Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Can't you see?! This will help us end the war!" His eyes were wide and he didn't look to be himself any longer.

What had they done to him? What had they done to my boy?

"James..." I spoke cautiously, "We know nothing about this..new...project. I mean—how did you even meet these people? I thought you've been away on missions." I reminded him of the fact that the people coming to him, talking about this strange...serum, were completely hidden from society. We knew nothing about them.

He immediately started to shake his head as he stopped pacing back and forth, "No. Listen, Sergeant Romanov, this new serum has the ability to strengthen not only the body but the brain as well. If we could just go through the soldiers and find the ones best suited for the job, our army could be unbeatable—"

"Soldier." I interrupted and James froze. "You forget yourself and you forget your place." I took a step forward, shoving my finger onto his chest. "I want you to worry about nothing more but staying alive out on those battle fields. If this new serum was something we truly thought could help us win this war, we would look into it but that does not seem to be our plan moving forward."

I let my hand drop back down to my side as I continued, "I thank you for coming to me with this idea of yours but as of right now, it is not reasonable and I please ask of you to keep it to yourself." I raised my eyebrows, "Understood?"

Soldier Barnes blinked once, then twice before he spoke a cold and angry whisper, "Yes Ma'am."
I nodded once and then took a step back. "Thank you, Soldier. You are dismissed."
He looked me dead in my eyes for just a moment before he turned and exited the room.

I wasn't sure of what to think.

I knew that Buc—James was leaving soon to go on a mission and I didn't feel very good about us parting ways on a bad note. But then again, most days we were on a bad note.

I was introduced to Bucky through my childhood friend, Steve. I was slightly younger than the both of them but you could never tell. They both were very peuny boys so we always looked to be around the same age.

Bucky had always been a bit temperamental but a sweet boy, although I hadn't been on the receiving end of that sweetness unless he was flirting with me.
For some reason we never quite understood each other or how to get along with each other.

When my dad was promoted to the Sergeant Major of the Army just a couple of years before WWll had begun, he pulled some strings and got me training within a private headquarters. He said that he wanted me to be able to keep myself safe.

A year after that and I was overseeing the men's training program, seeing how much respect that I could earn from them as I was in fact a woman.
Then, just a couple months before the war began, I was put in charge of a unit.

It didn't take long for me to climb ranks. From Staff Sergeant to Command Sergeant Major. No woman had ever done it before but I did and it didn't matter what anyone said—I did do it on my own.
Yes, my father got me my first ever roll within the military but from then on it was as if we didn't know each other.

I liked to believe that he admired the way the soldiers feared me and listened to me, especially because I was a woman.

I knew that Bucky was in the Army, but when he had time off he only ever visited and spoke to Steve.

It didn't hurt me much since I knew we were never that close....

Okay—it hurt a lot.
Whatever.

He was a cute boy that no longer had any interest in me, sue me for missing the attention.

When I found out that the unit that Bucky was in was going to be working closely to mine, I was thrilled.
I wanted to see him, see how he was doing. See if he was safe.

It didn't do me much good to see him though because he was still continuing his streak of pretending not to know me.
Lovely.

I took in a deep breath before I quietly left the tent in which Bucky and I were having our private conversation in.
We were stationed at an unfamiliar base and it had barely any privacy built into it. There was only one genuine building and it was being used to create strategy so it was off limits to most.

I could hear men chit chatting and laughing over split beer and leftovers from dinner. They always gave out the leftovers to whoever would have 'em.

There were a group of men sitting around a crackling bonfire under a heavy night sky. The majority of the camp ran quiet, save for the occasional bark of an officer or the distant rumble of artillery far off in the hills. The stars were out tonight—scattered across the black like broken glass.

I sat down on a near by overturned crate just outside of the medical tent. I was too anxious to go to bed even though I desperately needed the sleep.
Word had it out that Steve was trying his very best to get into the military. Bucky had been telling me about it.

No way would that boy even survive a training day, let alone out on the actual field.

"I figured i'd find you brooding out here." A sudden voice right next to me caused me to jump slightly. I looked just to find the officer in charge of Buckys unit.
His name was Micheal and he seemed to speak to me quite often, it was almost becoming a routine.

I offered him a smile just as I nodded slightly, "Yeah well...there's a lot to brood over."
He let out a long sigh just as he agreed with me. "You ever think about what we're gonna do when this is all over?" He asked me and I had to truly stop and wonder...when was the last time I had thought about the war being over?

I couldn't even think of it, it had been so long.

I tilted my head back so that I could take another look at the stars. It was a rarity for us to be able to see them. "I used to." I gave him my simplest answer.
"You don't anymore?" He asked his follow up question and I let out a sigh.

"Well...no. I don't let myself," I said, shrugging. "You start dreaming about afterwards and you start making mistakes during. I can't afford that." I looked back down, taking a glance at my men surrounding the campfire. "My men can't afford that."

