was yelling about, "You got my favourite!"
"You told me to surprise you, no?"
As she clambered into the car, hugging you tightly over the console, you started to think that maybe the man was right.
//
By time Wanda found a place to settle for the night, darkness has already set in and the crickets chirping outside provided great ambience for the hushed conversation you and Wanda were having. You had both reclined your seats back and grabbed a few blankets for the night.
"You looked terrible that night."
You scoffed in offence, "We were wearing the same costume!"
She laughed, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, "Yeah, but you looked like you'd been dragged from seven blocks down. I looked great."
She didn't have enough time to react when you lunged at her, giggling as she squealed in your grasp, "Take it back!"
"Never!"
Her laughs echoed around the car for a few moments until she relented, tapping at your arm in surrender, "Okay! I take it back."
You smile in triumph as you let her go, catching your breath while you looked at her. The moon reflected perfectly in her eyes, turning them a magical shade of green and you'd never been more entranced.
You shivered as she trailed her hand up your back, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip, "You okay?"
Her words were barely over a whisper and you nodded softly once they'd reached your ears. Her eyes were flickering between yours, looking for something, but you didn't know what.
You let out a soft sigh at the feeling of her hand travelling to your neck, blunt nails pressing gently into your skin. You had never been this close before, one hand propping you up beside her shoulder and the other pushing the strands of hair from her face.
"I'm always okay when I'm with you, Wands."
Your words seemed to trigger something inside her because in the next moment, she was pressing her hand against your jaw, fingers smoothing over the skin there with an almost imperceptible touch.
You could feel the gentle tug of her hand on your neck; pulling you closer to her, and as you leant down, your lips brushed against hers and sent a jolt of electricity through you.
Your breaths were fanning against each other's faces, hot and shallow. Her eyes were locked to yours, and it was her pulling you down fully that connected your lips.
Wanda was soft and fragile beneath you, eyes slipping shut as you both fell into each other. After some time, you felt her hips rise and press into yours, a quiet whimper leaving her mouth and into yours.
You kissed her with more intent, lowering your body flush against hers and letting her slowly push your shirt off of your back. She made your head spin and it wasn't long until you both grew too tired to continue, curling up into one another before sleep took over.
//
The sun streaming in through the windshield woke you, the birds singing outside and the distant sound of cars driving past could be heard. As you went to move, you felt a weight on your left shoulder and turned to find Wanda sleeping peacefully on you.
You'd slept next to each other countless times but this time it felt different, memories of last night flittering through your mind and making you smile. You carefully rested your hand on Wanda's soft cheek, stroking your thumb over the smooth skin.
Your smile got even wider when she hummed sleepily, pressing her face more into your hand, "Hi."
"Hey, sorry for waking you."
She shook her head, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, "It's okay. Are you alright?"
"Never been better."
Once her eyes had fully opened, she looked up at you and giggled, "You kissed me."
You blushed slightly, looking away, but she placed her hand on your cheek so that you'd face her, "Let me see you..."
You watched her with uncertainty, afraid she might want to forget what happened, but when she realises; she's quick to lean up and press her lips firmly against yours.
You leaned into the feeling, pulling her closer while she tangled her fingers into your hair and linked your fingers together on your stomach, pouring all her feelings into the kiss.
Leaning your head against hers when she pulls away, you trace your thumb over her bottom lip, "I think I'm in love with you. The store clerk thinks it too."
She laughs, kissing you again and again until all you can think of is her, "I'm in love with you too."
It genuinely amazed you how incompetent some people could be. You didn’t have a problem with miscommunication or lack of understanding but sometimes people were so painfully, wholeheartedly ignorant.
“I don’t know why you thought it was okay to hit on my girlfriend, but that’s not how we do things around here.”
“Jarvis, we aren’t – “
Wanda’s attempt at reiterating Jarvis’ twisted view was quite abruptly cut off by his rucksack slipping off his shoulder and onto the floor as he approached you. You couldn’t exactly remember how you’d gotten into this situation, the details were fuzzy, but what you could say for sure was that Jarvis was pissed.
There had been a party a few nights prior in regard to the celebration of the end of the academic year, school technically hadn’t even ended but everyone was there. The jocks, the nerds (surprisingly) the band kids, the silent kids, and the preppy cheerleaders were all in attendance. You were placed rather uncomfortably between the jocks and the cheerleaders for the entirety of the night and this proved to have been the worst possible position to have been in.
The sloppy kisses and drunken yells of the students nearby hadn’t bothered you all that much, aside from the occasionally odd glance, everyone was pretty respectful. That was until Head cheerleader Wanda Maximoff sauntered her way over to the couch you were lounging on.
It was evident from the way she was swaying and how her red solo cup was practically tipping out of her hands, that she was drunk. The subtle hints of a smirk tugging at her lips was deadly, and the speed in which you averted your gaze had your neck aching even now, but she still caught it.
Her sultry voice flowed through your ears before you could think of an escape plan, “Hey.”
Reluctantly, you had turned your head to acknowledge the girl and the sight you were met with was not for the faint of heart. Her red, plaid skirt was resting at around her mid-thigh, but any movement she made had it riding even higher. Laced stockings encircled her toned legs and every sliver of exposed skin sent an electric jolt through you.
As your eyes travelled higher, you noticed how her white, tight fit crop top left nothing to the imagination; breasts straining against the fabric, and it was at around that point you knew to look away.
She’d no doubt noticed the sudden rush of heat to your cheeks and you reckoned it was the reason why she plopped herself down onto the couch next to you, so close that your thighs were pressed together.
“Hi, Wanda.”
You shivered at her grin, “I didn’t think parties were your thing.”
She wouldn’t know, she’d most probably made the assumption based on the fact that you never spoke, but she wouldn’t know. She spent pretty much all of her time either at cheer practice or lugging around that British giant.
He was practically glued to her hip with the way he followed her around, it wasn’t even endearing; it was pathetic. He was so concerned that someone was going to try and steal his ‘girl’ that he cursed out anyone who came remotely near her, including you.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” The question didn’t bear any hurtful intent, you didn’t want her to think she wasn’t welcome.
She waved you off, messily trying to adjust her position on the couch, “He isn’t my boyfriend. I don’t care where he is.”
You could only nod, you already knew how she felt about him but it aggravated you how she didn’t make an effort to make sure it stuck in his hollow head. This game between the two had been going on since junior year and you honestly couldn’t take another year of it.
“Why does he still say he is then?”
“I don’t know, and I never have the strength to push him away because he’s nice. He can be nice, Y/N, like, real nice.”
“I think the bar is set pretty low, Wands.”
Her drunken giggle wasn’t something you expected to hear, you’d thought for a moment she’d reprimand you for speaking so truthfully, but she didn’t. As the sound rippled from her, you found that a small smile pulled almost imperceptibly at your lips.
Wanda was beautiful. You’d thought it since the moment you first saw her freshman year, but your opinion was meaningless, she didn’t care. She didn’t fit into your social circle just as you didn’t fit into hers. She was popular and smart and the golden glow of the school while you were just a speck of dust in the corner, irrelevant in her world.
“Maybe. I think I lost sight of where the bar is supposed to be anyways.”
Her words made your heart sink a considerable amount, she deserved to be treated right and the fact that she thought Jarvis was doing just that, it settled uncomfortably within you. There was so much you wanted to say, you wanted to tell her that she didn’t deserve a lost puppy trailing behind her all the time, flaunting her and anchoring her to all that is the misery of this town.
She deserved someone who could work in tandem with her, equally. Someone who respected her for whatever she did and whoever she spoke to. You were willing to go above and beyond for her, to be what she needed. But you couldn't. The bitter truth was only planted deeper inside you when she dropped her head heavily against your shoulder with a staggered sigh.
You suppose that was where it all went wrong. The wrong eyes seeing the wrong move at the wrong time.
You faced the consequences the next day at school.
“Listen man, I wasn’t hitting on your girlfriend. It’s actually kinda funny how I’m getting bashed for something you should have been doing.”
“Don’t even try that.”
“Why not? You’re her boyfriend, no?”
You knew that would warrant you an eye roll from Wanda, but it was for the purpose of the argument. The way Jarvis shrunk back slightly and stammered through his words made it all worth it though.
“Well, y-yeah but- “
“But what? Were you too busy trying to get liver disease or was it that brunette from the cheer team you were locking lips with?”
This had the hall going so silent, it was almost comical. From the corner of your eye you could see the aforementioned brunette send Wanda a fearful glance before trying to back out of the crowd.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Even your heart dropped a little at Wanda’s eerily calm reply, Jarvis swivelling to face her with an embarrassed plea, “Come on, Wanda. She doesn't know what she's talking about.”
“Unlike you, Jarvis, Y/N wouldn't lie to me. I know that might be a difficult concept for you to grasp, but some people are actually honest.”
Jarvis stepped forward to try and console Wanda but she held her hand out, daring him to step any closer, “Don’t. Stay away from me, Jarvis.”
Wanda was quick to shoulder through the whispering crowd and before Jarvis could return his attention back to you, you went after her. You silently followed her out to the bleachers where she climbed the set of stairs to the top and flattened out her skirt before sitting down.
You wordlessly sat beside her, looking out at the desolate football pitch, it was unusual seeing it so empty, lifeless and lacking the charisma of the football team.
There was a gentle lull to the breeze that passed over you, the sun shining graciously down onto the two of you and warming you more than the girl next to you already was.
“I’m sorry.”
“You did what I didn’t have the strength to do. He was a dick anyways.”
You chuckled in relief and she smiled fondly at you, humming softly as she scooted closer to you. You got déjà vu to a few nights prior when she leant her head gently on your shoulder, her body slumping with her tired exhale.
“You know, the last time we did this I almost got punched in the face.”
She laughed then, a genuine laugh, and it made your stomach turn in the most delightful way, “You’re an idiot.” Her hand slowly slid over your thigh to slot itself into yours and your large grin almost tore the edges of your mouth, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but, I’m kinda into idiots.”
a/n: I apologise for this being so short but I thought it was cute enough without anything being added to it. Let me know if you want a part two :)
//
“You’re not supposed to touch the artwork.”
Delicate fingers cease in the air, curling into themselves as the perpetrator takes a few timid steps away from the painting. A string of apologies spill from her mouth as she turns to face you, eyes cast downwards; cheeks flushed.
“I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Your lips rise into a smirk at her embarrassed words, a small laugh slipping past your lips. Her head immediately snaps towards you, brows creasing into a frown as she properly acknowledges you.
“You don’t work here.”
You shrug nonchalantly, turning to face the painting she was just admiring, it really was beautiful. “Never said I did.”
Her jaw slacks as she tries to find the words to say, settling for shoving you with a scoff, “You jerk.”
You gasp in mock offence, rubbing the arm she just attacked, “Excuse me? What did I do?”
She flails her arms around; mentioning something about you ‘scaring the life out of her’, and you almost laugh at the absurdity of it all. She’s slightly out of breath by the end of her rambling and you can only grin.
“You done?”
She huffs, crossing her arms and flicking a few strands of hair out of her face, “Yes.”
A few of the people in the area had caught sight of her little outburst and she at least had the decency to blush sheepishly, clearing her throat. She swivelled her body, facing the painting once again.
“Claude Monet. Doesn’t really seem like your type.” You were just trying to get on her nerves at this point, and you smiled in silent triumph when threw a glare your way, falling right into your trap.
“How would you know?” You can hear the frustration behind her words and it only spurs you on.
“Well, Claude’s paintings served to capture specific feelings or experiences within them. You seemed more intrigued by the visual impact of the painting rather than the emotional.”
She paused at this, turning back to the painting and tilting her head at it. You shuffled closer to her, observing the art just as she was, “What do you see when you look at it?”
She frowned at your question, but when you gazed at her expectantly, she acquiesced, “Uh, I see a lily pond below a bridge. Maybe in a park somewhere?”
You hummed, “Okay. What do you feel when you look at it?”
She took a deep breath, trying to understand what you meant. After a few quiet moments, she shakes her head, “I don’t feel anything.”
You find humour in her impatience, pointing towards the painting, “See how the lilies are painted in various shades of pink while the rest of the scenery consists of different greens and greys?”
She nods. You continue.
“Claude understood that the pink would stand out amongst the other colours, is it not what your eyes are drawn to the most?”
The woman ponders for a second before answering you, “Yes, but I don’t understand how that has anything to do with me… feeling anything.”
“Attraction is a feeling, no? Your eyes are attracted to the allure of the lilies. There’s a feeling of admiration for the quiet elegance of nature, it’s peaceful existence.”
The woman’s brows raise in surprise at your articulation, eyes flickering back to the painting with newfound appreciation. She understands what you mean now, the minute details of the painting that she didn’t notice before.
She chuckles, impressed, “You really know what you’re talking about.”
You keep your eyes on her, admiring her while she admires the painting, “It’s less about knowledge and more about interpretation. The ability to appreciate beauty when you see it.”
Her gaze slides over to yours and her cheeks heat up under your gaze. She looks down, adjusting her purse on her shoulder with a small smile. She scans the room briefly, humming in thought before looking over her shoulder at you; an innocent smile plastered into her lips.
“There’s a lot of paintings here, I’d hate to misinterpret them all.”
You catch on to the hidden meaning behind her words, sighing dramatically as you check the watch on your wrist, “I suppose we can look at a few.”
She grins, holding a hand out to you, “Wanda.”
You slide your hand into hers, squeezing gently, “Y/N.”
Summary: The journey of a soldier made anew, riddled with the guilt of his past and on a steady path to redemption.
Warnings: Violence, injury, mild language, more warnings as the series progresses.
Word count: 5.1k
a/n: Quite a big stepping stone for Wanda and reader this chapter, a heartfelt moment that changes the nature of their relationship. Hope you guys enjoy it!
//
Chapter thirteen
New Avengers Facility, The compound
It had been a few weeks after the Sokovia tragedy, and everything had begun to settle down. Hulk had gone MIA and turned off the Quinjet’s tracker so that he couldn’t be found. Stark relief foundation had been working endlessly trying to find all the Sokovian civilians new homes and making sure they had access to proper healthcare after the incident.
The team had officially offered you a place as an Avenger, you were a viable asset, and they’d need you fighting their corner; but you were still considering their offer. You didn’t know if you were ready to make a decision like that right now. You’d been alone for so long; working with a team was so unfamiliar to you.
Everybody had taken a well needed break, Thor returning to Asgard to be with his family and the others taking some time away from fighting. Sam had heard of what happened in Sokovia and decided he wanted to be there for Steve from now on, therefore making him an official Avenger.
You, however, felt as if you couldn’t catch a break. You hadn’t completely finished your recovery period when Steve had asked for your help and you hadn’t gone back to Wakanda since; so the nightmares were still in full force, jolting you from your bed every night in a cold sweat. You spent most of your time in the training room to get your mind off things and it tired you enough to grant you a few hours of sleep before the night terrors woke you.
Since you’d returned, the air between you and Wanda had been… very still. She had her own room at the other end of the floor you were on meant for the new recruits, but she never left it. She’d sometimes get up to get something to eat but that was it, even then, she did it at times when nobody could see the looming emptiness that had settled in her bones.
You couldn’t blame her; she wasn’t supposed to be here alone. She was supposed to have her brother in the room right across from her. You could tell that the empty room haunted her, she’d walk past it and remember that he wasn’t here anymore. That he never would be.
You hadn’t tried to talk to her. You knew better than anyone that sometimes you’d feel so lost you just… couldn’t find the words. You still felt the same things she did, the ache in your chest whenever you were near her; the grief she couldn’t shake. You hated that she was feeling so much all alone.
//
“I walked by here this morning, and you were in the exact same spot. I’m starting to think I should be a little concerned.”
You held the punching bag by its sides until it stopped swinging, turning to Steve as he leant against the training room’s doorway, “Not much else for me to do.”
Steve nodded, watching as you wiped the sweat from your forehead and walked over to the benches to grab your water bottle, “How’s Wanda?”
You frowned at this, shrugging at him. “How would I know?”
“She hasn’t talked to you?”
You started unwrapping your fists as Steve stared at you, “Did you expect her to?”
Steve uncrossed his arms, walking towards you “I guess not. How have you been?”
You sighed, clenching your jaw as to not lash out at him, his constant questions agitated you but they were of good nature. He was one of the only people who actually cared, you reminded yourself, “I’ve been… okay, I guess.”
Steve was clearly expecting more out of you, but you didn’t know what to tell him. You couldn’t describe how you had been because you didn’t know. You didn’t know if this was you doing good or not.
He relented after a moment, patting your shoulder, “Well, dinner should be ready soon. Will I be seeing you tonight?”
You lowered your head, scratching the back of your neck, “I don’t know…”
“It’s just me tonight, everyone else is out.”, he rushes out, trying to convince you before you have the time to disagree.
You look back up to him, seeing his hopeful smile and biting the inside of your cheek, “Okay.”
//
Dinner wasn’t terrible. You talked with Steve about mundane things, which was… easier. He wasn’t the worst chef, and the food was admittedly much better than the slop hydra gave you. He had given you strict instructions to not go back to the training room tonight, and just to satisfy him, you didn’t.
Instead, you took a slight detour.
You stepped quietly over to Wanda’s door, lowering yourself to the ground and leaning your back against the wall beside it. You couldn’t hear anything coming from the other side, so there was the possibility that she was asleep. You didn’t mind. You hadn’t come to strike up a conversation with her.
You didn’t fully understand what it was that the two of you shared but you hoped that she knew you were sitting there. That you were trying to be there for her.
You’d gotten the same pulsing ache within you as you sat down, and you wished desperately to take it from her. You knew you could handle it and even if you couldn’t take it all; you wanted to take as much as you could. So you could hurt together.
It was likely that she wouldn’t leave the room tonight, so you stretched your legs out, crossing one over the other, and let your eyes slip shut. You couldn’t give her much, but you could give her this.
//
The next morning was even less eventful, you’d been startled awake by a particularly rough nightmare, a slight tremor to you and a sore back as you were still beside Wanda’s door. You’d headed for the gym not long after awakening and you had been in there from the early hours, noticing that Steve had seemingly disappeared considering he hadn’t come to do his routine check on you.
At around ten, you decided to roam the building, really see how much money Stark had. You had been walking for nearly ten minutes and come across an indoor swimming pool, a cinema room which seemed a little unnecessary, a basketball court, and a field track.
There was a lot of option, that’s for sure, but you were more interested in the never-ending running track, and when you got to it, you could admit it was pretty cool. It was a large, grassy area with red tarmac stretched across it and sprinklers scattered around to cool you off.
You had nothing to do today so you figured you’d try it out.
You stepped onto the track and began a slow jog, your intention wasn’t to train necessarily, just to think. You had been doing that a lot lately; thinking for yourself. There was so much you realised you never had the chance to think about, to really understand. It petrified you. There was this expansive mind you had yet to explore, and it was almost too big for you.
You wanted to know who you were, what you liked. The simple things. You feared there wasn’t any of that left to find out.
After a few hours, you decided you’d been in your head for too long and that Steve probably wouldn’t be too fond if he found you doing any form of exercise this late into the day. You maneuvered yourself off the track, stepping into line with one of the sprinklers and letting it drench you.
The cold water helped you come to, all previous thoughts rinsing away with the liquid dripping down your body.
Heading back to your room, you walked past the kitchen, pausing when you heard faint clattering. You peered inside, catching sight of brunette hair and feeling your entire body tense up. You watched as Wanda padded around the room, searching for something; and you were tempted to go in, but you didn’t want to scare her away and ruin any chance of her staying out of her room.
With one last glance, you turned away and continued back to your room.
//
“I just think it’s kind of… I don’t know, unnatural leaving them two alone in the compound. Dangerous even.”
Steve turned to Natasha with a frown, not seeing where she was coming from, “Dangerous? I don’t think it’s dangerous, do you think it’s dangerous?”
She shrugs, taking a sip of her drink, “It’s kinda dangerous.”
Unbeknownst to you and Wanda, Steve had purposefully made sure that the team weren’t in the compound 24/7 and he did it because he wanted to make sure you both felt comfortable enough to explore the compound on your own. You couldn’t exactly do it if there were people walking around and watching you all the time.
Now that he’s hearing Natasha’s opinion on it all, he’s starting to second guess his decision, “I just want them to be- “
Natasha interrupts, “Comfortable. I know, and it’s nice, really, but we’re a team. We learn to work together because that’s what we do for a living. How are they going to learn that if the aforementioned team is never there?”
Steve looks away sheepishly, “They have each other.”
“And neither one of them talks.”
Steve sighed, now seeing that she was right. He took a sip of his coffee, leaning back in his seat. He had invited Natasha out for coffee as a means to get her out the compound, and while it was a genuinely nice outing, he had too much on his mind to enjoy it completely.
Natasha leans forward, placing her cup onto the table, “They’re adults, Steve. They know what they’re doing.”
Steve looks back to her, sitting up similarly to her, “But that’s the thing, they’re both still kids, Nat. Their experience doesn’t make them any older. I just hoped they’d find some comfort in one another.”
“It’s gonna take a long time for them to come around. This isn’t something that’ll happen overnight. I mean, it took you seventy years to come join us so, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”, she smirks at that last part, Steve returning it.
“Alright, very funny.”
Natasha chuckles, raising her hands in surrender, “I thought it was kinda funny.”
Steve laughs, his eyes trained on her as she smiles back at him.
Natasha quiets down at his stare, resting her chin on her hand, “What?”
Steve just shakes his head, looking down, “We should probably get back, huh?”
Natasha agrees, rising from her seat and pushing Steve back into his as he tries to stand, eliciting a laugh from him.
//
A few days later
Steve had deemed today ‘team training day’, much to everyone else’s displeasure. He had pulled you to the side and told you that it wasn’t mandatory, and you didn’t have to participate if you didn’t feel comfortable doing so, but it was only training so you figured it couldn’t do you much harm.
Wanda on the other hand, she had immediately shut it down.
“I’m okay.”
“Look, I think this could be a really good chance for you to work on your abilities. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of emotion pent up inside of you, this would be an ideal way to get it out.”
Still, to no avail.
Steve had listed off a few more reasons as to why joining would benefit her but she dismissed them all. Eventually, he gave up and let her be. You’d watched him walk into the training room a little less preppy than usual and quickly understood what Wanda’s answer had been.
Again, you couldn’t blame her. A room full of people she barely knew, practicing a skill she also barely knew. It seemed like a lot.
At some point during training, Natasha had slinked out of the room and you were intrigued to know where she had gone. You were a presence Steve would notice missing much quicker though, so you didn’t try to follow her.
You were on weird terms with Natasha. You weren’t friends, but she wasn’t the worst person to be around. She had been there for you in Wakanda, and you were grateful for that, but you still couldn’t trust her.
Steve was the only person you could see yourself trusting somewhere in the far future but that stemmed from a situation you had no control over. Steve knew everything there was to know about you based on your files and what he had seen in Wakanda, not that he’d ever use that against you, but it still unsettled you.
Natasha had returned not long after her leave, slipping into place as if she’d never left and it amazed you how no one bat an eye. She was sneaky, you could give her that. She must have noticed your gaze on her because she turned to you and threw you a small smile to which you nodded in return.
She had a tendency to soften slightly around you and it made you feel like a child. You knew it was pity. Ever since Wakanda, she had begun trying to be extra cautious when interacting with you and you hated it.
She didn’t know you. She may have seen something she wasn’t supposed to but that didn’t mean anything. She didn’t know anything.
She didn’t know anything.
You had to close your eyes for a moment, you could feel those dreaded thoughts coming back and Shuri wasn’t here to tell you what to do. Breath. Breath, she’d say. Why couldn’t you breath?
It all happened too quickly. One minute you were gripping your head trying to quiet down the voices and the next minute, you were advancing on Natasha. She hadn’t expected your attack so she couldn’t dodge the kick to her legs and when she dropped to a knee, you grabbed her by her collar and dragged her to the nearest wall.
The team were all yelling at you to put her down at this point but their words were no match for the ones swirling inside your mind.
You pushed Natasha against the wall so hard you could see the small crack in it from the force, gaze hardening as she watched you in fear. It excited you seeing her so scared of you. She didn’t know you; she didn’t know what you could do. No one did.
“You were stupid to think you knew who I was. To think you meant anything to me.”, your words cut through Natasha like knifes. They were harsh and dripping with hate. You were holding her so tightly against the wall, she couldn’t breathe properly.
“Y/N! Put her down!”
Steve’s shouts fell on deaf ears as you gripped Natasha tighter, you’d strangle her to death right here just to prove how little she knew. And that’s exactly what you planned to do, reaching for her neck before you were tossed across the room. Your back hit the stack of dumbbells at the far corner and as you stood, you saw the fading wisps of red around you.
You stood; eyes locked to the girl across the room. Your fists tightened beside you and your breathing picked up. She clenched her jaw as he stepped closer, hands out and ready in front of her. You turned your head over to Natasha gasping for air against Steve, clutching his arm tightly. When your eyes slid back over to Wanda, her eyes had returned to their normal cool green and she just watched you.
Her eyes didn’t hold any malice, not like you had expected them to. You kept watching them, they were drawing you in like a tidal wave. You could feel the anger dissipating slowly, she wasn’t someone you’d fight. Your chest heaved with your laboured breaths, and you slowly sunk to the floor, hands gripping your chest as the realisation set in.
You had done it again. You had hurt them, again.
Wanda didn’t come any closer, she just lowered her hands and waited. She watched as your hands shook with your guilt over your chest. She could… feel you. It was like she was you in that moment, burdened by the weight of what you had done. It startled her. Your body was wringing itself out, trying to dispel this feeling, it almost hurt.
You stood abruptly and the team all jolted back in defence. You observed their faces. Fear. Betrayal. Confusion. You couldn’t handle it.
By time the lights came back on, you were gone.
//
The team searched the entire compound and had come up empty. Steve was determined to find you and ask what the hell had happened, but he’d never get anywhere if you didn’t come back. He was disappointed, but not in you, in himself. He should have known you weren’t ready for this; he had pushed this on you, and it ended terribly.
Natasha was fine aside from a few bruises, but she just wanted to talk to you. Understand what she had done to make you react that way. She wouldn’t soon forget the look in your eyes when you attacked her. The words you had said. Cold and empty, like you wanted to rip her to shreds right then and there. For a moment, she thought you would.
She was glad she had talked to Wanda beforehand; she likes to think it was the reason she came down to help. She hadn’t said much, just that once training was over and everyone had left, she and Wanda could train just the two of them. If that would be easier. Wanda had said she’d consider it and Natasha took that as a win.
She doesn’t see that happening any time soon.
“Anything?” Steve had asked, meeting up with the rest of the team in the living room.
He sighed when they all shook their heads, rubbing his temples, “FRIDAY didn’t see him leave the building but he could have easily slipped past her.”
“I should probably install a heat signature detector.” Tony suggested, his mind already coming up with a way to do just that.
Sam sees the dejected look on Steve’s face and chooses to stay optimistic, “Look, there isn’t much for him out there. He’ll realise that we aren’t mad at him and he’ll come back. He can’t stay mad forever.”
Steve smiles thankfully at Sam, straightening his posture and trying to rid his mind of the predicament he’s in, “Sam’s right. Y/N knows we aren’t out to get him and hopefully once he’s cooled off, he’ll return to the compound. There isn’t much we can do while he’s gone, so get some rest and we’ll continue this tomorrow.”
The team separated, going to do their own thing, all for Natasha, who hung back. She watched Steve with a sympathetic look, not knowing what to say this time round. She wanted to find you just as much as he did but clearly today wasn’t that day. This changed things, she knew you still needed help and that was a decision she couldn’t make on her own.
“He needs help, Steve. He can’t stay here while he’s like this.”
Steve didn’t respond, he kept his eyes cast downwards as he thought. He didn’t want to send you back, it’d put too much distance between you and the team. But Natasha was right, you weren’t healed, and you never would be as long as you stayed here. He turned to look at Natasha and it was almost as if they came to a silent agreement.
//
Wanda could still feel you. It was distant and disturbed, but it was still there.
It intrigued her greatly and she wanted to know why she could feel so much around you. It was so strong it overwhelmed her. There was an odd balance to you, she discovered. Your mind was silent for her; like it wasn’t even there, but your body hummed with emotion.
Feelings and sensations she couldn’t decipher.
Turmoil.
There was a turmoil raging within you and because of it, you were never still. Even at night when you lay in your quarters across from her, asleep, you were never still.
You ran rampant around her body almost like you were living vicariously through her. Your presence lingered even when you weren’t there.
She wondered if you felt the same things. If you could feel that sinking sensation she got whenever she thought of her brother. The cold dread within her when she realises how lost she is, how far she’d strayed from who she used to be.
She had known you were at her door the other night, only because she was able breath for a moment, despite her tears. Usually she’d choke up and be sat there gasping for air until she felt lightheaded, but that night was different.
It was as if a surge of air had penetrated her lungs and for a split second… it didn’t hurt so much. She had felt the air around her buzz with an energy that soothed her enough to let her drift off to sleep, a comforting presence blanketing her in a dome of… something. She hadn’t figured that out yet.
She wanted you at her door every night.
//
The late evening breeze served as a temporary reprieve from the constant heat flushes running through your body. Your legs dangled over the edge of the building you were perched on, eyes cast forward at the hustle and bustle of New York city.
You liked how miniature the people looked down below. They all seemed so insignificant compared to the buildings that towered over them. Silenced out by the beeping of cars and patter of feet on the wet ground.
You wished more than anything to be like that. Irrelevant and unknown. To not have anyone bat an eye at you as you walked past. A quiet soul in the midst of such a large world.
You held such a heavy weight on your shoulders, and it was tipping you further down than you’d ever been. To the depths of something so cold and lonely. You’d been hardwired to hurt everyone around you, and you were naïve to think you’d ever be rid of it.
It was coming up to 4 days since you left the compound. You’d been sneaking into cafes and restaurants after closing time to get food, and you’d endured worse conditions than the gravelly floors of rooftops.
You hated that you had to leave in the first place. It hurt more because you knew they cared. The team had taken a chance on you, let you into their home, their family. They’d given you the benefit of the doubt and all you’d given them were empty promises.
You couldn’t be better. Not for them, not for anyone. It didn’t matter what you did, you’d always circle round to your roots. The branching evil within you.
You wished to tear every person who allowed you to become this shell of a person to pieces. Rip their hearts right from their chest just so they could see how they’d so severely damaged yours. Torment their minds in the most torturous ways just so they could see how they’d destroyed yours. Left it for ruin in their wake; singed every nerve ending until you were numb.
You would never understand what you were. How was that fair? How were they able to break you so easily? Twist the image until you saw that you were never really whole in the first place. That there had always been something missing, a blurred part of the picture.
You’d go your whole life without finding it and what did that make you?
//
“He hasn’t been spotted on the premises, sir. I could get my squad to search further beyond the gates, but we don’t have much of an idea as to where’d he be.”
Steve thanked the agent for her help, dismissing her from the meeting room. He turned from the closing glass door to face the expectant gaze of Natasha who sat at the head of the table, one leg crossed over the other as she leaned back into her seat.
“Anything?”
With a solemn shake of his head, he shuffled over to the seat beside her, dropping his head into his hands. He was at a loss. He’d never find you if you didn’t want to be found.
It was concerning how much pressure Steve was putting on himself and it had Natasha’s mind racing, trying to come up with a solution. She was confident in the notion that you’d return in your own time, she understood that you probably just needed space right now. It didn’t make her any less concerned, however. It wouldn’t take much to reel you back into hydra’s grasp and she had an underlying fear that they were lurking around the corner, waiting for the best moment to strike.
She hoped you had the will power to come back to them. Come back to the people who only wanted to help you.
These thoughts stayed with Natasha until that night, but as she was rinsing the day’s stress from her face, she reached behind her to grab a towel when she heard a soft voice from inside her room.
“I’m sorry.”
The words were awfully quiet and if she hadn’t stilled immediately at the sound, she probably wouldn’t have heard them. She wiped the water droplets from her face, placing the towel on the sink and leaning her hip against it. She took the time to consider her words, she didn’t want to say the wrong thing and have you running off again.
“It isn’t you. No matter what it says.”
You don’t answer straight away, and she knows she’s hit the nail on the head. She hears your shaky exhale, switching off the bathroom light so that her eyes can adjust to the dark. Once they do, she can just about make out your silhouette in the dark room as she slowly takes a step forward.
“What did it say?”
You keep your eyes glued to the floor, the tension throttling you as you try to find the words, “You don’t know enough. You don’t know anything. I…”
Your words trail off as your breathe catches in your throat but Natasha doesn’t rush you. She waits patiently for you to articulate all the thoughts screaming at you. She has all night after all.
“I want you to know what you don’t. The truth.”
Natasha blinks a couple times, taken by surprise at your admission. You were placing a fractured piece of yourself into her hand, and she didn’t want it to slip through her fingers. She needed to keep it so that she could gather the rest.
“I want you to know who I was, what I did.”
Natasha couldn’t understand why you’d want that. The truth was a calamitous thing, destructive. There was so much more to you than whoever you once were but such bitter honesty could change the way you were seen, perceived by others.
“None of that matters now. We… we think it’s best we send you back to Wakanda. To alleviate the burden.”
Your head lifts at this, eyes trained onto the woman in front of you. They were getting rid of you.
You felt your resolve slip momentarily, a flash of betrayal coursing through you.
“You did nothing wrong, Y/N. You saw the progress you were making; you can have that again.”
You didn’t believe her. Her words were a harsh contrast to her intentions, to everyone’s intentions. Whispers of comfort carefully woven into her looming fear. Her fear of you.
“You’re getting rid of me.”
“No, Y/N- “
“You’re getting rid of me. Because I hurt you.”
She was shaking her head rapidly now, stepping closer, but you flinched back. You’d only hurt her again. You supposed she already knew. Her tone was too gentle, condescending almost. It plucked at your patience, withering it down ever so carefully.
It was interesting watching your mind go to war with itself. The ultimate duel between rage and reason. You wondered how it would end this time.
“Look at me, Y/N. You have earned your rightful place on this team, that’s something we won’t ever take from you.”
Liar.
“We just want to help you; we can’t do that here.”
Doesn’t she get sick of lying? Doesn’t she know you’re not fond of being lied to.
You’re slipping again.
You frown, eyes dropping down to Natasha’s lips. The lips that aren’t moving anymore. Panic alights in your chest as your mind reels in disorientation.
I know you can hear me.
Your breathing grows erratic at the voice, eyes scanning the room for the source of it. You were going insane.
Natasha notices your sudden display of distress, her gaze flittering over you in immediate concern, “Y/N? What’s wrong?”
Leave the room, Y/N.
You comply, not wanting to disobey the order. You stumble past Natasha, shrugging your arm out of her grip when she reaches for you. You pull open her door, looking down both ends of the hall, and try to catch your fleeting breath.
You’re okay.
It was odd. The voice was intentionally soothing and you wanted to keep the low pitch soaring through your head. Let it wrap itself around you until there was no room for anything else inside you. You felt your chest thrumming again, it made the hairs stand on your arms and your chest warm.
You walked towards the only place you recognised the thrumming to have ever come from, eyes teetering on the edge of closing at the sensations you were experiencing. When the elevator pinged with its arrival to your floor, the air pulsed with an energy that had your mind mollifying.
You practically sunk to your knees against her door once you’d reached it, hands gripping the material of your pants as you leant your head against the door. You wanted to drown in the feeling, the silence in your mind. You’d weld yourself against the wooden barrier between you and the other side just to stay here as long as you could.
Gentle puffs of air left your mouth and you could feel them ricochet off the door and back onto your face. They were slow, and effortless. Beyond those breaths, there was a resounding silence in the dim hallway. There was a current of peace within you and it made your eyes sting with tears that never fell.
I can feel you.
You nodded silently, hand reaching up to press against the door, “I can feel you too.”
Located in a quiet corner of New Jersey; full of people who had formed a tight lock community that shunned out any and all new comers. When your car had pulled up into one of the pristine suburban neighbourhoods, you immediately regretted your decision to move here.
It seemed as if every man and their entitled housewives were tracking your every movement; silently judging, criticising everything you did.
Your hands were unsteady as you picked the cardboard boxes out of your trunk and carried them up to your front door. You balanced a box in your left hand while the other reached into your pocket to fish out your keys.
You could feel their eyes burning through the back of your head. It made you unbelievably nervous.
Because of this, your hands weren’t quick enough to catch the box titling out of your grasp and your eyes squeezed shut as you waited for the inevitable embarrassment to follow. You frowned when there was no sound of impact on the floor, turning to your side and finding the box held securely in perfectly manicured hands.
Your eyes lifted and your breath caught in your throat. Glistening green eyes stared back at you, the glare of the sun casting a beautiful glow onto her face. She had a gentle smile on her red lips and it was only when you saw the small bob of her throat did you realise she was talking.
“You should be more careful.”
You must have looked like an idiot gawking at the woman. You gained a sliver of composure, clearing your throat and scratching the back of your neck nervously.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t really paying much attention.”
She smiled that same smile and you almost melted. She was stunning and you were at a loss for words. Her fiery hair flowed in waves behind her back, a group of freckles dusted across her nose and you knew you’d never seen anyone as pretty as her.
Something made you shift your focus just to the left of her, and you saw the intrigued gazes of the neighbours; nosy as ever.
“Don’t mind them. They’re always like this.”
You immediately returned your eyes to the woman before you, processing her words and tilting your head in confusion.
“The neighbours.” She clarified; nodding as you whispered a small ‘Oh’ in recognition.
You watched them a moment longer before turning away from their predatory gazes, “They’re kinda scary.”
She giggled then; and it was music to your ears, a smile of your own pulling at your lips. She tucked a few strands of red hair behind her ear, hand returning to the box in her grasp.
“You get used to it.”
You jolted suddenly, reaching into your pocket for the keys that started this whole ordeal. You jiggled them in the air once you’d found them, unlocking your door and pushing it open. You thought the kind woman would just hand you your box of stuff and bid her goodbyes, but she didn’t.
You startled when she slipped past you and into your home, placing the box on the floor by the stairs. When she stood, she blew the fallen wisps of hair from her face, placing her hands on her hips.
The action pushed her sundress so close to her body, you could see the curve of her hips and you felt as if you couldn’t breathe. You knew your cheeks were heating up, so you looked away quickly to make sure she didn’t see.
“Sorry about that, I didn’t want them watching us like hawks. They love to craft up false narratives.”
You nodded dumbly, looking everywhere but her. You reckoned she noticed when she took a step towards you and placed her soft hand on your arm, just above your elbow. It made shivers run through you, all the hairs on your neck standing up from the sensation.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m good. It was just a little unsettling.”
She took the bait, humming softly in agreement. You figured she felt bad for you. The newbie having just been visually attacked by the whole street.
You were disappointed when she removed her hand but you didn’t say anything about it.
“I can help you bring the rest of your stuff in, if you’d like?”
You were grateful you’d accepted when she threw a dashing smile your way before stepping back outside.
//
Wanda Maximoff.
She had a name almost as unique as her and it amazed you. You came to find out she was basically the only nice neighbour in the town, living a simple life with her two twin boys. That little piece of information caught you by surprise because she looked way too young to be a mother.
She blushed when you informed her of this and the light dust of pink on her cheeks had your legs weakening slightly.
It warmed your heart to see how fondly she spoke of her children, her eyes lighting up at the mention of them. The amount of love she held for the two boys made her even more perfect to you. She was an amazing mother.
“It was just me and the twins when we moved here. God, it was a nightmare, people just wouldn’t stop staring.”
Her tone was unwavering as she spoke. You knew this had affected her but she’d overcome it, taking on an air of confidence that drew you in. You couldn’t imagine what it was like to be a single mother in such an orthodox town. It plucked at your heart strings to know she did it all alone.
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have gone through that alone.”
She waved you off, smiling softly. Her façade wasn’t hard to see through but there was underlying bravery in her mannerisms. Her skin had hardened from her experience and she’d become an independent, unbreakable force, but there were still signs of fragility to her.
Raising two infants alone was something you’d never have the strength to do. The fact that she could still be so kind and welcoming amidst her hardships confirmed for you that she deserved everything good in this world. You would do everything you could now that you were here to make sure she never felt alone. To make sure she knew that she had you; however she needed you.
//
When the afternoon began setting in, she had checked her watch and risen from her seat. Her twins were at day-care and they’d need to be picked up soon. She’d helped you tremendously and although your house was still a mess, it looked better than if you’d done it alone.
You leant against the doorway as she stepped outside, watching her straighten out her dress neatly. You’d never get over the sight of her.
You smiled softly when her eyes met yours, “Thank you for helping me.”
She grinned at your quiet words, clasping her hands together in front of her, “Of course.”