Suddenly, a flare popped in the distance and I could see it over Micheal's shoulder.
A signal.
A summons.

"That's me," I huffed out and plopped myself back onto the ground. "Command needs me on the map."

I quickly turned, starting to make my way to the building in which we would discuss tomorrow's events.
"Hey," Micheal called out and I turned to see him leaning against the crate that I was just sitting on. "Come back to me in one piece, yeah?"

I gave him a small smile as I couldn't stop the butterflies from fluttering into my stomach.

"I'll try my best." Was the only response that I could give before I continued my walk.

Chapter Text

"I'm sorry, what?"
Peggy shrugged, "He's a sweet kid."
"I'm perfectly aware of that so that is why I am asking you, why the hell is he here?!" I looked from Peggy to Micheal, back to Peggy.

They sorta glanced at each other before Micheal took the lead, "He snuck through the system. I think Colonel Phillips helped him."
"Of course he did." I nodded with a slight laugh. "Oh—God, Bucky is going to kill me." I muttered with the shake of my head.

"Murder." I made clear. "Take a gun and shoot me himself for letting this happened—Goddamnit!" I suddenly screamed, turning and slamming my hands into a table. The table went sliding across the floor but thankfully did not tip over.

"Who's Bucky..?" Peggy gently asked before she let out an abrupt, "Ohh...Barnes." She clapped her hands together. "I knew you guys knew each other!"
"Not the time Peggy." I muttered as my hand ran through my hair.

"Right...well, good news is, Rodgers is being put into a program which will hopefully help him." She declared and my eye brows immediately furrowed before I turned back to the two of them.
"What are you," I shook my head. "What are you talking about?"
"The super-soldier experiment." Micheal stated like I should've known about it.

The super-soldier experiment??

Buckys words suddenly rang through my head,

“this new serum has the ability to strengthen not only the body but the brain as well. If we could just go through the soldiers and find the ones best suited for the job, our army could be unbeatable”

"You're not being serious." They couldn't have been telling me the truth. No way was Steve put into that stupid program for a serum that may or may not kill him. "Tell me you're not being serious."
"Colonel Phillips didn't tell you?" Peggy asked, obviously confused.
"No. He didn't tell me."

I was going to kill somebody. I was going to kill Steve fucking Rodgers. "Where is he?" I quickly asked.
"Um...Colonel should be—"
"No, Steve." I interrupted Micheal to clarify.
"Oh.." He mumbled, looking to Peggy. My eyes followed and landed on Peggys nervous ones.

She swayed her arms back and connected her hands behind her back as she said, "He should be on his way to Starks lab."
I blinked. "Stark? That is who is carrying out this stupid experiment?"
Peggy just barely nodded her head.
"Okay, well.." I quickly walked forward and grabbed onto Peggys arm, "Your taking me there."

"Ow." She complained extra loud so that I would get the hint to let go.
I did not let go.
"Right now?" Micheal asked urgently, quickly following us.
"Right now." I repeated.

I located a car and we all piled into it. I forced Micheal to drive as he was the only one who knew where Starks lab was.

He drove as fast as he could—his words not mine—as I urged him to drive faster the whole time. He just kept asking me if I wanted the car to break down and I would say that I could run faster than the speed that we were going. Then he would slam on the breaks and kick me out the car but Peggy wouldn't let him drive away without me being back in the car.

That happened a few times which caused us to take double the time which was necessary to make it to the lab.

The minute the car was in park, I jumped out of it and rushed into the building using the first door that I saw.
Peggy rushed in after me.

We were both wearing heels and dresses as today was one of our only days off so running throughout random halls and down random staircases was not the easiest thing to do.
I looked hot though.

"What way am I going?" I yelled back just as I made it to the bottom of the staircase. I knew that my voice would echo so I waited for an answer from Peggy.
A minute later I heard her yell, "Left."

I took off.
A sharp turn took me down the left hallway which led to another set of stairs.
I groaned just as I mumbled, "I'm going to kill you, Steve. I'm going to do it." and started my way down the stairs.

This staircase was much shorter than the last so I was grateful for that.
The minute I made it to the bottom, I came face to face with a door that I didn't hesitate to open. That led me to a gigantic room with many people in it. A small staircase was laid out in font of me with onto a few stairs to walk down but I didn't focus on entering the room until I found who I needed to find.

My eyes found Steve instantly.
"Steve." I shouted with venom lacing my tone.
He froze just before turning around. "Oh—hey, Val."
I narrowed my eyes on him as I aggressively slammed my heels down onto the first step, "Don't "hey, Val" me. I'm going to beat your ass." My heels slammed down onto the next step.

A heard a few whistles and a few disturbing comments from different men in the room but I just simply ignored them and continued my way down the stairs.