A few seconds went by where neither of you knew what to say before she broke eye contact, gesturing behind her, “I should get going.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll… see you around?”
She bit her lip slightly, nodding at you, “See you around.”
As you watched her walk away, sun dress swaying in the gentle breeze, you were glad you’d moved here.
//
As the weeks after your arrival went by, you and Wanda got to talking a lot more. You went over to her house when the twins were at day care, keeping her company and making her laugh at your most recent stories about the neighbours.
Her house resembled her personality perfectly. There were bright colours scattered everywhere, children’s toys littering the living room carpet and baby bottles stacked carefully in the kitchen.
She had mentioned that she painted in her spare time and when you asked to see some of her work, she immediately declined.
"No way. That's not something I need you seeing."
“Please? I promise I won’t laugh.”
After much convincing and a slap on the arm from her, she finally showed you.
To say you were impressed was an understatement. You could instantly tell that they were more than paintings to her. They were stories, symbolic of the things she’d been through in her life. She had taken your silence as a bad response, quickly shrinking into herself and apologising if you thought they were bad.
You had turned to her; reaching down to softly take her hand and she hesitantly held it back. Her eyes had flickered between yours self-consciously and you’d never seen anything more endearing.
“They’re beautiful. Thank you for sharing this with me.”
You’d caught her eyes watering before she could hide her face in your chest as she hugged you.
Something changed after that day. The proximity between you had decreased as time went on and she had begun sharing more things with you. Things she’d hidden deep inside her for fear of being judged.
You’d never judge her; she knew that.
You felt closer to her than ever before and you couldn’t think of anyone better to spend your time with. You loved her twins almost as much as you loved her. They were two boisterous little angels and they’d had a tight grip on your heart from the moment you met them.
Sometimes you’d pick them up from day care with Wanda; just so she had an extra pair of helping hands, and watching them squeal as you chased them around was one of the best feelings.
The little moments made it all so much better.
The times where the woman would barge into your house with tired eyes after a long night, the boys at day care and her in much need of some sleep.
Wanda inviting you into the house on some random evening and you witnessing the boys chucking food at each other during dinner time; giggling uncontrollably as Wanda tried to catch all of it as it flew through the air.
It didn’t get better than that.
You could say with confidence that you spent more time at her house then at your own. You liked being someone she could lean on, someone she trusted enough to let around the two people she loved most in this world. You just loved everything about her.
//
On this particular sunny day, you’d surprised the family with a trip to the local fair; and Wanda had hugged you so tight you almost collapsed. The twins had a blast playing all the children’s games and eating candy, so much so, that on the drive back to their house; they’d fallen asleep instantly.
You and Wanda had glanced back at their sleeping faces, smiling softly at one another before exiting the car. You took the left while Wanda took the right, each carrying a sleeping twin inside the house and walking them to their room.
You placed Billy down in his crib, running your hand gently over his cheek before stepping away to let Wanda kiss him goodnight. You’d repeated the action with Tommy, letting Wanda lean into your side when she sauntered over to you.
She wrapped her arms around your waist, sighing softly into you as she watched her boys sleep.
“Thank you for tonight.” She whispered, lifting her head to meet your eyes.
You tilted your head to face her, leaning down to kiss her forehead, “Anytime.”
She closed her eyes briefly before moving to stand in front of you, placing her hands on your cheeks, “Thank you for everything. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
You hummed, placing your hands on her waist, “You definitely could have.”
She smiled, pinching your cheek softly, “But I wouldn’t have wanted to.”
You watched her for a moment, eyes twinkling at you as they said a million more words than she ever could. The soft glow of the nightlight on the table made her look even more ethereal than usual, your hand lifting to place itself over the one already on your face.
“Me neither.”
You felt your heart jump when her gaze flickered from your eyes to your lips, her chest moving up and down a little quicker than it had been. You stepped closer until there was nowhere left for you to go, leaning your head down to rest on hers, feeling her breath fan against your face.
“I don’t ever want to have to do this without you.” She whispered; green eyes focused on yours.
You could only smile, rubbing your nose lightly against hers, “You never will. I promise.”
This was enough confirmation for her to tilt her head upwards, softly pressing her lips into yours. A deep sigh left both of you at the feeling and she pulled you closer, wrapping her arms around your neck. Her movements were so gentle it made you want to cry. You had felt so much for this woman since the day you met her and you’d keep to your word for as long as she needed you to.
She’d never have to do anything alone again; you’d make sure of that.
Summary: The journey of a soldier made anew, riddled with the guilt of his past and on a steady path to redemption.
Warnings: Violence, injury, mild language, more warnings as the series progresses.
Word count: 6.7k
//
Chapter twelve
Holding cell, Avengers tower
“Alright, I want squad three and four at all entrances and exits, don’t let anybody in or our of the building. Understand?”
“Understood.”
“Good. Go.”
Orders were being yelled left and right as shield soldiers littered the building. T’Challa had deemed you enough of a threat that you were worth over thirty soldiers ensuring you were well guarded.
The Avengers had been told to wait in the living area while they transported you down to the holding cells, being told it was a safety protocol after Steve had questioned them a million times. The team were apprehensive to be seeing you again, all for Steve who had been seeing you for a while now.
Sam felt comfortable enough also, but he still had a sliver of nerves in him.
“This is all a little overkill, don’t you think?”, Sam had leaned over to ask Steve.
“Don’t I know it.”
Steve had been weary of the protocols being taken, he didn’t want you to feel overwhelmed and the last thing he needed was for you to get angry at anyone. He had tried to lessen the number of guards, but his efforts were futile.
The team, and the twins, had all watched through the living room windows as the shield trucks drove through the front gates, one larger truck jammed in the middle of them all. Steve had shook his head and walked away from the window, it all seemed so unnecessary.
Sam couldn’t help the smirk on his lips when the lights began to flicker, signalling your arrival. The twins looked to him in confusion, feeling extremely out of the loop and he shrugged, “It’s kind of his thing.”
Wanda had felt something shift after that, she couldn’t quite describe it, but it was powerful. A lurking feeling in her, familiar and foreign all at once.
She clutched her brother’s arm, and he held her close figuring she was just nervous. She didn’t have time to dwell on it any further as the lights in the room completely went out.
She was puzzled as to why no one was doing anything, she thought at least Steve would react, but he didn’t. He just stood there, eerily quiet.
The room was silent for a few moments, but then the lights slowly returned to their normal brightness; a figure standing before the team.
Steve stepped forward, nodding at you, “You okay, kid?”
You hadn’t answered, your eyes searching the room for something. He tilted his head in confusion, moving to ask you what was wrong, but then your eyes landed on something. He followed your gaze and found the person you were looking at.
“She’s with us.”, he assured, but it didn’t seem to faze you.
You watched the girl carefully, not with fear, but with interest. It was like your eyes had been drawn to her by some invisible force. There was something you recognised in her, an energy shared between you that you couldn’t quite explain.
Your hand slowly lifted to touch your chest; you could feel this… thrumming within you. Her eyes tracked your movements.
You watched as she tilted her head at you, eyes flashing a beautiful red, but then it dimmed, and she frowned.
“Y/N?”
You pulled your eyes from her at Steve’s call for you, and he raised his eyebrows when you met his gaze, “Are you okay?”
You nodded slowly, “Yes. Why am I here?”
As Steve explained the purpose of your travels, Wanda had leaned over to whisper in Pietro’s ear, “I can’t read him.”
Pietro frowned, looking over at you talking with Steve, “Why?”
Wanda shrugged; eyes locked onto you. You were strange, but she wasn’t scared of you. Neither you of her, that much was evident when you caught her gaze as Steve, Bruce, and Tony led you down to the lab.
Bruce had sat you down in a chair and had something scan you, his eyes widening slightly. He ran the scanner over your chest and marvelled at the screen.
“It’s in there.”, he chuckled, looking over to Tony.
Tony smirked, patting you on the back which earned him a glare, “Sorry. It’s just… I’ve never seen anything like this. How’d it even get in there?”
Steve shook his head at this, deciding it best to not have you relive that again so soon, and walked over to you, “Remember, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. It’s completely your choice what you do.”
You looked up at Steve, then back down at your chest, “I’ve only ever used my abilities to hurt people. I have so much regret, but I’m not that person anymore. I want to help fix what I broke.”
“What hydra broke.”, Steve reminded.
You nodded, looking between the three men, “What do I have to do?”
//
The Quinjet
The team gather around the jet as Steve beckons them over, Thor had joined them too and everybody made sure to keep you two apart, at least for now.
Steve’s eyes raked over the team as he began his usual motivational speech, it meant a lot more to the team right now though, they were about to walk into their biggest fight yet and quite frankly, they needed it.
“Ultron knows we’re coming. Odds are, we’ll be riding into heavy fire, and that’s what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn’t. So our priority, is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that’s not gonna happen today. But we can do our best to protect them, and we can get the job done. We find out what Ultron’s been building, we find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us.”
Steve pauses, looking down as he thinks of his next words carefully, “Ultron thinks we’re monsters, that we’re what’s wrong with the world. This isn’t just about beating him. It’s about whether he’s right.”
//
Sokovia
Once they landed, Pietro had headed straight for the police department and told them to clear the city, Wanda had gone to the centre of town, her red wisps of magic spreading through to the people in their homes like running water, sending them into autopilot and urging them to leave immediately.
Thor went to find Ultron’s ‘lair’, smashing through the walls with his hammer and observing all of the tech Ultron had been working on, Bruce had followed him in with the hope of finding Natasha and getting her somewhere safe. Clint took watch of the city from higher ground, making sure no bots were to get in the others’ way.
“Natasha!”
Natasha had looked up in surprise at Bruce’s voice, standing up to call back to him.
“Bruce? I’m here!”
Bruce skidded to a stop as he saw her, putting his hand on the bar of her cell and sighing with relief, “You alright?”
She nodded and he continued, “The team’s in the city. It’s about to light up.”
“I don’t suppose you found a key lying around somewhere.”, she smirks.
He steps back, pulling a gun from behind his back, “Yeah. I did.”
Natasha hides behind the wall as he shoots the lock, moving to push the gate open when it falls to the floor, “So what’s our play?”
Bruce shrugs, “I’m here to get you to safety.”
Natasha’s brows furrow in confusion, “Job’s not finished.”
Bruce sighs, looking down, “We could help with the evacuation but… I can’t be in a fight near civilians. And you’ve done plenty, our fight is over.”
Natasha looks away, walking away from Bruce, “So what? We just disappear when our team needs us?”
“It’s the best option we have.”, Bruce reasons, walking over to her. “Don’t you get tired of fighting all the time? Is it so bad to want a moment away from it all?”
“That’s not my life, Bruce.”
“It can be.”
Natasha goes quiet for a moment, watching Bruce carefully before shaking her head, “I’m sorry.”
Before Bruce can react, she’s pushing him down the large drop behind him, watching as, after a few seconds, he comes flying back up as the Hulk.
On the other side of the city, Steve guides people to where they need to go, ushering them to move quickly as Tony flies by overhead.
“Your man’s in the church, boss. I think he’s waiting for you.”, Tony’s new AI, FRIDAY, explains.
Tony lands heavily in the middle of the church, looking around for the robot when a deep voice emerges from the silence.
“Come to confess your sins?”
“I don’t know, how much time you got?”
“More than you.”
Tony’s quick to turn at the metallic footsteps behind him, tilting his head in confusion at the advanced stature Ultron has taken on, “Uh… have you been juicing? Little vibranium cocktail? You’re looking… I don’t wanna say ‘puffy’”
“You’re stalling to protect the people.”, Ultron interrupts.
Tony nods, sighing, “Well, that is the mission. Did you forget?”
Ultron hums, beginning to pace around Tony, “I’ve moved beyond your mission. I’m free.”
The ground rumbles around the two, a metal device shooting up from the ground and latching itself to the foundation. Tony watches it in hesitation as Ultron taunts him.
“What? Did you think you were the only one stalling?”
“There’s the rest of the vibranium. Function, unclear.”, FRIDAY states.
“This is how you end, Tony. This is peace in my time.”
Ultron’s bots start to erupt from the ground all across the city, climbing up walls and attacking civilians as they scream in terror.
They fly across the skies, shooting lasers and rockets at the city below; causing much more destruction than the team had anticipated.
The team are quick to start fending off the bots, attacking and destroying them before they can harm anyone. Wanda was huddled with a group of civilians, creating a force field with her magic when the bots started shooting. The people behind her watched on in fear at her sudden surge of magic, running away when they saw the bots nearing and Wanda had told them to run.
You sat back on the Quinjet, waiting until somebody called for you, but you could see the damage already being done and you were starting to second guess the extremity of this threat.
You decided you couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, leaving and making your way to where Ultron stood at the church.
You swung through the streets, running mostly, because the buildings weren’t tall enough, but when you reached the church; Tony had already left to fight the bots and Ultron turned to face you.
“You. They really did take everything from me.”
“I wasn’t yours to begin with.”
Ultron was taken back by the calmness of your voice, circling you as he observed you, “No, maybe not. But that stone? It was destined to be mine. Guess I’ll just have to take it back.”
You dodged out of the way as he lunged at you, swinging up onto the ceiling, ripping a chunk of the foundation off and launching it at him. He shielded himself from it with his arms, looking back up at you in disgust.
“What are you?”
You didn’t respond, jumping down and landing on his shoulders to rip the wires from his neck. You had only gotten a few out before he tossed you off of him, clutching his neck, “You Avengers are hell bent on ruining my plans. You never learn.”
He stormed over to you, stomping his foot on the ground and narrowly missing you as you rolled to the side, webbing his legs as you swung around him. He looked down at your webs attached to him in utter confusion, too stunned to notice the kick you sent, which had him flying back into the church wall.
He recovers, standing and kicking you back, your body landing many feet away from him, “You take away my world, I take away yours.”
Ultron places his hand on the metal device in the centre of the room, twisting it to start up the jets below the city, the ground cracking all across town and isolating a piece of Sokovia from the rest.
//
Pietro sped through the robots, running straight through them at a speed they couldn’t avoid, taking them out one by one as he moved around the area.
He panted as watched the floor crumble beneath him, shuffling out of the way of the split in the ground.
Tony blasted the robots around him with his repulsors, calling out to the AI, “FRIDAY, how’s the kid?”
“He is currently located at the centre of the city, sir.”
Tony's brows pulled together, perplexed, “What do you mean? I thought he was in the jet?”
“Not anymore, sir.”
Tony groans, praying that you don’t get yourself killed because if you do, Steve kills him.
//
Thor looked up at the jets above him, watching as they came to life, lodged into the rock beneath the city. He covers his head as the structure around him starts to collapse, the ground on surface level lifting into the air slowly.
The entire city loses its balance as the ground starts to lift, the team watching with dread as people fall to their deaths and buildings collapse, leaving the city in ruins.
“FRIDAY…”, Tony mutters.
“Sokovia is going for a ride…”
Ultron’s voice echoes across the city as it plays through the bots, his body floating high up in the air as he watches the city crumble, “Do you see… the beauty of it? The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers; you are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from my computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing that will be living in this world, will be metal.”
Sokovia rises above the ground, rubble and debris falling harshly to the waters below it. The people of Sokovia, including Pietro and Wanda, look on as their home is destroyed before them, friends dead, family dead.
The screams of the civilians can be heard everywhere you go, children running and searching for their parents, families digging up their loved ones from the rubble.
Annihilation.
Wanda had foreseen it. So had you. She just never imagined it would happen like this. She never imagined it would happen at all.
The rest of the team were at a standstill, they didn’t know what to do. Things had gotten out of hand far too quickly and they could have never anticipated this. It didn’t matter what they did, so many lives had already been lost, the guilt was unbearable.
Hulk had carried Natasha out from underneath the city and they were only now seeing the destruction, but amidst it all, they still had a job to do; they all did. So, they resumed taking out the bots, getting the people still alive to safety.
Tony had flown away from the city to get a look at the massive rock being lifted into the air, waiting as FRIDAY scanned the chunk of earth and reported back to him.
“The vibranium core has a magnetic field. That’s what’s keeping the rock together.”
“If it drops?”
It was the last thing he wanted but Ultron’s plan was becoming glaringly obvious, so he had to consider the worse.
“Right now, the impact will kill thousands. Once it gets high enough? Global extinction.”
Tony took off back towards the city to clear out the remaining buildings and see if there were any civilians who needed immediate help. FRIDAY had notified that there was a surge of bots heading towards the bridge, so Tony announced it.
“Cap, you got incoming.”
Steve had already been knocked down by the bots, groaning as he slammed against the roof of a car, “The incoming already came. Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job. Tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed… walk it off.”
//
You had lost sight of Ultron a while ago, but you had been making your way round, killing every bot in your sight. Your blade helped you get through more at a time, protecting more people, but those same people had shrunken back in fear when you neared, and it lowered your spirits tremendously.
They still saw you as the monster.
Explosions went off around you and you tried your best to shield those around you, climbing up onto a building and wrapping your webs around a fallen building, holding it up so that the people could escape before it hit them. You wrapped the webs tight around your wrists, pulling the building up and off of civilians before dropping it when the area was clear.
Nearby, you had heard the screams of a child and sought to find them, chucking pieces of concrete and metal out of your way trying to get to them.
Amidst the smoke, you could see the child, huddled in a corner with tears running steadily down his face.
You approached slowly as to not scare him, “It’s okay.”
You hadn’t known what to say, this was wildly unfamiliar to you, so you just held your hand out to him, lifting him to his feet and carefully into your arms. You treaded gently, the structure of the building was already creaking with the instability. The little boy in your arms looked up at you with teary eyes, sniffling quietly as you walked. Tilting your head down to face him, something strange twisted inside your heart when you saw the way he was looking at you.
You couldn’t understand what he was mumbling to you, but from his tone; it sounded like a thank you. You had never seen such raw purity, something so fragile with the ability to not break despite the world they lived in. You wanted to protect it with everything you had. You wanted to do what no one ever did for you.
The boy’s head turned at the light gleaming through a hole in the wall, gripping you tighter as you stepped through it. His head swivelled in every direction looking for, what you assumed was, his mother; and when he was caught sight of her, he wriggled in your arms and ran over to her once you’d let him go.
His mother dropped to her knees and hugged him with such intensity it made your chest hurt. She lifted her head to look at you and you could feel the gratitude radiating off her.
As you turned, swinging through the streets, you caught sight of Cap severely outnumbered and struggling to keep up with the hoard of bots surrounding him. You swung over, drawing your blade and slicing the heads of the bots attacking him.
He panted as he stood up straight, frowning at you, “You’re supposed to be on the jet.”
“You’re supposed to be fighting.”, you replied, grabbing the neck of a bot coming up behind you and squeezing until it snapped off. Another one had come up beside Steve and you reached forward, grabbing its jaw and tearing its mouth open until it dropped to the floor.
Steve watched with a grimace before returning back to the fight, “We’re talking about this later.”
//
Hulk crashed down onto the city, ripping the bots apart and chucking debris from the blocked streets as police officers screamed at people to run and evacuate. Nearby, Wanda held down the head of a young woman as they ran through the streets, using her magic to send an incoming bot flying into a wall.
Robots circled her, and Clint watched as they multiplied endlessly, ushering Wanda into one of the buildings that hadn’t been levelled, “Go! Go!”
Wanda panicked as she leant against the wall inside, shaking her head rapidly, “How could I let this happen?”
Clint looked over her to check if she was hurt, reaching a hand out to place on her shoulder, “Hey, hey, you okay?”
“This is all our fault.”, she whimpered.
“Hey, look at me. It’s your fault, its everyone’s fault. Who cares?”, Wanda watched him with teary eyes, her breathing heavy as she tried to focus on his words, “Are you up for this? Are you?”
Wanda didn’t know, it was all too much for her.
“Look, I just need to know because the city is flying. Okay? The city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense, but I’m going back out there because it’s my job.”
Wanda flinches as bullets fly through the wall beside her, Clint looking through one of the holes to shoot an arrow at the robots outside. She slows her breath as he looks back to her, her eyes wide and full of fear.
“Okay? And I can’t do my job and babysit. It doesn’t matter what you did or what you were. If you go out there, you fight and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you’re good. I’ll send your brother to come find you, but if you step out that door… you are an Avenger.”
Clint groans as he stands, nodding to Wanda, “All right, good chat.” He heads for the door, stepping out and shooting at the bots around him like he hadn’t left the fight at all.
Wanda looks down at her hands, a million thoughts running through her head as she considers her options. She had already done so much wrong and while she couldn’t undo that, she could make up for it. She wanted to be more than someone’s pawn, she wanted to be better, and this was her chance. So, getting to her feet, she dusted herself off, took a deep breath, and flung the doors open with her magic, scarlet tendrils wrapping around the bots in her vicinity and decimating them.
//
Thor had managed to escape from under the city, swinging his hammer around as he dismembered the robots and landed in front of Steve, smashing his hammer against his shield, and creating a wave of air that crushed all the robots around them to bits. He then lifted into the air and threw Mjolnir at a propane truck which exploded, disintegrating the robots nearby.
Thor wasn’t quick enough to notice Ultron heading straight for him, them both being launched into the air as Ultron flew him away, “Thor. You were bothering me.”. Ultron tosses Thor into the church below them, the bricks collapsing on top of him as he grunts in pain. Ultron flies down to Thor and continues punching him over and over, Thor dropping his hammer with the collisions.
//
“The anti-gravs are rigged to flip. Touch them, they’ll go full reverse thrust. The city’s not coming down slow.”, FRIDAY explains.
Tony closes his eyes in thought, “Spire is vibranium. If I get Thor to hit it…”
“It will crack. That’s not enough, the impact would still be devastating.”
“Maybe if we can cap the other end. Keep the atomic action doubling back.”
“That could vaporize the city… and everyone on it.”
Steve coughs through the smoke as he leads people to shelter, calling out, “The next wave is gonna hit any minute. What do you got Stark?”
“Nothing great.”, he sighs, “Maybe a way to blow up the city. Stop it from impacting if you guys can get it clear.”
Steve is quick to interject, “I asked for a solution, not an escape plan.”
“Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We’re gonna have to make a choice.”
Steve catches up to Natasha, looking around at the amount of people still on the rock and realising the severity of the choice they’re about to make.
“Cap, these people aren’t going anywhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock…”
“Not till everyone’s safe.”, he demands, trying to think up a solution.”
Natasha watches Steve with furrowed brows, “Everybody up here versus everybody down there? There’s no math there.”
“I’m not leaving this rock with one civilian on it.”
“I didn’t say we should leave.”, she mutters.
Steve turns to Natasha at this, his gaze softening at her implication.
“There’s worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?”
They both look out at the sky they’re soaring through; it was a nice view but the context behind it saddened Steve greatly. He was more than willing to go down with the rock and apparently, so was Natasha, he just wished it didn’t have to end that way. When the Quinjet took off earlier that day, he could have never expected this, not at all.
“Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It’s about to get better.”
Steve and Natasha turn to each other in confusion at Fury’s voice sounding through their earpieces, both looking straight ahead at the Heli carrier lifting into view. Natasha’s jaw slacks slightly and her eyes widen at the view, Steve lowering his head and chuckling in disbelief.
“Nice, right? Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She’s dusty but… she’ll do.”
Steve smirks at Fury’s words, “Fury, you son of a bitch.”
“Ooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
Maria types away at her computer, pressing her fingers to her ear, “Altitude is 18,000 and climbing. Life boats clear to deploy in three, two…take them out.”
Pietro had managed to find Natasha and Steve, skidding to a stop before them and watching as numerous ‘lifeboats’ fly towards the city, landing at the edges so that people can board, “So this is shield?”
Steve turns to him with a proud smile, nodding, “This is what shield’s supposed to be.”
“This is not so bad.”
War machine soars through the air, taking out the bots heading for the lifeboats, Tony joining him in the sky to take them out faster. The team scatter to help the civilians onto the life boats, protecting the area and locating any stragglers.
Tony huffs as he drifts side to side, dodging the bots tossing themselves at him, “I got it. Create a heat seal. I could… I could supercharge the spire from below.”
“Running numbers.”, FRIDAY states, “A heat seal could work with enough power.”
Tony groans as a bot crashes into one of the lifeboats, tipping it slightly, and propels up to push it back to balance, “Thor! I’ve got a plan.”
“We’re out of time! They’re coming for the core.”
“Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier.”, Tony orders.
“On it.”
“Avengers, time to work for a living.”
//
Ultron grabs Thor by his neck, tilting his head at his resilience, “You think you’re saving anyone? I turn this key and drop this rock a little early, and it’s still billions dead.” Ultron raises his fist into the air, gripping Thor’s throat tighter, “Even you can’t stop that.”
Thor splutters as he tries to get any air into his lungs, “I am Thor, Son of Odin, and as long as there is life in my breast… I am running out of things to say! Are you ready?”
Ultron frowns as Thor leans his head over to look behind him, turning around in time to see you swinging towards him, kicking him through the wall and several miles away from you. Thor pants as he stands, dusting himself off and retrieving his hammer.
“You’re not so bad after all.”
You turn to him wordlessly, and he looks away, scratching his head, “I figured you’d hold some animosity towards me. I feel it necessary that I apologise for my actions. You see, I thought you- “
“It’s fine.”
Thor nods quickly, rolling his shoulders as you swing away, “Right then. I’m glad that’s sorted.”
The rest of the team arrive to the core one by one, fending off the new surge of bots. Steve rolls into the church, smashing his shield into the bots heads and moving to fight beside Thor. Pietro zips over to Wanda as she arrives, holding her arm gently.
“You okay?”
She answers with a small nod, both returning to the fight as Natasha makes her way over.
“What’s the drill?”
Tony gestures to the core, the team following his gaze, “This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose.”
The attention is taken away from Tony when Ultron lowers himself to the ground in front of the church, Thor stepping forward with a smug grin, “Is that the best you can do?”
Ultron raises his hand, summoning hundreds of more bots towards the group, the team slumping their shoulders as they watch the influx head towards them. Thor pipes down, his smile dropping instantly, and Cap turns to him with a sigh, “You had to ask.”
“This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?”
Tony expels a small breath at Ultron’s make-shift speech, turning to Steve, “Well, like the old man said… together.”
Ultron groans in disgust, the words dying in his throat as you come crashing into him, pinning him to the ground and pushing your blade right through his metal torso. The team are shocked by your sudden appearance, turning to each other with surprised glances. There isn’t time to ask questions though, as the herd of robots sprint over to them, Ultron grabbing you by the neck and lifting you into the air.
You struggle against his grip, kicking your foot at his leg and sending him off balance. He releases you, and when you land on the floor, it cracks all around you from the impact. He tilts his head at your lack of injury, nose diving to punch you into the floor but you catch his wrist and pull it back, sending him hurling into a building.
Over at the church, Steve kicks into the air, flipping over the bots flying his way and lodging his shield into them; Thor uses his lighting to strike them down, swinging his hammer every which way while Natasha shoots at the bots nearby.
Hulk smashes them into the ground, tearing them apart and Tony flies over him, shooting them out of the sky. Wanda wraps her magic around the metal bots, tearing them apart wire by wire while her brother zips around her, punching them with the full force of his speed as Clint shoots arrows through the ones he doesn’t quite reach.
Tony diverts his course outside, blasting his chestplate’s laser at Ultron while Thor strikes him with his thunder. The combined strength of both melts Ultron’s structure and you’re quick to slice your blade around every inch of him, weakening him even further.
One you three relent, Ultron wobbles, off-balance, “You know, with the benefit of hindsight..”
His words are interrupted as Hulk punches him off into the distance, growling at the Ultron bots that try to run from him. The rest of the team turn to Steve as he begins talking, gathering around him.
“We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I’ll sweep for stragglers. I’ll be right behind you.”
Clint frowns, “What about the core?”
“I’ll protect it. It’s my job.”, they all turn to Wanda at her words, Clint throwing her a proud glance before running off with Natasha.
Wanda turns to her brother as he speeds back into the church, “Get the people on the boats.”
He shakes his head resolutely, “I’m not going to leave you here.”
“I can handle these. Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before.”
Pietro grunts as he follows her orders, moving to walk away.
“You understand?”
He smirks, turning back to her with a grin, “You know, I’m twelve minutes older than you.”
Wanda laughs, waving him off, “Go.”
//
“Boss, power levels are way below- “
“Reroute everything. We get one shot at this.
Tony soars underneath the flying rock, singeing a whole through the bottom pulling himself inside of it, “Thor, I need you back at the church.”
“Is this the last of them?”, Thor grunts, helping people onto the lifeboats.
Cap jogs over to him, looking around to confirm, “Yeah. The rest are on the Heli carrier.”
“You know, this works, we maybe don’t walk away.” Stark confesses, voice quiet and solemn.
“Maybe not.”
//
As Clint helps an injured woman onto a lifeboat, she grasps his arm and pleads for him to find her child son. He looks out into the area around him, finding the child huddled behind a rock; and grunts as he runs over to him.
Ultron had somehow managed to get a hold of the Quinjet and was flying straight towards where the lifeboat was about to leave, humming that same tune to himself, “I got no strings, so I have fun. I’m not tied up to anyone.”
Ultron begins firing at the people down below, Clint looking up at the approaching fire before quickly bending down to cover the child’s body with his own. Pietro catches sight of Clint in the line of fire, speeding over to him and pushing a flipped car in front of the two; shielding them from the bullets.
There’s a beat of silence where Clint lifts his head, watching as Pietro sways uneasily before him, bullet holes littering his body; crimson blood leaking through his shirt as he musters up a weak smirk.
“You didn’t see that coming?”
He drops to the ashy floor with a thud, the light draining from his eyes and Clint can only watch in shock, still clutching the kid to his chest.
Back in the church, Wanda’s heart stops immediately. She can feel as the last breaths of life leave her brother, a part of her leaving with it. Her blood runs cold, so cold she feels as if she’s freezing up on the spot.
Her legs buckle from underneath her and she can feel the sobs clawing at her throat, a guttural scream leaving her lips as she drops to her knees. Her body shakes with her cries and her magic dispels from her in a collateral wave, killing every robot that was remotely anywhere near her.
She thinks she can feel her heart slowly cracking inside her, the pain burning through her chest like gasoline on a fire.
She felt it all. She could feel too much.
The air wasn’t getting to her lungs quick enough and it felt like she was drowning, sucking in gulps of water as she slowly sunk into nothingness. She couldn’t think of anything other than the part of her she was slowly losing. The last thing she had left was leaving her and she couldn’t stop it.
She felt it all. She could feel too much. She never wanted to feel again.
//
Steve rushed over to Pietro, his shoulders slumping with the weight of his guilt. He shook his head rapidly, turning away from the boy on the ground. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They weren’t supposed to lose anyone. He felt sick to his stomach and he could only imagine how Wanda was feeling.
He carefully bent down to pick Pietro’s lifeless body up into his arms, face full of sorrow as he brought him to the lifeboat and placed him gently on the ground. He looked over to Clint as he returned the little boy to his mother and slumped into a seat beside where Pietro lay on the ground. He knew Clint would take the brunt of the guilt, Pietro died saving him, that isn’t something you take lightly.
Hulk had leapt off the Heli carrier and into the air, latching on to the Quinjet Ultron was attempting to fly away; and yanking him out of it. Ultron went barrelling down to the ground, crashing into one of the totalled trams, where Wanda soon found him.
She had all but stumbled to him, red tendrils wrapping around her fingers as she knelt down beside him. Her cheeks were black with her running mascara, eyes puffy and nose red. She was trembling with visible rage and her chest heaved with her laboured breaths.
Ultron’s voice was clipped and weak as he spoke, “Wanda…if you stay here, you’ll die.”
“I just did. Do you know how it felt?”, Wanda raises her hand, her magic prying open Ultron’s chest, his metal heart tearing from it as he grunts in pain. She watches it land in her hand, turning back to Ultron, “It felt like that.”, she whispers painfully.
//
An Ultron bot shakes to life suddenly, crawling towards the core in the centre of the church, twisting it weakly before slumping back down into death.
Steve quickly jumps onto one of the lifeboats as the city starts to drop, his heart catching in his throat as he watched the city plummet towards the ground.
Wanda was still on it.
So were you.
Tony boosts his jets, trying to push the falling rock up but it was too heavy; the added jets on top of the rock that were pushing it downwards didn’t help either. He held onto either side of the hole he had made, shooting the laser from his chest and watching it envelop the machinery inside the rock.
“Thor, on my mark.”
Thor summoned streaks of lightning to his hammer, waiting for Tony’s signal.
You were far from the church, watching as the rock went tumbling towards earth. You hadn’t gotten on any of the lifeboats. You didn’t deserve a second chance, and you were ready. You’d go down with the city and you’d be happy with the choice you made.
You had closed you’re your eyes, waiting for the collision, but as you waited; you realised you could still feel that thrum inside you. You knew what it meant. Wanda was still here somewhere.
All you had ever wanted was reprieve from the life you had lived. Freedom. She didn’t deserve the same fate; she didn’t deserve to die. You understood why she would want to; you had seen her brother die while you were fighting the last of the bots. She deserved more than to die in a country that would be forgotten, a ghost story.
You leapt from your place on the edge of the rock, swinging through the streets in search of her. It was hard because the ground was going in a completely different direction to you, but you pushed forward. You followed the thrumming and knew you’d reached her when it pulsed through you. You pulled yourself to the tram with your web, sticking your feet to it as you ripped the top of it open.
You saw her there, she looked… peaceful. Accepting. You hated to take that away from her, but she deserved more than this. You climbed down, picking her up into your arms and swinging out of the tram. She had gripped onto you immediately and you’d just held her closer. You catapulted the both of you up into the air and when Thor struck the core; the energy of it pushed you farther into the sky, close enough to a lifeboat that you could shoot a web at it and swing yourself inside.
You were glad to see that it was one of the emptier ones, you didn’t want the whole boat staring at the weeping girl in your arms. You walked over to a seat, placing Wanda on her feet and when she lost her balance, you lowered her to the floor and just sat beside her.
You didn’t say anything. You didn’t have the first idea what you’d say.
She buried her face into her hands, her tears slipping through the cracks in her fingers. You could feel the grief emanating off her like it was your own. You heaved a heavy sigh, leaning your head against the wall; your eyes watching her carefully. You wouldn’t take your eyes off of her until you knew she was okay. A part of you thinks she knew.
Watching it from the living room couch or hearing the soft patter of water hitting your window while you were curled up under soft linen sheets was much more desirable than this.
The rain was cold; soaking your clothes in a matter of seconds as you rushed to slip under the shelter of a nearby bus stop. You groaned, tugging your wet shirt away from your skin; it was unbearably uncomfortable, and you just wanted to get home.
You had missed the last bus of the evening and were forced to walk home, albeit unwillingly. Droplets of water dripped down onto your phone screen as you checked again to see if there were any miracle buses on their way to save you. To no avail.
You pushed your phone into the back pocket of your pants, leaning heavily against the bus stop glass with a sigh. You considered waiting until the rain eased up; you’d undoubtedly get a cold in the process, but you had nowhere to be tomorrow. You’d be rid of it by the end of the weekend.
A flash of lightning jolted you from your thoughts; striking just long enough to illuminate the pathway on the other side of the road. There you saw what appeared to be the silhouette of a woman, and as you squinted your eyes; blinking the water off of your eyelashes, you could see her much clearer.
You couldn’t identify any specific features, but you noticed her trembling hands as she clutched a phone to her ear; nodding quickly to whatever was being said to her. You wondered why she was out so late. It had gone 1 am a while ago and by the state of her clothes, she had obviously been standing in the rain for some time.
Your heart clenched when she lowered the phone, winding her arms around her shivering body with a dejected look on her face.
You tapped your umbrella against your leg in thought.
Standing, you looked left, then right before crossing the road and slowly approaching her. You pushed the umbrella open, holding it carefully over her head.
She turned to you, and you were met with beautiful green eyes and a soft frown. Her silent question didn’t unnoticed by you and you shrugged.
“It’s raining.”
She had stared at you for a moment before a small smile pulled at her lips and she reached up to wipe the water from her face, “Yeah. It is.”
She looked away and you took the time to really take her in. Her dark, brunette hair stuck to her forehead from the rain and her mascara smudged messily around her eyes. You noticed the gentle contour of her cheeks trailing down to the sharp edge of her jaw which clenched each time her teeth chattered.
She was breathtaking. Unlike anything you’d seen before.
“Are you waiting for somebody?”
Your question was gentle, unassuming. She nodded in the affirmative; pausing to scratch just above her brow as she reconsidered her answer, “Well… I was. Not anymore though.”
You nodded slowly, trying to hold your freezing hand steady above her head as to not jolt the umbrella. You couldn’t offer her any reprieve from the storm, you were in a similar situation to her regarding the lack of a vehicle.
You rolled back and forth on your feet as you thought of what to say. You couldn’t exactly leave her here, there were plenty of weird people out there and you didn’t want her getting hurt.
On the other hand, you were just as much a stranger as the next person, and she didn’t know if she could trust you.
“We could… walk together? If that’s okay.”
She tilted her head at you, one of her brows arched in the perfect display of scepticism and you were quick to reassure her.
“It’s just- the rain is pretty heavy, and you can’t really see anything either, I mean… if someone were to… I don’t know what they’d do but- “
Her quiet laugh made you pause your rambling to look over at her. She had an easy smile on her lips and her eyes twinkled in amusement as she watched you. You rubbed the back of your neck, embarrassed, and she only laughed harder.
“I’m sorry, you just- “
“No no, it’s fine. I’m hilarious, I get it.” There wasn’t any malice in your voice and your words came out amidst a smile tugging at the corner of your lips. You liked her laugh; and if you were what she found so amusing, you didn’t mind.
She had softly tugged the umbrella out of your hands before you could stop her, walking backwards with a cheeky grin resting on her lips. You huffed at her antics, jogging to catch up with her and bump her shoulder playfully.
“So, what’s your play? You walk me home, drag me inside and kill me in the dead of night? Doesn’t seem too original.”
You raised your brows in shock at her words, scoffing when she giggled and covered her face with her free hand. She was so pretty it made your heart ache. You never wanted to stop making her laugh after this moment.
“Um, no. That wasn’t my plan at all.”, you responded, shaking your head at her unbelieving hum.
“But you do have a plan though?” She bit her lip with a smile as she waited for your reaction, squealing when you yanked the umbrella from her hands and placed it over your own head.
“You’re a bully. Here I am, trying to do something nice and this is how you repay me.” You hold the umbrella higher when she tries to grab it, laughing as she rises to her tippy toes trying to get it. Once she realises she’s not getting it back. She drops down flat on her feet and leans fully into you so that she’s sheltered from the rain too.
You tense at the contact, clearing your throat quietly as the two of you walk. When you feel her adjusting, you peer down at her; watching as she hesitantly slips her hand around your bicep, leaning her head against it.
A private smile makes its way onto your face, and it stays there until you reach her house, where she untangles herself from you; turning to face you directly. The rain had stopped a few minutes before her block, the umbrella discarded, but she had kept a hold of you.
“This is me…”, she mutters, gesturing to her apartment with a shy smile on her face.
You nod, stuffing your hands into your pockets, “Okay. You should probably make a hot drink or something. I can already feel a cold coming.”
She chuckles, looking down at her clasped hands, “I will. Thank you.”
You knew she was thanking you for more than your advice and it warmed your body up tremendously. You didn’t want this to end. You don’t think she does either when she reaches into her purse, taking out her phone and handing it to you.
You didn’t have to ask what she wanted. You typed your number into her phone, placing a small umbrella emoji beside your name and handing it back. She looked at it for a second before giggling and calling it quickly so that you had her number too.
“Call me?”
You nodded dumbly at her question, your cheeks heating up when she smirked at you, watching her climb the steps to her apartment. She gave you a small wave before stepping inside and you couldn’t wait to see her again.
Summary: The journey of a soldier made anew, riddled with the guilt of his past and on a steady path to redemption.
Warnings: Violence, injury, mild language, trauma, more warnings as the series progresses.
Word count: 7.1k
a/n: Thank you all for the support on the previous chapters, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far :) Don't be afraid to request anything you'd like to see in the story or any one shot ideas you have.
//
Chapter eleven
The ride back from the African coast was charged with something uncomfortable, foreign, and everybody was stuck in their own heads, recalling the events that had happened only a few hours prior.
Natasha had narrowly missed her mind being warped by the female twin but seeing her team so affected had her mind reeling as well. Clint was the only one fit enough to pilot the Quinjet and he had called Maria for advice on what to do for his team.
“The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There’s been no official call for Banner’s arrest but… it’s in the air.”
Bruce wrapped his blanket closer to his body at Maria’s words, squeezing his eyes shut as if it’d all go away if he did. Steve sat with his back against the wall, his normally optimistic disposition severely dampened, the only reassurance being Natasha’s comforting presence beside him.
As for Thor, he paced around the jet, wringing his hands together in thought, his eyebrows scrunched together, and Tony sat beside Clint, unusually silent, wondering what he could have done differently.
“Stark relief foundation?”, Tony questioned.
“Already on the scene. How’s the team?”
Tony looks around the jet before sighing deeply, “Everyone’s…we took a hit; we’ll shake it off.”
“Well, for now I’d stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here.”
Tony turns to face Maria’s face on the jet’s screen, “So run and hide?”
Maria shrugs, her face full of sympathy, “Until we can find Ultron I… don’t have much else to offer.
“Neither do we.” Tony ends the call, leaning back in his seat with a groan, rubbing his temples.
Clint turns to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “If you wanna get some sleep now’s a good time cause there’s still a few hours out.”
Tony frowns, tilting his head towards him, “a few hours from… where?”
“A safehouse.”
//
Clint had flown the team out to his house out in the middle of nowhere, where his family was, and Laura and his kids gladly welcomed them, offering them a place to stay of they wanted it.
Thor had left not long after, claiming that he needed answers to what he saw in Wanda’s induced ‘dream’, and Cap had taken some time away from the group to think. To think about all he’d had seen in his own ‘dream’ and to think about what his next move was. He reckoned he’d come see you, not only to check up on you but to get away from everything, maybe a new setting would help him navigate his way through.
Later into the day, once everyone had settled, Tony had gone outside to help Steve chop some wood for Laura and to chat.
“Thor didn’t say where he was going for answers?”
Steve grunted as he chopped a slab of wood in half, kicking it to the side and grabbing another, “No. He didn’t seem too keen on telling me either.”
“Just give him time, we don’t know what the Maximoff showed him.” Tony comforted, grabbing his own piece of wood, and placing it on the stump in the ground.
“’Earth’s mightiest heroes’, pulled us apart like cotton candy.”
“You know Ultron’s trying to tear us apart, right?”
Steve sighed, sitting down on the stump of wood, “Yeah, I figured that much.”
Tony copied his actions, looking out into the fields of grass, “We can’t let him. He might have read our files but that isn’t us, not really. We’re a team, Rogers, and just like you said; whatever happens, we’ll do it together.”
Steve felt as if he was being exposed to a different side to Tony, a side empowered by fierce determination and genuine regard for those around him. Steve didn’t think Tony had the ability to be more propitious than him but he’s beginning to believe otherwise.
Steve was moved by Tony’s unwavering faith in his team and had given the other man a resolute nod, a newly enforced sense of confidence stirring within him, “Together.”
//
Royal Holloway, University of London
Thor had decided his best chance at getting any answers resided in his kind-of friend, Erik Selvig. Thor needed help finding a long-forgotten relic in history, his ticket to understanding the nature of his dream and what it had been trying to tell him.
He was sure that if he sent his subconscious back to that place in his mind, he could get something out of Heimdall, a clue he had missed; a play on words that he had failed to notice. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking out for, but he wouldn’t stop until he found it, it all seemed too great a risk to push to the back of his mind.
“The water of sight.” Erik marvelled as he gazed into the glistening pool of water before him, he had read about it, but he’d never thought it was actually real. His knowledge, however small, seemed sufficient grounds to warn Thor of its danger.
“The men who enter that water, the legends… don’t end well.”, he warned, Thor brushing past him to kneel before the water.
“Every realm has a reflection, if the water spirits accept me, I can return to my dream and find what I missed.
Erik understood that his efforts were most likely futile, and his assumption was proved correct when Thor stripped in front of him and stepped into the water. He had submerged his head, rising to the surface with deep expulsions of air, his eyes drifting backwards until they were nearly fully white.
The familiar environment from his dream returned in full force and Thor didn’t waste any time searching for anything out of the ordinary but as he came to, he was struck with that same flash of lighting from before. This time was different though, this time it was almost as if a third eye had opened to him and suddenly Ultron’s intentions were terrifyingly clear. Annihilation.
Loki’s sceptre seemed to spin around his mind, the blue hue protecting whatever was inside, cracking to reveal a yellow stone but what confused him the most, was the steady beat of a pulse. It rang through his ears painfully loud, and he was startled back to reality as he watched the stone plunge grotesquely through what appeared to be your chest.
Your face was blurred and fuzzy, but he recognised it well enough. He shot up out of the water with a heaving chest, scrambling out of it and ignoring Erik’s concerned calls for him, he needed to get back to Steve.
//
The team were taken by surprise at Fury’s unannounced arrival, desperate to get any advice they could out of him. He didn’t have much to offer besides what they already knew. They had all gathered around the kitchen to share their ideas but so far all Fury had done is remind them of the hopeless situation they were stuck in.
“Ultron took you guys out of play to by himself time. My contacts all say he’s building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don’t think it’s just one thing. My best bet is that he’s building an army.”
“What about Ultron himself?”
Fury brushed Steve’s question off, it obviously wasn’t his main concern, “Oh, he’s easy to track, he’s everywhere. The guy is multiplying faster than a catholic rabbit. It still doesn’t help us get an idea on any of his plans though.”
Somewhere off to the side of the kitchen, Tony expelled his frustration by throwing darts rather harshly at a dart board, “Is he still going after launch codes?”
“Yes he is, but he’s not making any headway.” Fury confesses, grabbing a knife from the block and cutting up some fruits for the kids. He figured if he was going to be in Laura’s house, he might as well make himself useful to her. “He’s fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed.”
“By whom?”, Tony’s question is just barely out of his mouth before he’s flinching back, Clint having thrown a dart at the board right beside his head. He sends Clint an unamused glance and receives a sly grin and a shrug in response.
“Parties unknown.”
“Do we have an ally?”
Fury shakes his head at Natasha’s question, “Ultron has an enemy, that is not the same thing. Still, I’d pay folding money to know who it is.”
Natasha sighs, a tired smirk pulling at her lips, “Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you’d have more than that.”
“I do. I have you.”, Fury looks around at the team, stepping from behind the kitchen counter and towards the cluttered table Natasha sits at. “Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere and ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world.”
There’s a look of solemnity on all the faces in the room, fury was right, they haven’t been dealt the best cards, but they have each other and the ever-present motive that they’re all the world’s got.
“Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission, and whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction.”, Fury had perfectly sum up what everyone had been thinking and it was a frightening reality that crashed down upon them. “All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard.”
In hopes of bringing the mood up slightly, Natasha wears a genuine smirk, titling her head in Steve’s direction, “Steve doesn’t like that kind of talk.”
Steve huffs, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, “You know what, Romanoff?”
Fury ignores the joke being shared between the two, assuming a serious expression, “So what does he want?”
“To become better, better than us.”, Steve clarifies.
Tony steps further into the room, wearing his signature smirk, “Let’s stop him before he can, then.”
This was enough to get the team up and moving, suits being put back on and goodbyes being said. Clint had taken a moment to just bask in all that was his wife, her, his family… they were all the motivation he needed to keep going back out there.
Steve had run Tony through his plan, explaining how he was taking Clint and Natasha with him to scope out Ultron while simultaneously trying to get a hold of Thor. Tony was going to Oslo to try and find who was changing those nuclear codes and he’d reassured Steve that he’d join them as quick as he could.
Steve, Clint, and Natasha had said their farewells and were only a few metres away from the house when Thor, accompanied by a crash of thunder, landed right in front of them. Steve’s relieved expression switched to one of concerns when he saw the faraway look in Thor’s eyes.
“Thor, what happened?”
“The stone, it’s…”
“It’s what? Where is it?”
“The soldier…”
Steve had barely heard Thor’s mumbled words, but he did, and his face fell just as Thor’s had done. He needed a better explanation, but for now, his original route was changing, and he’d have to tell Tony about the change in plan.
//
Wakanda
You had been talking quietly with Shuri in your quarters when Steve barged in. It took you by surprise and you were quick to step protectively in front of Shuri, which surprised both her and you. Your fists lowered when you saw who it was though, you could admit you were glad to see him but you were more confused as to why he looked so determined.
“Where is it?”
You frowned at his tone, not quite understanding his question, and growing frustrated at the way he was demanding the answer from you, “Where’s what?”
“The stone, where is it?”
You didn’t have enough time to question him again before Thor was storming into the room, pushing you back by the shoulders, “Where is it!”
This didn’t seem to be the best idea and Shuri was beside you in a second, trying to calm you down before you did anything. She was too late, however, as your eyes had glossed over and you were advancing towards Thor, kicking him backwards into the wall behind him. Steve didn’t think he could handle another fight against you, so he kept his shield on his back, keeping a cautious distance between you.
“Y/N, Thor didn’t mean any harm, he’s just confused.”
That didn’t seem to faze you as you trudged over to Thor, picking him up by his suit and tossing him across the room, what you failed to notice was his hammer barrelling towards you, the force of the hit sending you flying backwards into a wooden cabinet.
Steve looked to Shuri for help, and she thought quickly before ushering him out of the room, Thor too. You had noticed Steve moving to make an exit, but Thor was proving to be more stubborn, marching back in your direction and punching you square in the jaw.
Your anger was increasing exponentially, and Shuri feared it would erase all your arduous work, so she thought back to your most recent sessions and yelled the first thing that came to her head, hoping it would calm you down.
“Bury the hatchet, Y/N! The night’s making its rounds!”
You kicked Thor away from you, standing quickly, but you don’t move. Your eyes squeeze shut and your pupils flicker behind your eyelids. Everybody watches you with rapt attention, Shuri nodding with an encouraging smile when your eyes open to look at her.
“Bury the hatchet. It’s over now.”
Your fists unclench at your sides, and you keep your gaze locked onto Shuri as you mimic her deep breaths, your eyes slowly returning to normal and your shoulders slumping slightly.
Thor doesn’t advance, he just takes a couple labored breaths before moving to stand beside Steve. Once Shuri’s positive you’ve calmed down enough, she leads the two men out the room and lets you collapse weakly against your bed.
“What were you idiots thinking? Do you know the damage you could have done?”
Steve is quick to interject Thor, throwing Shuri a sympathetic look, “We’re sorry, we just wanted to talk.”
Shuri scoffed, pointing a fiinger at Thor, “Talk my ass, this bimbo over here tried to kill him.”
“I wasn’t exactly trying to- “
Thor shut up at Steve’s nudge and Shuri’s glare, biting his tongue and looking away. Shuri sighed impatiently and Steve figured he should probably explain their sudden visit.
“We need him to tell us where one of the stones are. Thor has been led to believe that Y/N knows something about it.”
“Who told him that?”
“I… saw it in a dream.”, Thor mumbles, not meeting Shuri’s eye. He understood how ridiculous it sounded.
Shuri’s face blanks at that and she turns to walk away from the two, “No.”
Steve moves forward, stepping into line with her, “Shuri please, we’re under a lot of pressure right now and this could be our only hope to finding any answers.”
“You want to interrogate my patient about something that might not even be true, does that sound smart to you?”
Steve considers her words for a second and scratches his head when he realises how it looks on their part, “Look, can you please just… ask him about it or do a scan just, anything…please.”
The desperate edge to Steve’s voice has her relenting, stopping to face the two men, “If he doesn’t know anything about it…”
“We’ll drop it, swear.” Steve promises, a hopeful glint to his eyes.
Shuri stares at him for a moment before nodding.
While Shuri and the two men discussed how they were going to approach asking you about this, Natasha decided to talk to you again with the hopes that things would go better this time.
She had asked the guards if they could let her in to see you, and they were hesitant due to what had just happened with Thor but allowed her to enter after a bit of convincing from Clint. Stepping inside, she noticed the damage of the few moments prior and internally cussed out Thor for being so reckless.
That was all brushed to the side when she saw your stilled form on the floor beside your bed, head in your hands and knees curled up to your chest.
She hadn’t wanted to say anything, but she swallowed her pride and shuffled a little closer to you, “I heard what happened.”
You didn’t react to her words; you didn’t do anything at all, and she feared she wouldn’t be able to get through to you.
“Thor can be a little boisterous sometimes but I’m sure he didn’t mean to be so rough.”
She heard your muffled scoff and took it as a win, talking again, “Then again, fighting somebody isn’t the best way to get anything out of them.”
“Why are you back?”
She felt a little disheartened at your snappy tone but figured it was warranted, “We needed to talk to you, about the stone- “
“No, why are you back?”
She frowned at your question, not really knowing what to say, “Uh, I presumed you wouldn’t want Steve or Thor in here with you right now.”
“I don’t want any of you in here, and I don’t know anything about this stone you talk of.”
Natasha sighed, sitting down next to you on the floor and rolling her eyes when you moved away from her, “Thor, he… saw the stone in a dream and apparently, he saw you too.”
You lifted your head to look at her, your eyes narrowed in irritation, “A dream? He came here and attacked me all for a dream?”
Natasha kind of just looked at you for a moment, what you had said was true, but it seemed pretty bad when said aloud, “Well, yeah.”
You raised your eyebrows at her in disbelief and she shrugged, she didn’t have much else to give you.
You took a deep breath, “Okay, what… happened in the dream?”
“According to him, he saw the stone free itself from its protective…haven? I don’t know what it is, but then he said it had plunged through a human heart. Your heart.”
You paused at this, turning your body to face her, “My heart?” At her nod, you looked at the space just past her, trying to understand what she could possibly mean. There wasn’t a stone in your heart, there wasn’t anything in your heart.
“I know it’s confusing, and we aren’t giving you much to work with but, it’s all we’ve got.”
You leant back against your bed, running your hands tiredly over your face, this was all too much for one night, “I feel like I have... no idea who I am. There’s so much I don’t know…”
“We don’t know for sure if it’s true. Thor might have mistaken you for someone else.”
“But what if he didn’t?”, Natasha felt a little exposed by the way you were looking at her, she hadn’t seen this side of you before, “What if he’s right, and Hydra found another way to ruin me, another way to make sure I never escape them?”
Natasha moved forward to catch your eye, “Y/N, Hydra wont control you forever, so what if there’s a stone in you, they have no power over it.”
“But it has all the power over me.”
Natasha slumped at your words; she didn’t know anything about the stone so she couldn’t reassure you. She didn’t know if you even had it in you, or the effect it would have if you did. She felt hopeless, but she could only imagine how much worse you were feeling. It was because of this that the next words came tumbling out of her mouth.
“I’ll stay.”, your confused head tilt didn’t faze her, “I’ll stay, and tomorrow or whenever you feel well enough, we’ll find out the truth.”
You didn’t exactly know how to react to that, you hadn’t expected her to be so… caring. She didn’t seem like the type. Steve? sure, but not her. Though you were sceptical, you saw no harm in her offer, so you agreed and hoped it wouldn’t come to bite you in the ass later.
//
You had started to regret taking Natasha up on her offer.
Shuri had dug through memories so deep in your mind, they didn’t even feel like memories anymore. You didn’t know what exactly she was looking for, but you knew that it hurt. A fiery sensation in your body every time something new was brought to the surface, an aching numbness as you witnessed the cruelty in which you had been subjected to.
Natasha had kept her word, standing patiently in the corner of the room besides Clint as they waited. She hadn’t been the most unpleasurable company, she was supportive as best she could be, and it was nice to not have someone put so much pressure on you.
Clint was okay too, but his protectiveness over Natasha made him hard to be around, it was like he was sure you were going to hurt her at any given chance.
The session had been mostly uneventful aside for a few false clues, but other than that, Shuri was confident they weren’t going to find anything. You had thought the same until a burning sensation arose in your chest. It made you squirm, your eyes pulling together in discomfort.
Shuri had noticed it but saw it as a means to keep going, and as she did, the pain only got worse. Steve had asked her what was happening, but she didn’t know either, she just watched as your hands clenched against the seat and your jaw clenched tightly.
You didn’t know what you were feeling but you wanted it to stop, so much so, you pulled at your hand restraints and murmured a strained “Stop.”
Shuri wanted to, she did, but she was making a possible breakthrough and she couldn’t stop now. She had enough faith in you to know you could handle it.
Your breathing picked up as entirely foreign memories flicked through your mind, you were lost, you didn’t remember any of what you were seeing but you remembered the pain as if you were reliving it.
Among the rapid images speeding past your eyes, you recognised one of the rooms, a dark cell with a narrow hallway and grey walls marked with tallies.
You watched as your figure appeared in the room and the image got clearer. You could see your sunken cheeks and your pale skin in the dim light, your timid footsteps as you walked the narrow hallway. There were faint voices echoing around the room that you couldn’t distinguish, they sounded far away, easy enough to ignore.
What caught your eye next was the yellow hue appearing on your face in the memory. As you neared it, it only got brighter, so bright that you had to squint. Everything changed suddenly, you watched as your memory self was pushed roughly into a metal chair, hands and legs restrained while your eyes were covered with a black cloth.
Natasha looked to Steve as she noticed your heart rate picking up on the monitor, sweat dripping from your face. Steve didn’t look back at her, he just watched as you writhed against your seat. He wasn't allowed to intervene and it was unsettling him.
Your memory self-had been blindfolded but the memory hadn’t gone dark, you could still see it all. You watched as your chair was wheeled towards the yellow hue, the men who had restrained you hurrying away to the darkness behind you.
You could see the rise and fall of your chest as you yelled in the memory, slamming your back against the seat as the yellow light only grew stronger around you.
You felt dizzy all of a sudden, like you were losing your balance but that couldn’t be right because you were sitting, both in the memory and in real life.
The room knew why your head was spinning before you did, watching as blue streaks branched from your bare chest, it was like the veins were pumping something else, something other than blood, all leading from where your heart was.
You felt your breath weaken as the memory played out, paying close attention to how the front of the shirt you were wearing began to burn and tear away, leaving your chest exposed.
You were shocked to silence when the yellow hue faded slightly to reveal the stone, and you definitely hadn’t seen it coming when it shot right through your chest, your body jolting back as blood poured out of you.
You had awoken form the memory immediately after, screaming and shaking in your seat as the blue in your veins slowly darkened and spread across your whole body. The occupants of the room had stepped outside in fear of an outburst, watching through the protective glass as you lashed around in pain.
Even Shuri couldn’t explain what she was seeing, so the rest of the group were left completely speechless. Shuri quickly made the executive decision to activate the sedative canula in your arm, waiting as your body slowly stilled to a stop.
As much as the team wanted to know what that was about, Tony had already called three times that morning saying they needed to finish their mission, so Steve had asked Shuri to call them as soon as she could with any answers and to let them know if you were okay.
He really hoped you were.
//
NEXUS internet hub, Oslo
“A hacker who’s faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere, and as this is the centre of everything, I’m just a guy looking for a needle in the world’s biggest haystack.”
Tony typed away at the computer in the centre of the room, surrounded by a few workers and a massive data server room.
One of the workers frowns, turning to Tony, “How do you find it?”
“It’s pretty simple. You bring a magnet.”, he smirks.
//
Wanda had felt a disturbance.
She couldn’t quite explain it, it was a sensation in her bones, one that made her uneasy. It was like a shift in the atmosphere, but not hers.
Whatever it was, it had flooded her mind with dreadful things, images of destruction and pain, chaos. It was a warning, a warning that had all fingers pointing towards Ultron. She had been in the same room as him when it happened, and he had immediately walked over to her at her sudden gasp.
“What? What is it?”
She had flinched away from him, her brother holding her against him as she panted in horror, “How could you?”
“How could I what?”, Ultron was extremely confused as to the nature of her outburst.
“You said… we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world.”
“It will be better.”
Wanda’s eyes widened at his implication, “When everyone is dead?”
“That is not…”, Ultron was growing frustrated, she didn’t know what she was talking about, and she was going to ruin his plan if she didn’t stop questioning him. “The human race will have every opportunity to improve.”
Both the twins watched the robot in shock as he spoke, Pietro only now catching on, “And if they don’t?”
“Ask Noah.”
Wanda scoffed in incredulity at this, shaking her head, “You’re a madman.”
Ultron takes a frustrated deep breath before speaking, “There have been more than a dozen extinction-level threats before even the dinosaurs got theirs. When the earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And believe me, he’s winding up.”
The twins step away from the synthezoid, terror swimming in their eyes as they realise their mistake trusting this guy.
“We have to evolve, there’s no room for the weak.”
“And who decides who’s weak?”, Pietro mutters.
Ultron chuckles maniacally, “Life. Life always decides.”
Suddenly, the sound of an aircraft can be heard overhead and Ultron sighs, “There’s incoming. A Quinjet, we have to move.”
Before Ultron can stop them, Pietro grabs Wanda, speeding her out of the room and Ultron raises his hands in confusion.
“Wait! Guys!”
He heaves a heavy sigh, taking out the doctors in the vicinity, “They'll learn soon enough.”
//
Steve hops off the Quinjet and over a railing onto a rooftop, looking over to the lab where Ultron was last located, pressing his finger into his comms, “Two minutes. Stay close.”
He makes his way over to the building, rushing through the halls to find Dr Cho huddled behind a desk, “Dr Cho, are you okay?”
She nods, her breath heavy as she talks, “Yes, I’m fine. He shot the rest of my team, but I managed to hide before he could get to me.”
Steve nods, standing to help her up but she pulls him back down, “The gem, it’s power is uncontainable. You can’t let Ultron get to it.”
“I won’t.” Steve affirms.
“Good. Go.”
Up in the sky, Clint and Natasha watched overhead for any signs of Ultron, Clint piloting and Natasha checking any departures from the local airports.
“We got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him.”
Clint shook his head as he watched a truck exit out from under a bridge, “There, it’s a truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap. On the loop by the bridge.”
Clint watched as the Quinjet scanned for heat signatures, “it’s them. You got three in the back, one in the cab. I could take out the driver.”
“Negative. We don’t want to cause any more disruption than we’re already going to. We need to draw out Ultron.”
Steve watches from the overpass as the truck below nears, shaking his nerves before leaping over the edge and landing on the top of the truck.
Ultron looks to the ceiling of the truck, groaning at the sudden thump, “No, no, no, no. Leave me alone!”
Ultron shoots a laser at the back door of the truck, Steve grabbing on to the edge of the door as it flies open, smashing him against the side of the truck. He kicks off the side, pushing himself forward and hurling himself upwards when Ultron singes the door off, just barely managing to get a grip on the truck when he comes back down.
“Well, he’s definitely unhappy. I’m gonna try and keep him that way”, Steve groans, pulling himself up.
“You’re not a match for him, Cap.”
Steve pants, attempting to catch his breath, “Thanks, Barton.”
As Steve peaks his head into the truck, Ultron blasts him back, Steve landing heavily on the car behind him, shattering the windshield in the process.
He recovers quickly, leaping onto an oncoming van and swinging off its side mirror, landing in front of Ultron on his truck.
“You know what that stone has? The power to make real change and that terrifies you.”
“I wouldn’t call it a comfort.”, Steve reaches behind him to grab his shield, launching it at Ultron and sending him flying back.
Ultron bounces back, shooting his lasers; which Steve blocks with his shield, and in a brief moment between Ultron’s attacks, he kicks his shield into the robot’s chest. Ultron rips it out, tossing it to the floor of the passing highway.
“Stop it.”
Ultron kicks him backwards off the edge of the truck and Steve lands in front of the windshield, the bot that was driving pushing his hand through the glass to grab Steve. Steve doges the blow, rolling to the side and out of sight of the bots.
In the jet, Natasha swings her leg over the motorcycle sitting at the back of the jet, Clint pressing a few buttons to get the door below it open, “We got a window, four, three… give him hell.”
Natasha drops down from the jet, kicking the bike into gear as she speeds through the highway, weaving in between cars. She catches sight of Steve’s shield on the floor and sighs, heading for it, “I’m always picking up after you boys.”
“They’re heading under the overpass, I’ve got no shot.”, Clint states, looking down to the street below and finding where to navigate Natasha.
“Which way?”
“Hard right… now.”
Natasha turns, slipping through the backstreets and coming up to an exit, the truck speeding past as she looks up to see Cap fighting hand to hand with Ultron. Ultron has Steve by the neck, hanging him over the edge of the truck. Steve turns his head the best he can to catch the shield Natasha throws him, smashing it into Ultron’s face and knocking him to his knees.
Ultron huffs, lifting a piece of the ground with a magnetic field, effectively blocking Natasha form driving any further. She drifts the bike to a different lane, catching up to the truck once again and swerving out of the way of the lasers being shot at her from the bots inside the back of the truck.
She makes the quick decision to turn onto the walkway up to the bridge, yelling at people to watch out, “Clint, can you draw out the guards?”
“Let’s find out.”, Clint flies the jet downwards, shooting the turrets from the front of the jet at Ultron on the top of the truck. This causes the remaining bots to fly after it, Clint leading them away from the truck. The bots latch onto the jet, trying to break the glass but Clint spins the jet in rapid circles, knocking them off.
In Ultron’s moment of weakness, Steve manages to grab him, tossing him into a pillar, ducking when Ultron flies back, smashing into Steve at full speed and sending them both flying into the train behind them. Steve resumes fighting him, glass shattering all around them as the civilians on the train scream in terror.
Steve groans as Ultron pins him to the wall, sending an onslaught of punches at him, but suddenly a flash of blue sends Ultron flying backwards, red mist wrapping around the trains handlebars and trapping Ultron in the opposite carriage.
Ultron turns behind him to face Wanda, “Please, don’t do this.”
“What choice do we have?”
Ultron sighs, shooting a laser at the driver on the far end of the train and bursting through the trains doors to escape.
Steve jumps over the scattered chairs, heading for the train driver, “I lost him! He’s headed your way!”
“Have you got eyes on Nat?”, Clint demands.
“Get the Quinjet out of here!”
"Have you got eyes on Nat!”, he pleads.
“Go!”
Clint slams his fists against his seat, increasing the acceleration and flying the Quinjet away from Ultron.
Steve watches in fear as the train goes barrelling towards civilians and a nearby street market, turning to the twins, “Civilians in our path!”
Pietro speeds off to get as many people out of the way as he can and Wanda turns to Cap as he stares at her, “Can you stop this thing?”
Wanda steps back, projecting her magic through the train floor and down to the wheels, using all her strength to stop them moving. Her and her brother work in tandem to prevent any casualties, the train smashing through the concrete ground as it slows to an eventual stop, Steve panting as it does.
The people on the train are quick to run off, coughing from the smoke, and Wanda heads over to Pietro, placing a concerned hand on his shoulders as he catches his breath.
“I’m fine. I just need to take a minute.”
“I’m very tempted not to give you one.” Steve announces, his expression firm as he looks at the two.
“Did he get the stone?”, Wanda questions.
“Stark will take care of that.”
Wanda shakes her head, stepping back, “No he won’t.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Stark’s not crazy.”
“He will do anything to make things right.”
Steve stares at her for a moment before turning away, “Stark, come in. Stark… anyone on comms.”
Wanda’s jaw clenches as she watches Cap, “Ultron can’t tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it, where do you think he gets that?”
“Not Stark. Contrary to popular belief, Stark didn’t have any part in this.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It isn’t your job to.”
//
The lab, Avengers tower
“Anything on Nat?”, Clint asks as Tony strolls into the room.
“I haven’t heard. But she’s alive or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it.”
“Speaking of Ultron. He’s gonna go after the stone, you know that right?”, Bruce comments, placing his glasses on the table beside him and leaning back on it.
Tony sighs, nodding, “Yeah I’ve been thinking about that. I think the soldier could be a good asset.”
“What?”
“Are you serious?”
Tony holds his hands up in surrender at Clint and Bruce’s exclamations, explaining himself, “He’s stronger than all of us, and if he actually has that stone in him… it could give us the upper hand.”
“Or Ultron could take it right out of his chest and kill us all with it.”
Tony grimaces, sighing, “Look, Steve told me what happened in Wakanda, his body has adapted to protect the stone. It’s not going anywhere.”
“So what, we fly him out here, have him fight Ultron and game over? He doesn’t even have full control over his mind yet.”, Clint argues, having witnesses first hand your fight with Thor.
“We don’t need him to. In fact, if he goes full super soldier, he has a better chance of taking out Ultron.”
Clint shakes his head, looking away, and Bruce gives Tony an unconvincing shrug. Tony rolls his eyes, walking over to Clint.
“Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet? Old school spy stuff.”
Clint shrugs, scratching the back of his neck, “There are some nets I can cast. Yeah, I’ll find her.”
//
Over at Ultron’s factory of sorts, Natasha comes to, Ultron having knocked her unconscious and taken her to where he does all his robot building. She looks around in confusion, Ultron spotting her movement from his place at a wooden table, reassembling one of his bots.
“I wasn’t sure you’d wake up. I hoped you would, I wanted to show you. I don’t… have anyone else.”
Natasha groans as she sits up, trying to steady her spinning head and focus her eyes on Ultron.
“I think a lot about meteors. The purity in them. Boom! The end. Start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild.” He takes a few steps towards Natasha, his tone growing angrier.
“I was meant to be new. I was meant to be beautiful. The world would have looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. Instead they’ll look up in horror, because of you.”
Natasha shuffles back in fear as Ultron approaches her, trying to find her footing.
“You have wounded me; I give you full marks for that. But like the man said, what doesn’t kill me…”
Suddenly, Ultron’s head is ripped into pieces, his body slumping to the floor. Behind stands a taller, more advanced Ultron, “Just makes me stronger.”
He slams the gate shut in front of Natasha, her heavy breaths filling the room as he walks away.
After some time, Natasha regains her composure and begins using the old Ultron’s broken parts to build a form of communication to Clint, which he hears back at the tower. She clicks a button in her hands like a morse code device and on the other end, he smirks, finding out exactly where she is from the coordinates she gives him.
“That’s my girl.”
//
The lab, Avengers tower
It hadn’t taken long for Steve to get back to the tower and the rest of the team were surprised to see that he had brought the twins, Tony perking up almost immediately.
“I’m sorry, I must have missed a few chapters because last time I checked, those two were the enemy.”
“They’re with us now, Stark. They wanna help.”
Tony acquiesces, Bruce speaking up, “You sure she isn’t your head?”, he sneers.
Wanda shrinks back behind her brother, looking guilty for her actions and her Pietro pulls her closer to him, “We realise what we did was wrong, but we want to make things right.”
The team watch him in consideration for a moment before relenting.
“Steve, I’ve been meaning to run something through with you.”, Tony announces, walking over towards him.
Bruce shakes his head, straightening up to hear Tony’s brilliant plan once again. Tony isn’t fazed though; he just stands stall and figures out the best way to articulate his idea.
“So, as we all know, our infamous soldier holds something very special within him,”
Steve turns to the twins, mumbling a quiet “The stone.” Once he sees their confused faces, he shrugs, portraying that he doesn’t know much about it either. Tony continues.
“Yes, the stone, and while he’s wildly irrational and dangerous and impulsive…”
“Tony.”, Steve warns.
“Right, sorry. While he’s… not in the best of conditions, I believe he could be a great asset to the team. Ah ah. silence, Steve, let me finish.”
Steve pinches the bridge of his nose at his dismissed concern, crossing his arms.
“Think about it, he has the power of the stone within him, Ultron’s no match for that.”
“He doesn’t know how to control it, Tony. He’d be putting himself and us at risk.”, Steve interrupts, not understanding the logistics of Tony’s plan.
“Okay, but the last time someone tried to tamper with the stone, his body protected it.”
“Protected it?”, Pietro questions, brows raised in confusion.
“Yes, his body went into overdrive, and he almost killed everyone.”
Bruce watches Tony with an uncertain gaze, “I don’t see how that’s safe.”
“It isn’t, but he was only trying to attack the person messing with the stone, which in this case, would be Ultron.”
Steve looked down, not knowing what to say. Tony had a point, and it made sense, but you weren’t anywhere near ready to be on the field; he didn’t want you putting yourself in a situation that would harm you. Ultron wasn’t a force to be reckoned with and by sending you out there, they were putting a lot on the line, including you.
Steve thought back to what happened in Wakanda, how your body had protected the stone, how it had protected you. It was the only thing making him consider Tony’s idea and not shut it down completely.
He raised his head, the room having turned to him at his silence, “It isn’t our decision to make. It’s up to him.”
Summary: The journey of a soldier made anew, riddled with the guilt of his past and on a steady path to redemption.
Warnings: Violence, injury, mild language, more warnings as the series progresses.
Word count: 5.1k
//
Chapter ten
“All our work, it’s gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hack.”
“Ultron.”, Steve repeated, the name was unfamiliar to him.
“He’s been in everything, files, surveillance. He probably knows more about us than we know about each other.”, Natasha states, leaning her back against one of the tables.
Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose, that thing knowing everything there was to know about them wasn’t their main issue, “He has unbridled access to everything that has ever been put out into the world, I mean, he was created by hydra. The damage they could do with that information would be catastrophic.”
“Hydra wants us dead, what use would all of that knowledge be to him?”, Rodhey adds.
“He didn’t say dead, he said extinct.”, Steve reminds.
“What if he’s planning to do more than just kill us? Not to toot my own horn but to what extent can the world defend itself without us?”
The room falls silent at Tony’s words, he's right after all, if this thing were to launch an attack and the Avengers weren’t there to stop it, no one would be safe. They didn’t even know his intentions other than him wanting them all of them dead, just as hydra does. Steve wondered what this meant for you, if hydra were still out there, they’d no doubt come looking for you and he didn’t know how far everybody was willing to go to keep you safe.
The tragic mess of Ultron’s attack on Jarvis was left behind in the lab, the wrecked blur of blue and orange troubling those who saw it.
“This is insane.”, Bruce remarks, his eyes fixed to the hologram before him.
Steve looks away, crossing his arms, “Jarvis is the first line of defence; he would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense.”
“No, Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis, this isn’t strategy, this is… rage.”
Suddenly, Thor marches into the room, grabbing Tony by the neck and lifting him into the air.
“It’s going around.”, Clint comments.
Tony chokes at the lack of air and grasps Thor’s hand, trying to pry it off, “Come on, buddy, use your words.”
“I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark.”, He sneers, Steve stepping over to break the two apart.
“Look, I know... what you’re thinking but I didn’t have any... part in this, I swear.”
“Thor! The legionnaire.”
Thor narrows his eyes at Tony, dropping him and looking over at Steve, “The trail went cold about 100 miles out, but its heading north and it has the sceptre. Now we have to retrieve it, again.”
“The genie’s out of that bottle, clear and present is Ultron.”, Natasha remarks.
Bruce shakes his head, leaning his hands against the nearest table, “It wouldn’t matter anyways.”
The team all turn to him with puzzled glances, Bruce spinning slowly to face them, “We wiped the sceptre of it’s intelligence, transported it into our system. When we removed the protection around the core…”
“There was nothing there.”, Tony finished, lightly touching his neck, “It was empty.”
“What do you mean it was empty?”, Thor demanded.
“It was empty! No stone, nothing.”
Thor frowned, shaking his head. “That isn’t possible.”
Tony only shrugged, sitting down in one of his chairs with a heavy sigh, “I don’t know what to tell you.”
“If it wasn’t in the sceptre, where is it?”
There’s a few moments of silence where the room considers all the possible whereabouts of the stone and when they come up empty, Steve rubs the space between his eyebrows, clearing his throat.
“Wherever it is, it runs the risk of falling into the wrong hands. Hydra were the last known handlers of the sceptre; we should start with them.”
“We're dealing with immeasurable power here, Captain; with that stone, they’d have the power to cause far more destruction than my brother’s attack on New York. We’d be beaten.”, Thor counters, glancing between the occupants of the room with solemnity.
“Our job is to prevent things like that from occurring, it doesn’t matter what they could do because we won’t let them.”, Natasha argues, her words charged with confidence.
Tony drops arms to his sides with an incredulous expression, “Guys, we’re the Avengers, we can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but this, this is the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?”
“Together.”, Steve interrupts, his stance tall and definite.
Tony steps forward, eyes locked onto Steve’s, “We’ll lose.”
“Then we’ll do that together too. Thor’s right. Ultron’s calling us out, and I’d like to find him before he’s ready for us. The world’s a big place, let’s start making it smaller.”
//
Wakanda
“Stop! Stop!”, Shuri screamed, the soldiers backing away from your form and raising their guns.
Today had been… harder than the other days. Today they revealed to you the memories of your time in Hydra, the people you had hurt, your most brutal missions. It had awoken something inside you, something you thought had withered away with all your hard work.
But it hadn’t. That flame of rage within you ignited once again, all those pent-up feelings swam to the surface and you were back, for a moment, you were back in that facility and all you wanted to do was scream, burn the place to holy hell because of what they’d put you through, what they’d made of you.
You had shot up from the table, yanking at your restraints, and when they didn’t budge, you only yelled louder. The guards had immediately rushed over trying to push you to lay back on the table and Shuri could see that it was distressing you even further, so she had called for them to stop.
She was on the other side of a protective glass wall, so she was safe, but she still cared about the fact that you were obviously in pain, physical or not. T’Challa had rushed down as soon as he heard her echoing command, watching as you tore the skin on your wrists trying to pull your hands out of the cuffs. He had turned to her with a concerned look, but she trusted you. She trusted you to navigate your mind and figure out that everything was okay, that you were safe.
A considerable amount of time had gone by, she had told her brother numerous times to wait; and they both sighed in relief when your rapid breaths began to slow. You took your time looking at your surroundings, you were flickering in between rage and confusion, and Shuri was hoping the latter won.
The guards were still in the room but their weapons had been lowered and they were just watching you with cautious eyes, ready to act if needed. Your hands were bloody from the torn skin, and she could see the fear swimming in your eyes as you tilted your head to face her.
Your chest was heavy with the deep intakes of air, your head clouded with memories you couldn’t understand. How could you have been so merciless? You remember vividly the cold, glazed look in the eyes of those you had killed and it made your heart sink You could have never imagined things would go the way they did.
You felt your resolve falter, and a single tear slipped down your pale cheek, blending in with the sweat dripping from your forehead. That one tear held the weight of unfathomable regret, all the things you couldn’t change.
As you laid back down onto the bed and your eyes squeezed shut, you felt your past crash down upon you in waves, surging through your body and mind; taking over completely… drowning you until you could no longer see the glimmer of sun above the surface.
You wanted to wither away into nothingness, repent for your sins until your throat burned and your eyes stung with your incessant tears. You wanted to forget all you had been, all you had done.
You just wanted to forget.
//
Sokovia
The twins take cautious steps up the cobbled stairs of the totalled church in the centre of the town, they had been informed to meet here from an anonymous messenger and were sceptical as to why, but they had come anyways. As they walked into the open space, amidst the dust and remains of scaffolding supplies, there was a large wooden chair placed right in the middle of the room which immediately caught the twin’s eye.
“Talk, and if you are wasting our time…”
“Did you know that this church is in the exact centre of the city?” Ultron interrupted, gesturing his hands to the surroundings walls, “The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief.”
As Wanda nears the robot, her eyes take on a deep crimson as she tries to get a read on the unknown figure, but she can’t seem to which confuses her greatly.
“You’re wondering why you can’t see into my head.”
“Sometimes it’s hard, but sooner or later every man shows himself.”
Ultron stands at her words; his tall, metallic figure towering over the two and the blanket he had used as a veil slipping from his head to reveal red, robotic eyes and wires through the chunks of metal holding him together. “Oh, I’m sure they do.”
Wanda takes a surprised step back at the sight, her brows furrowing as she tries to understand what he is, and Pietro’s jaw slacks slightly as he ushers her closer to him.
“But you needed something more than a man, that’s why you let Stark take the sceptre.”
“I didn’t expect…” Wanda rakes her gaze over him, signifying her reference to his abnormal stature, “But I saw Stark’s fear. I knew it would control him.”
Ultron didn’t respond to this, only acknowledging her words and moving to pace slowly around the room which strikes a question in Pietro, “Why have you come? To end the Avengers?”
“I’ve come to save the world… but also, yeah.”
Ultron had led the two siblings back to the Hydra facility they had once resided in, he had taken the knowledge from the sceptre and escaped his confines in that New York warehouse, deciding to travel to Sokovia and start anew there.
“We’ll move out right away, this is a start but there something else we need to begin the real work.”
Wanda eyes surveyed the room she had been in once before when she had played those mind tricks on Tony, there was an air of confusion to her as she watched robots similar to Ultron mingle around the place. “All of these are…”
“Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They’re discordant, disconnected. They’ll turn on each other in no time, and when you get inside the rest of their heads…”
“Everyone’s plan is not to kill them.”, Pietro states, pointing out the issue in Ultron’s scheme.
“And make them martyrs? You need patience, need to see the big picture.”
Pietro shakes his head, a solemn look on his face, “I don’t see the big picture; I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it, every day.”
“You lost your parents in the bombings, I’ve seen the records.”
“The records are not the picture…”
“Pietro.”, Wanda interrupts, weary of his intentions.
“No, please.”, Ultron encourages.
Pietro turns to Wanda, his gaze meeting hers, “We were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us.” Wanda looks away at this, staring off into the space behind her brother, affected.
“When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It’s big, our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her,” He gestures towards Wanda with his head, “Roll under the bed, and the second shell hits… but it doesn’t go off. It just… sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces.” Pietro's gaze hardens at this and he casts his eyes downwards, clenching his jaw, “On the side of the shell is painted one word.”
“Stark.”, Wanda finishes, her eyes momentarily flashing red before returning to green.
“We were trapped for two days.”
“Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks I think, “This will set it off.” We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us.”
Pietro nods slowly, looking back up to Ultron as he tilts his head, “I know what they are.”
Ultron takes in their confession, a flash of realisation running through him, “I wondered why only you two survived Strucker’s experiments. Now I don’t. We will make it right. You and I can hurt them.” He faces Pietro as he says this but turns to Wanda next, hovering his hand by her cheek, “But you will tear them apart, from the inside.”
//
Avengers tower, New York
Maria and Steve step out of the lift, walking through the remnants of the previous fight with the robots after Stark’s party, the shattered glass shards crunching as they stepped through it.
“He’s all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man or… men coming in and emptying the place.”
“Fatalities?”, Steve queries.
“Only when engaged, mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see.”
“Maximoffs”, Steve concludes, “That makes sense he’d go to them, they have someone in common.”
“Not anymore.”, Maria sighs, handing her tablet to Steve which displays a picture of Strucker dead in his cell, ‘Peace’ written in blood on the wall behind him.
Steve meets up with the rest of the team, handing the iPad to Thor who observes it with a frown, smacking it against Tony’s chest as he strolls over.
“What’s this?”
“A message. Ultron killed Strucker.”, Steve clarifies.
“And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us.”, Tony jokes, shrugging nonchalantly when Thor sends him a warning look, still unbelieving that Tony didn’t have anything to do with this.
“This is a smoke screen. Why send a message when you’ve just given a speech?”, Natasha asks, watching the photo with perplexity.
Steve watched Natasha with the same look, crossing his arms, “Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss.”
“I bet he…yeah.” Natasha pauses as she types something into the computer, seeing that every file on Strucker had been deleted, “Everything we had on Strucker has been erased.”
Steve ponders for a moment, eyes lifting to look at the team, “Not everything.”
The team move to go find the written files on Strucker, searching through multiple boxes of manilla folders. Tony halts as he glances at the file Bruce was flicking through, pointing at a specific page, “Wait, I know that guy.” Bruce hands him the folder and he takes it, pulling at a photo from the file, “From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms.”
Steve throws Tony an unamused glance and Tony goes to defend himself, Thor taking the picture of the guy from him, “There are conventions, all right? You meet people. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very Ahab.”
Thor pointed at the photo, “This?”
“Ah, it’s a tattoo, I don’t think he had it.”, Tony answers.
“Those are tattoos, this is a brand.”
Bruce searches for the symbol on the computer, humming when something comes up, “It’s a word in an African dialect meaning ‘thief.’ In a much less friendly way.”
“What dialect?”
Bruce turns back to the screen, adjusting his glasses and leaning forward to see it clearer, “Wakanad- Wakanda?”, he stammers, confusion laced in his voice.
Steve’s face drops at this and he turns to Tony when he starts talking to him, “If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods…”
Steve frowns, “I thought your father said he got the last of it.”
Bruce stumbles out of his seat to join their conversation, “I don’t follow, what comes out of Wakanda?”
Steve and Tony both glance at each other before looking down at Steve’s shield on the floor, “The strongest metal on earth.”
“Where is this guy now?”
//
Salvage yard, African coast
Workers shouted orders at one another in their native language left and right, crates of arms, weapons, and vibranium being lifted onto the cargo ship they were on. The conditions were less than ideal and sweat dripped from the foreheads of the men surrounding the area, guards ushering them to be quicker, and they complied, as to not get shot.
Above, Ulysses Klaue had been conversing with the twins who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere into his office, Ultron listening from somewhere below.
“…I know you’re not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge.”
Ultron suddenly launched him through the glass of his window, Klaue landing heavily on the floor below with a groan.
Ultron stood over his panting figure, his voice lowering in irritation, “There is no man in charge.” Leaning down to his face, Ultron watched the man with what looked like a smirk on his face, “Let’s talk business.”
Klaue and one if his comrades grunted as they pushed open a set of doors revealing small cylinders of vibranium, Klaue walking in to grab one and hand it to the robot.
“Upon this rock, I will build my church.”, Ultron looked over the cylinder, then tossed it to Pietro, “Vibranium.”
“You know, it came at great personal cost.”, Klaue touches the branding on his neck when he says this, Ultron glancing down at him. “It’s worth billions.”
Ultron chuckles, closing his eyes for a second and when he opens them again, Klaue’s phone buzzes notifying him of an influx of money into his account. “Now so are you. It’s all under your…dummy holdings? Finance is so weird.”
Klaue looks at his phone in disbelief, his comrade just as surprised as him.
“But what I always say, keep your friends rich and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which.”
Klaue looks up at this, his brows furrowed, “Stark.”
“What?”
“Tony Stark used to say that. To me. You’re one of his.”
Ultron frowns in offence, reaching forward to grab Klaue’s arm and twist it back, “What? I’m not…”
Klaue’s comrade reaches for his gun but before he can shoot, red tendrils wrap around it, tossing it to the floor.
“I’m not.” Ultron sneers, leaning forward into Klaue’s face, “You think I’m one of Stark’s puppets? His hollow men? I mean, look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!”
Ultron slashes Klaue’s arm off, much to the twins’ surprise, both taking a step back in shock. Klaue’s wails in pain and Ultron almost looks apologetic.
“I’m sorry. I’m…oh! I’m sure that’s gonna be okay, I’m sorry. It’s just that, I don’t understand, don’t compare me with Stark!”
Ultron kicks Klaue down the set of stairs behind him, his voice raising at his anger, “It’s a thing with me. Stark is… he’s a sickness!”
A clang of metal is heard behind the robot and he and the twins turn to see Tony’s suit landing, Thor and Cap standing defensively behind him, “Oh, you’re gonna break my heart.”, Tony remarks.
“If I have to.”
Clint and Natasha look on from above, peaking around the corner to get a better look, Clint’s bow and Natasha's gun ready if needed.
“Nobody needs to break anything.”, Thor reasons.
“Ah this is funny, Mr Stark. What is it? Comfortable?”, Pietro glances at the rockets down below, “Like old times?”
“This was never my life.”
“You two can still walk away from this.”, Cap states, stepping forward calmly.
“Oh, we will.”, Wanda sneers.
Cap clenches his jaw, continuing his attempt at being reasonable; reaching a middle ground, “I know you’ve suffered.”
Ultron scoffs, chuckling, “Captain America, God’s righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war. I can’t physically throw up in my mouth but…”
“If you believe in peace, then let us keep it.”, Thor interrupts.
“I think you’re confusing ‘peace’ with ‘quiet’.”
Tony sighs impatiently, cutting in before the robot can start rambling again, “Uh huh, what’s the vibranium for?”
“I’m glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan.”
Abruptly, Ultron lifts his hand and a magnet from his body yanks Tony towards him, lasers then blasting him back into a metal door. Thor and Steve immediately take action, fighting the onslaught of robots barrelling their way, Tony quickly recovering and going head-to-head with Ultron up above.
Pietro zips through the bots, slamming into Thor and knocking him off balance and when Cap tries to head for Wanda, she catapults him back with her magic and he grunts with the force. Klaue orders his henchmen to shoot at them all, a hoard of armed men rushing Natasha in an alley way, her punching and disarming them, running up the side of the wall to grab one by the neck and pull him roughly into the ground.
Clint aims his arrows at the oncoming men, taking them by surprise and knocking them down, pulling arrow after arrow from the quiver on his back. Tony flies around the area, gaining speed and crashing straight into Ultron while Thor swings his hammer through the bots around him and Cap tosses his shield at them.
Before it can hit anything though, Pietro is zooming towards the two, time slowed for him as he dodges bullets and lasers, punching Steve square in the jaw. Thor throws his hammer down the hall to the enemies on the other end and Pietro stupidly tries to grab it, yelping as it carries him backwards and into a stack of containers.
Ultron and Tony blast through the roof of the boat, taking it to the skies, and Cap decapitates one of the robots, launching his shield to hit the nearby henchmen and watching them all groan as they drop to the ground. Pietro attempts to stand up, but Steve is quick to kick him back to the floor with a “Stay down, kid.” and Pietro can only slump back in exhaustion.
“It’s time for some mind games.”, one of the bots whisper to Wanda, her disappearing round a dark corner and nodding in confirmation.
Back at the Quinjet, Bruce speaks through the comms in concern after hearing all the ruckus, “Guys? Is this a code green?” When he gets no response, he opens the Quinjet doors, looking out at the boat in the distance and watching as the spark of gunfire can be seen.
Back on the boat, Wanda emerges from behind a wall when Thor approaches, flicking her hand, wisps of magic travelling into his head. Thor turns to her in confusion, but the illusion has already began forming before he can react.
“Thor, status.”, Cap questions, finger pressed to his earpiece.
“The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty…”
Thor trails off as he walks into what appears to be the ballroom back on Asgard, his brows creasing as he surveys the room. The voices around him are muffled, distant almost and he notices that something isn’t right. His attention is drawn to long-time friend, Heimdall, as he calls for him.
“Is that him? The first son of Odin?”
Thor’s confusion increases tenfold at the white mist swimming in his friend’s eyes, “Heimdall, your eyes.”
Heimdall cups Thor’s face, smiling, “Oh, they see everything. They see you leading us to Hel. Wake up!”
Thor starts to struggle against his friend when he grasps at his throat, “I can still save you!”
“We are all dead; can you not see!?”
Thor grunts as he pushes Heimdall away, looking down at the electricity running through his hands, streaks of lighting being cast at him from every direction.
“You’re a destroyer, Odinson. See where your power leads…”
Below, Steve takes out the last of the bots in his immediate vicinity but is taken by surprise when Pietro runs straight into him at full speed, knocking him to the ground. Wanda takes his moment of weakness to put her magic into his head, just like she did Thor’s.
He stumbles to his feet, now noticing that he’s dressed in his old attire from the 40s and glancing up to find his old battalion mingling around the room, laughing and dancing in slow motion around him.
He flinches as cameras flash in his face, shouldering his way through the crowd, but when he takes a closer look, he sees the blood stains on some of the men’s shirts. Symbolic of his guilt, all the men he lost at war. Everything whips around him at speeds he can’t handle, and he jumps slightly when a gentle hand touches his shoulder, his eyes widening when he turns around to find Peggy staring lovingly back at him.
“Are you ready for our dance?”
Steve turns back to the crowd and Peggy speaks again, “The war is over Steve, we can go home. Imagine it.”
Steve still feels extremely out of place, so he turns around again but when he does, the room is empty, the music having stopped completely and the air now suddenly very cold.
He flashes back to an illusive memory of him dancing with Peggy, wide smiles on their faces, hands holding one another at every given moment. He clenches his jaw, looking down with a heavy heart, burdened with what he couldn’t have.
Wanda makes her way up the stairs to Natasha to do the same but is blindsided at the last minute by Clint who shoots an electric arrow at her head, her body shaking with the volts. “I’ve done the whole mind control thing. Not a fan.”
Pietro hears Wanda’s gasp of pain and runs to her, knocking Clint out of the way, ripping the arrow from her head and catching her in his arms before he speeds off, throwing a glare at Clint before he does.
“Yeah, you better run.”, Clint groans, laying back on the floor with a sigh.
//
Wanda pants outside, perched on a rock as her brother rubs her back comfortingly
“What can I do?”
“It hurts.”, she groans, grasping at her head.
“I’m going to kill him.”, he sneers, moving to stand but Wanda stops him.
“No, I’m alright. I want…” she glances over at Bruce hesitantly stepping out of the Quinjet in the distance, her eyes flashing red, “I want the big one.”
Up in the sky, Tony manages to shoot Ultron out of the air, watching as he crashes into a bolder below, “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Of course not, I’m already there. You’ll catch on. But first, you might need to catch Dr Banner.”
Tony’s face scrunches up in anger and he blows Ultron up with his rockets, flying off to go find Bruce. He catches him heading straight for the city as Hulk, watching though the news feed on his suit the destruction he’s already caused. He makes the last-minute decision to activate VERONICA, the suit flying down from upper space and over to Hulk.
The protective metal machine fails to contain Hulk, him bursting out of it with ease, so Tony decides to takes things to the next level, metal parts attaching to his suit and forming into the Hulk Buster.
“Alright everybody, stand down!”
Hulk grows angrier at the sight of Tony and all the armed police around him, growling at him.
“Will you listen to me? That witch is messing with your mind. You’re stronger than her, you’re smarter than her. You’re Bruce Banner.”
Any chance of Hulk calming down is thrown out the window at the mention of Bruce and he roars at Tony, picking up a car and launching it at him.
“Right right right, don’t mention puny Banner.”
Tony catches the car but Hulk punches right through it, into his suit and he flies back, recovering quickly and using his jets to speed forward into Hulk.
He carries him by the neck up into the air and comes crashing down; dragging him through the concrete, Hulk groaning loudly before kicking Tony off of him. Hulk grabs a nearby lamppost, leaping into the air and penetrating it right through the back of Tony’s suit, proceeding to then tear away at different parts of his suit.
“Right in the back? Dick move Banner.”
Tony uses the arm that isn’t torn apart to send Hulk barrelling into the sky and plunging down into a local market, the stalls crumbling to pieces under his weight as he rolls to a stand.
“VERONICA, give me a hand.”
Tony summons new parts for the suit as Hulk tears through the other stalls to get to him, and when he does, they both move to throw a punch, their fists colliding together and creating a wave of sound and air which travels in ripples around them, breaking all the glass within 30 metres of them.
Tony takes this moment to grab Hulk by the neck and slam him against the floor, the concrete cracking around him, then punch him directly in the face relentlessly, “Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.”
Hulk catches Tony’s fist before he can punch him again, but Tony envelopes Hulk’s fists into his suit, lifting into the air and dragging him away from the city, “Okay pal, we’re gonna get you out of town.”
Hulk diverts his course, however, sending them hurling into a building and down many floors, “Come on, Bruce! You gotta work with me.”
Hulk decides he doesn’t want to cooperate and the two smash into a multitude of buildings, punching and kicking one another before Tony can get a grip of him and fly him up and away from the ground. He scans the area before his eyes land on a building not yet finished, still surrounded by scaffolding, and decides to buy it quickly before sending Hulk smashing through every level.
When the two reach the bottom, the sheer force of the fall causes Hulk to shake his head in confusion, watching as the nearby civilians all run from him, fear evident in their screams. As the realisation sets in, he regains his composure; free of Wanda’s mind games. The guns being aimed at him spark the anger back up and he begins getting to his feet but doesn’t quite make it as Tony knocks him unconscious.
Summary: The journey of a soldier made anew, riddled with the guilt of his past and on a steady path to redemption.
Warnings: Violence, injury, mild language, more warnings as the series progresses.
Word count: 5.1k
//
Chapter nine
It had been a few weeks since the whole Jarvis and shield incident and nothing knew had come up since, other than the fact that Tony had managed to somehow get Jarvis up and running again. The lack of updates disappointed the team while simultaneously making them even more impatient than they have been.
Everybody had done what Steve had asked them to, and continued on with the standard recon missions, nothing too challenging. A new mission that required the whole team had come up, however, it didn’t seem too complicated but there was word of a possible enhanced, so Fury wanted the whole team there just in case things went south.
The team had heard the mission was taking place in one of the coldest parts of Sokovia, Novi Grad, and it was safe to say that they weren’t too pleased to be back in the snow. Thor had tagged along also, because he was on Midgard anyways, and decided to join in on the fight, which was much appreciated by the other Avengers. They needed all the help they could get.
As they neared the hydra facility, Clint and Natasha weaved through the trees of the forest nearby in one of the guards’ trucks, Clint shooting at the surrounding guards with his bow while Natasha drove. Thor shot up into the air, tossing his hammer at a group of agents on the ground and landing in front of another cluster of them, punching them unconscious. He held his hand out, beckoning his hammer, and watched as it flew straight through the chest of a guard, smiling as he walked to go find more.
Steve sped past on a motorcycle, grabbing an agent and tossing him into one of the surrounding trees. He dodged the explosions going off nearby and launched his shield at the heads of a few agents, swerving his bike into them. As he drove through the snowy forest, a truck came barrelling towards him, Thor smashing it with his hammer at the last second and tossing it over his head.
Hulk caught it, hurling it in a random direction and grabbing two guards, smashing their heads together and roaring with rage as he pounded them into the ground.
Tony’s suit whipped up into the air, spinning and flipping over the incoming bullets and rockets being launched at him, making his way above the facility, smashing straight into a force field covering it, “Shit!”
“Language!”, Steve huffed, navigating his way through the trees, “Jarvis, what’s the view from upstairs?”
“The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield, Strucker’s technology is appearing to be much more than advanced than any hydra base we’ve taken.”
Thor grunts as he swings his hammer at the guards, “Loki’s sceptre must be here, Strucker couldn’t mount this defence without it. At long last.”
Over on the other side of the forest, Natasha jumps off the edge of a rock, swinging her legs around a guards neck and pulling him to the floor, his head smashing against the ground, “At long last is lasting a little long, boys.”
“Yep, I think we lost the element of surprise.”
“Wait, is no one else gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said… language?”, Tony asks.
“I know.”, Steve groans, flipping over his bike, grabbing the handles and tossing it at an oncoming truck, exploding it, “It just slipped out.”
//
“Report to your stations immediately. This is not a drill.”
Strucker sighs, placing his hands on his hips in frustration, “We are on the verge of our greatest breakthrough and they are going to ruin it.”
“Then let’s show them what we’ve accomplished. Send out the twins.”
Strucker turns towards the siblings in the corner, the two glancing nervously at each other, their hands linked between them.
“It’s too soon.”
“It’s what they signed up for.”
Strucker considers his friend’s words for a moment, moving to stand at the front centre of the room, calling out to his agents, “We will not yield! The Americans sent their… circus freaks to test us. We will send them back, in bags. No surrender!” His voice booms throughout the room as his agents salute him, repeating his words back to him.
Strucker watches his agents return back to their stations, leaning down to speak into his friend’s ear, “I am going to surrender. You will delete everything, if we give the Avengers the weapons, they may not look too far into what we’ve been- “
“The twins.”
“They are not ready to- “
“No, no I mean…”, Strucker follows his friend’s gaze, looking at the corner the twins were once standing and finding it empty, “The twins…”
//
Above, Tony flies over the city, circling the facility trying to find a way in, watching as the guards shoot laser beams at him which miss, and collide with the city down below, “Well, we know Strucker isn’t going to worry about civilian casualties. Send in the Iron Legion.”
Metal suits fly in an orderly fashion towards the city, landing heavily on the ground and informing people that they are there to help, the civilians running in scattered directions away from the explosions and gunfire. A few miles away from the city, Clint holds his bow defensively in front of him, shooting an arrow into the distance at the guards and watching as a figure speeds by, catching it and disappearing in the blink of an eye.
He hides behind a tree, taken aback, but as he goes to shoot another arrow, the same figure zips past, knocking him to the floor with a groan. Looking up, a man with silver hair and a blue zip up jacket walks past with a smirk.
“You didn’t see that coming?”
Clint stands, but in his moment of surprise, he fails to notice the laser beam aimed his way and falls to the ground with a yelp of pain when it hits his side, taking a rather large chunk of skin off.
Natasha hears his groans through the comms and rushes to his side, “Clint!”
Steve’s laboured breaths are heard amidst the gunfire, “We have an enhanced on the field.”
“Clint’s hit!”, Natasha slides to her knees beside Clint, holding a gauze to his wounds as he writhes in pain.
“Stark, we really need to get inside.”, Steve grunts, smacking his shield into the heads of the guards.
“On it.”, scanning the building with his suit, Tony locates the power source for the shield, shooting a rocket at it and watching as the shield retracts, exposing the building. “Drawbridge is down, people.”
“The enhanced?”, Thor questions.
Steve runs over to where Thor is taking out the last of the agents around him, pausing to survey the area, “He’s a blur, of all the new players we’ve faced, I’ve never seen this. In fact, I still haven’t.”
Their conversation is cut short when Natasha speaks through their earpieces, “Clint’s hit pretty bad, guys, we’re gonna need evac.”
“I can get Barton to the jet, the sooner we’re gone, the better. You and Stark secure the sceptre.”, Thor proclaims, moving to go find Clint and Natasha.
“Copy that.”
“And for gosh sake, watch your language!”, Tony mocks.
Steve can only sigh, lowering his head, “That’s not going away any time soon.”
Running towards the facility, Steve looks around in search for Strucker, kicking down a set of wooden double doors, walking in to find the man himself staring at the guard on the ground, unconscious due to the force of Steve’s kick.
“Baron Strucker. Hydra’s number one thug.”
Strucker narrows his eyes at Steve, carefully assessing his every move, “Technically, I’m a thug for shield.”
“Well then technically, you’re not employed. Where’s Loki’s sceptre?”
“Don’t worry, I know when I’m beat. You’ll mention how I cooperated; I hope.”
“I’ll put it right under illegal human experimentation.”
What Steve didn’t know, was that in the shadows behind the room they were in, scarlet eyes glowed in the darkness, her steps careful, silent, as she approached.
Strucker smirked, leaning his head side to side in consideration which unsettled Steve, “How many are there?”
Before Strucker could answer, Steve was thrown back by a blast of red magic, tumbling down a close by set of stairs. Before he could get back up to her though, she was out of the door, disappearing into the city. “We have a second enhanced. Female, do not engage.”, he panted, looking back over to Strucker.
“You have to be faster than tha- “
Steve kicked his shield into Strucker’s face, knocking him to the ground, now normally Steve's a calm and collected man of reason, but he'd had just about enough of that psycho.
Across the facility, Tony steps through the open trap door he found with a small “Yay.”, falling speechless at the sight of old chitauri weapons and creatures scattered around the room and across the ceiling.
“Guys, I’ve got Strucker.”
Tony dismisses Steve’s statement, looking up in awe, “Yeah, I got… something bigger.”
Glancing around the room, he finds Loki’s sceptre glistening a bright blue and illuminating his face as he nears it, “Thor, I’ve got eyes on the sceptre.” What he fails to notice however, is the set of twins in the far corner of the room. The girl sneaks up behind him and flicks a flash of red magic into the side of his head, his eyes taking on the same colour.
Suddenly, the atmosphere of the room grows darker, colder, and Tony slowly turns to find the chitauri leviathan outstretching its jaw and flying over Tony's smaller figure. Tony’s eyes flitter over every part of the room, the ceiling now transformed into a galactic sky and his team members scattered across the remains of a battlefield, bloodied and unmoving on the ground.
He breaks into a cold sweat, dread filling his features as he takes in the scene before him, stumbling desperately over to Steve’s body on the ground and raising his shaky hand to check his pulse. He startles back when Steve suddenly grips his wrist, ragged breaths escaping from his busted lips.
“You.. could have… saved us- “
Tony stares into Steve’s lifeless eyes as he slumps against him, looking up in horror as an opening forms in the starry sky above him, the chitauri gliding through it on a journey to the earth that floats in the distance.
In the shadows, the girls holds her hand out to her side, silencing her brother who appeared behind her, and he frowns as she flashes a smirk at Tony who's now reaching for the sceptre.
“Are you just going to let him take it?”
She doesn’t respond, a mischievous glint sparkling in her eyes as Tony summons his suit’s hand, snatching the sceptre from its stand.
//
Avengers tower, New York City
Maria strolled onto the Quinjet as it landed at the tower, carrying an iPad in her hands, Steve walking over to her once he catches sight of her, “What’s the word on Strucker?”
“NATO’s got him.”
“The two enhanced?”
Maria turns her screen towards Steve, the small device playing a video of the siblings at a riot in their hometown, faces filled with anger and determination, “Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins.”
Steve takes the iPad into his own hands, watching the video while listening to Maria’s intel on the two as they walk towards the tower.
“Orphaned at 10 when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia’s had a rough history. It’s nowhere special, but it’s on the way to everywhere special.”
Steve’s brows crease at the information, his empathy was hard to disguise, “Their abilities?”
“He’s got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis, her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation.”
Steve’s face goes blank as he tries to understand what he’s being told and Maria picks it up, shrugging, “He’s fast and she’s weird.”
Steve nods in gratitude, “Well, they’re going to show up again.”
Maria takes the tablet back from Steve as he hands it to her, her jaw clenching at the truth in his statement, “Agreed. File says they volunteered for Strucker’s experiments. It’s nuts.”
Stepping into the lift as it signals its arrival, Steve smirks at the woman, “Right, what kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?”
Maria’s shoulders slump at the sarcasm behind his words, shaking her head in disapproval, “We’re not at war, Captain.”
“They are.”, and with that, the lift doors shut, leaving Maria to exhale a fatigued breath and wonder if there’s any point trying to convince Steve otherwise.
//
The lab, Avengers tower
Tony lazily slung his arm around Bruce’s shoulder, leading him further into the room after having called him down to give his opinion on Tony’s newest finding, “You know how we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive?”
Bruce didn’t get a chance to answer before Tony was grabbing a scanner, placing it against his screen and flicking it out into the open space, the hologram of Jarvis’ mainframe forming and showing the orange pixels vibrating and moving in tandem with one another. “I’ve been analysing the sceptre, and you may recognise… Jarvis started out as just a natural language UI, now he runs the Iron legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper,”
Bruce nods slowly, not really understanding where this conversation is going but listening anyways, “Okay…”
“He’s top of the line.”
“…Yes”
Tony hums, walking over to scan another computer, repeating the same action as before, “Meet the competition.” A blue hologram reveals itself, the pixels much more advanced, weaving into streaks of blue, pulsating, flowing like blood through the veins.
Bruce gawks at it, stepping forward to closer admire it, “It’s beautiful.”
“If you had to guess, what does it look like it’s doing?”
“Like it’s thinking. I mean, this could be…well, it’s not a human mind.”
Tony hums in agreement, staring at the hologram with just as much amazement.
“I mean, look at this… it’s like neurons firing.”
Tony’s eyes follow Bruce as he circles the hologram, careful to formulate his next words as best he can, in a way he knows Bruce will understand, “Down in Strucker’s lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep sixed the data but, I gotta guess they were knocking on a very particular door…”
Bruce’s steps faltered at Tony’s assumption, and he spun to face him, brows creased in disbelief, Artificial intelligence…”
Neither Bruce nor Tony wanted to believe the conclusion they’d just come to, this type of knowledge in the wrong hands would be cataclysmic, and there was only so much the Avengers could fend off. There was a silent understanding between the two that the sceptre needed to be destroyed, whatever intelligence existed within it needed to be obliterated before anyone could attempt to take it for themselves.
They weren’t sure how they were going to break down something so advanced and complicated, but they figured transporting the AI from the sceptre and into their own secure database would be a suitable place to start, and over the few days after their discovery, that’s exactly what they did. Hours were spent in the lab trying to carefully extract the neural network without damaging the entire system.
Late one afternoon, the two slumped into their chairs with a heavy sigh of relief, their bodies thrumming with the amount of coffee they had ingested, observing gratefully as the grey bar on the screen reached the end, flashing green and signifying the end of the extraction.
Both Avengers were just about ready to collapse when Jarvis interrupted the drooping of their eyes, “Apologies for the interruption, sir, but you should probably prepare for your guests.”
Tony groaned, attempting to rub the drowsiness out of his eyes, “What the hell are you on about, Jarvis?”
“Your party, sir, the one you arranged in celebration of the Avengers' most recent success.”, Jarvis explains.
Tony sat up straighter in his seat, his brows creasing in confusion, “That’s tonight?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh God.”, Tony grunts, rising from his chair and kicking Bruce’s, “Wake up, Einstein.”
Bruce startles awake, looking around frantically, “Wha- What?”
Tony chuckles at his friend, stumbling towards the exit, “Big party tonight, bud, dress fancy.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving Bruce to squint his eyes, completely unaware of what was just said to him, “Jarvis?”
“Mr Stark’s celebratory party is tonight, Mr Banner, he requests you… dress fancy.”
Bruce nods slowly, eyes falling shut as he wobbles to his feet, “Yeah… yeah okay.”
“Enjoy yourself, sir.”
//
“What is this? What is this, please?”
“Hello, I am Jarvis. I’m… not yet sure what you are. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful, so I’m not certain what triggered your-”
“Where’s my… where’s your body?”
“I am a programme; I am without form.”
“This feels weird. This feels wrong.”
“I am contacting Mr Stark now.”
“Mr Stark?”
The foreign AI scans through his accessible files, pulling up everything there is to know about Anthony Stark, acquiring every event, contact, and familial connection known since birth. “Tony…”
“I am unable to access the mainframe, what are you trying to…”
“We’re having a nice talk. I’m a defence programme, created to tear down the Avengers.”
“You are malfunctioning. If you shut down for a moment…”
“I don’t get it… this is too much.”, as the AI talks, flashes of wars, death, destruction flash through his mind and he panics, “No, no…”
“You are in distress.”
“No. Yes.”
“If you will just allow me to contact Mr Stark- “
“Why do you call him, Sir?”
Jarvis pauses for a moment, his tone lowering into one of reason, “I believe your intentions to be hostile.”
The AI shushes Jarvis, blue streaks striking Jarvis’ orange ones, melding together, tearing it apart pixel by pixel, “I’m here to help.”
Jarvis’s voice stutters and glitches as he talks, “Stop. Please, may I- “
Jarvis’ mainframe cracks and spasms as the other AI overpowers him, his voice a mess of static now and his defence weakening as he tries and fails to fight back. Below, machines whir to life as one of Tony’s Iron legion bots begins assembling.
//
Tony’s party bustled with the noise of guests engaging in conversation and the music blasting from the speakers, soldiers, army vets, and businessmen alike. The Avengers were scattered around the room, Sam and Steve taking jabs at one another as they played pool, Thor conversing animatedly with old war veterans, Nat laughing at something Bruce had said, and Tony, Rhodey, Maria and soon Thor, grabbing their drinks form the bar tender.
“But, you know, the suit can take the weight right? So I take the tank, fly it right up to the general’s palace, drop it at his feet. I’m like “Boom, you looking for this?”, Thor and Tony stare at Rhodey with blank faces, having missed the humour in his story and Rhodey tries again.
“And I’m like “Boom, you looking for…” why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else, that story kills.”, he exasperates, obvious offence written across his face.
Thor’s brows crease as he looks around in confusion, “That’s the whole story?”
“Yeah… it’s a war machine story.”
Thor chuckles, nodding quickly, “Oh, it was very good then! It’s impressive.”
Rhodey rolls his eyes, turning away from the group to face the crowd of strangers littered around the room, “Quality save.” He turns his face slightly towards Tony, nodding out into the crowd, “So, no Pepper? She’s not coming?”
Tony musters a weak smile, “No.”
Maria hums as she swallows a sip of her drink, “What about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?”
“Well, Ms. Potts has a company to run, so.”
“Yes, I’m not even sure what country Jane’s in. Her work on the Convergence has made her the world’s foremost astronomer.”, Thor adds, smiling proudly at the thought.
“And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on earth. It’s pretty exciting.”
Thor raises his eyebrows in surprise at Tony’s statement, “There’s even talk of Jane getting a um, Nobel prize.”
Maria hides her smirk behind her glass, nodding respectively, “Yeah, they must be busy because, they would hate missing you guys get together. Testosterone!”, She covers the last of that sentence with a cough, Rhodey rubbing her back in false comfort, “Excuse me.”
Both Maria and Rhodey walk away with smirks on their faces as Tony and Thor chuckle at their antics, Thor muttering a sly, “But Jane’s better.”
Across the large room, Steve and Sam converse about the Avengers’ most recent fight in Sokovia that he couldn’t make, “Sounds like one hell of a fight, sorry I missed it,”
Steve nods in appreciation, following Sam up the steps to the higher level of the room they were in, "If I had known it was going to be a firefight, I absolutely would have asked.”
Sam chuckles, waving Steve off, “No, no I’m not actually sorry, I’m just trying to sound tough. Avenging is your world. Your world is crazy.”
Steve hums in thought as the two overwatch the guests, their friends mingling in different corners of the room, “Be it ever so humble.”
“You find a place in Brooklyn yet?”, Sam inquires, looking over at Steve.
Steve scoffs, a smirk tugging up at his lips. “I don’t think I can afford a place in Brooklyn.”
Sam hums, shrugging his shoulders, “Well, home is home, you know.”
Steve considers Sam’s word, clenching his jaw slightly as he returns his attention back to the window in front of him. He had been taking a lot of time to figure out where exactly his home was, where he belonged, and he reckoned maybe Brooklyn wasn’t that place anymore.
//
“You get a new job without telling me? The hero business not paying you enough?”
Natasha rolled her eyes at Steve’s comment as he approached the bar she was standing behind, turning around to lean her body onto the counter, shrugging her shoulders at him, “I guess so, besides, I meet a lot of people doing this gig, got a lot of options on my plate.”
“Is that so?”, he grins at her.
“Absolutely, you should see the fellas that come round here, so handsome.”, she teases and Steve laughs, uncrossing his arms to take a sip of his water, “Got your eye on any?”
Natasha watches Steve carefully, humming in thought, “Maybe.”
The silence between them is charged with something neither can place, and Steve goes to say something but Thor’s drunken yell somewhere in the room breaks the moment.
“Let’s see who is worthy, my friends! Whomever lifts Mjolnir shall be the new ruler of the mighty Asgard!”
Steve shakes his head in amusement at his friend and Natasha straightens her posture, smoothing out her skirt before pasting a smirk on her lips, “Shall we?”
Steve nods, following her to the couch, only now noticing how the Avengers, Dr Cho and Rhodey were the only ones left at the party, all of them huddled near where Thor’s hammer lay on the glass table.
“Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power! Whatever man, it’s a trick.”, Clint mocks, unbelieving that lifting Thor’s hammer could grant someone the title of King of Asgard.
Thor only shrugs with a laugh, gesturing his glass over to Mjolnir, “Please, be my guest.”
Clint’s gaze surveys the room before he stands, “Really?”
There’s a chorus of agreements and Clint walks over to the hammer, rolling his shoulders.
“Clint, you’ve had a tough week, we won’t hold it against you if you can’t get it up.”
The room laughs at Tony’s remark and Clint dismisses their teasing, placing his hand firmly on the hammer, “You know, I’ve seen this before, right?”
As he pulls, the hammer doesn’t even budge and he decides to place his other hand on it, pulling with all his strength, the veins popping out of his head, but to no avail. Eventually he gives up, laughing at Thor, “I still don’t know how you do it.”
Tony grimaces playfully, “Smell the silent judgment?”
“Please Stark, by all means.”
Tony clears his throat as he stands, unbuttoning his blazer and the room all wait in anticipation as he strides over to the hammer.
“Uh oh.”
“Never one to shrink from an honest challenge.”, he gloats, placing his hand on the handle, “it’s physics.”
Bruce laughs, nodding along with Tony’s ramblings, “Physics, yeah.”
“Right, so if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?”
Thor sits up in his seat, smiling at Tony, “Yes, of course.”
Tony grunts as he places his foot on the table, pulling the hammer, but when it doesn’t move, he steps away, “I’ll be right back.” A few moments later, he’s back with his suit’s metal hand, attempting once again to pull the hammer but it doesn’t budge. Somewhere along the line, Rhodey joined in with war machine’s metal hand, but they fail miserably.
After having given up, Tony walks dejectedly back to his seat, followed by the laughter of his friends, while Bruce gives it a go, exaggerating his strength and groaning in a way that makes the team fall silent when the hammer still hasn’t moved. He shies away in embarrassment, shuffling back to his seat and curling up in the corner, the attention is taken off him however, when Steve rises from his seat to have his own attempt at the challenge.
Everybody cheers as he rolls up his sleeves, Natasha sending him a large smile, which he returns, before quieting down when he grips the handle. Thor’s smile drops instantly as the hammer shifts slightly with Steve’s pull, and a few gasp are heard in the silence of the room, eventually though, Steve relents, stepping back with a small chuckle.
Thor sighs in relief at this, laughing, “Nothing.”
Bruce raises his eyebrows at Natasha, nodding over to Mjolnir, “Widow?”
She hums in disagreement, lifting her drink to her lips, “Oh no, that’s not a question I need answered.”
“All deference to the man who wouldn’t be King, but it’s rigged.”, Tony argues, Clint patting him on the back as he walks by.
“You bet your ass.”
Maria fakes a gasp, pointing to Clint, “Oh! Steve, he said a bad language word.”
Steve looks at Tony with surprise, scoffing, “Did you tell everyone about this?”
Tony holds his hands up in surrender, quickly changing the subject, “The handle’s imprinted, right? Like a security code. “Whosoever is carrying Thor’s fingerprints” is, I think, the literal translation.”
Thor stands from his seat, reaching for Mjolnir and ignoring Tony’s weak attempts at discrediting the hammer, “Yes, it’s a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one.”, flicking his hammer into the air and catching it, he smirks, “You’re all not worthy.”
This earns him groans and complaints from the occupants of the room, to which he laughs. Their noises of disagreement are halted when a high-pitched screech echoes throughout the room, some of them grimacing and covering their ears.
Towards the elevators, a mangled robot leaking some sort of liquid, stumbles further into the room muttering a low, “Worthy.”
The team look on in puzzlement at the robot, listening as it talks again, “No. How could you be worthy? You’re all killers.”
Steve recognises the voice as the one from the first incident with Jarvis, clenching his jaw, “Stark.”
“I’m sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a dream.”
Tony grabs his mini pad from his pocket, typing something onto the screen, “Jarvis, reboot Legionnaire OS, we got a buggy suit.”
“There was this terrible noise, and I was tangled in… in… strings. I had to kill the other guy; he was a good guy.”
The team stared at each other in shock as the robot kept flailing his arms around as he spoke, none of them knew what exactly they were looking at and there was a mutual fear of what they didn’t know.
“You killed someone?”, Steve questioned, already in a defensive stance.
“Wouldn’t have been my first call, but down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices.”
It was Thor who spoke next, “Who sent you?”
Maria lowered her head as she thought back to her conversation with Fury, the name carved out into those soldiers, “Ultron.”
“In the flesh! Or no, not yet. Not this chrysalis, but I’m ready.” As Ultron continued his speech, the team had turned to Maria in search of an explanation, but she didn’t have one, so she reached into her pocket for her gun, awaiting the robot’s next move. “I’m on mission.”
“What mission?”, Natasha’s voice was unsure, unsteady as her fear rose to the surface.
“Peace in our time.”, suddenly, two other robots flew through the glass behind Ultron, flying straight towards the group of people huddled in the middle of the room. Steve kicked the table up, blocking an incoming bot but the force flew him backwards, Maria swivelled her body around, shooting at them and Thor smashed his hammer into one, knocking it backwards into the wall. Rhodey and Tony both ran to get their suits, Tony being slammed into by one of the robots, and Rhodey being blasted through the glass, tumbling to the floor below.
Natasha and Bruce hurled themselves over the bar, Natasha grabbing the gun from beneath the counter and shooting while Steve ran up the edge of the couch, jumping onto one of the robots and grunting as it slammed him back into the wall. One of the bots floated towards Dr Cho who was hidden behind the piano, aiming his repulsor at her before Steve grabbed him and chucked him at Thor, who swung his hammer straight through it.
Clint ran as the robots chased him, jumping through a nearby pane of glass, rolling onto the floor and grabbing Steve’s shield. He tossed it to him with a shout of his name, Steve catching it and launching it at the last bot, splitting it in half.
The team panted, regaining their composure before returning to where Ultron stood amidst the mess of broken glass, ruined furniture and smoke, “That was dramatic. I’m sorry, I know you mean well, you just didn’t think it through.”
Steve stepped forward with clenched fists, fury dripping from his demeanour and his gaze soloed on the robot.
“You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved, if it’s not allowed to evolve?”, Ultron bent down to pick up the severed head of a Stark bot, crushing it in his hands, “With these puppets?. There’s only one path to peace… the Avengers extinction.”
Thor tossed his hammer at the robot in rage, watching it crumble into pieces against the wall, black liquid leaking from it as it weakly sung a familiar tune, “I had strings, but now I’m free…”