Steve cleared his throat. "Valeska, you know we don't—"
"What the actual fuck are you doing?! Bucky is going to kill me, you know that?" I was on the ground and quickly making my way over to him.

His hands instantly raised as he cautiously took a step back. "I would like to remind you that i'm older than you."
By, like, two seconds. "And yet, you look and act much younger than me."
"That's offensive."
I chuckled, "Your dead, boy."

"Alright, who is ready to get me in this thing." Steve urgently looked around to the many scientists in the room as he pointed to a large metal chamber looking thing.

And just as I made it to Steve, the door that I walked through slammed open and Penny and Michael piled into the room.
"Sorry!" Peggy instantly shouted out and Micheal rushed down the stairs, running after me.
"Okay, okay, okay." He got to me before I could get to Steve because of my stupid heels. I didn't want to fall in front of all of these men and make a bigger full of myself so I was taking each step very precisely, Micheal didn't have that issue.

He locked his hands around my arms and practically picked me up as he dragged me back. "This is his decision, okay Valeska?"
"Nope. Not okay." Now I was throwing a tantrum.
"Alright." He nodded once before shoving my arms into one hand and using the other to cover my mouth.

My eyes went wide at the absurdity. I was going to kill him instead.
"It's ready." Colonel Phillips voice announced and he made his way over to Steve from another part of the room.

I was now being forced to walk back up the stairs and through the door, leaving the room with Micheal.
Peggy followed shortly after, taking one long look at Steve before exiting.
We all walked into some over head room that had a wall of glass allowing us to peer into the room.

Micheal didn't let go of me that whole time.

Chapter Text

"Still nothing..?" I asked my father and he just about had enough of me, causing him to snap at me. 

"No, Valeska. Now I have work to do so if you could please make yourself busy. Thank you." He didn't even look up at me this time but I slowly nodded my head anyway before I turned and walked away from his desk. 

James had been missing for over a month. 

A month. 

Actually, a group of men went missing and they were all just classified as dead a couple weeks afterwards. 

Including Jame—Bucky.

Some were saying that they were captured but others were saying some kind of bomb went off which took any evidence of their deaths. 

As hard as it was to think of, I was just hoping that Bucky had been captured. That gave me hope for him to still be alive. 

"Val." I heard my name from not far away and I turned at the sound of it.

A man, taller and much bigger than me, was standing there and I was confused on who the hell he was for only a moment. 

As it clicked in my brain that Steve was standing in front of me I let out an, "Oh." I blinked a couple of times to try and get that in my head before I asked, "Yeah, what's up?" 

Steve chuckled lightly before scratching the back of his head. "Umm...have you, maybe, seen Buck?" 

My heart sank to my ass and dread took the place of it. 

"Oh." I repeated but with a much different tone this time. "Right, well, I actually have something that I need to talk to you about." 

Steve's face quickly turned serious and he furrowed his eyebrows, "Okay..." 

I nodded once before I turned and started to make my way into one of the many tents set up around base. 

I could hear Steve's quick steps trailing me the whole way. 

It took a minute but I finally found an empty tent and I made sure to shut the entrance so that I could attempt to give us as much privacy as I could. 

Steve looked really worried now. 

"You should sit down for this." I breathed out as I nodded towards the cot. 

"Val.." 

"Alright." I nodded. "Okay, so...Bucky. Yeah. He went on this specific mission with a group of other men, right? Okay. Well...."

"Val, slow down." Steve interrupted. "You aren't making any sense." 

"Bucky might be dead." 

Ripped that bandage right off and it wasn't so painless for Steve. 

Yeah...actually, he took the news much worse than I did and somehow Peggy got the news to me that Steve was going to go on his own mission. 

He was acting like a fucking idiotic imbecile that didn't know what he was getting himself into. 

I laughed in Peggy's face when she told me what Steve was planning on doing. 

Yeah—I thought that she was joking. 

She was not. 

"He has only ever been in commercials and shit!"  I reminded her with wide eyes, "The only thing he knows how to do with his new body is plaster it all over the newspaper." 

"This could be good for him." Peggy tried to reassure me.

"I must be going insane." I finalized. 

"Look, I will get him some kind of uniform and then I will get him a plane out there—"

"No," I held out a hand and shooed away her idea. With a sigh, I continued. "I will get us uniforms and weapons. No promise on a team but i'll try my best." 

Peggy slowly nodded her head as a gentle smile spread on her lips, "Thank you." 

I cracked a smile as well. "Well, if Steve insists." I joked and she barely laughed before turning serious again. 

"So you're going to go with him." It was more of a statement than a question but I knew that she was just making sure that I was sure. 

"I cant leave my boy to fight on his own." I told her even though I regretted the decision already. 

She sighed as her eyes were filled with sorrow. Too much sorrow. 

We weren't going to die. 

I wouldn't let it happen. 

But I could tell she had no faith in that. 

"And how are you going to get what is needed for this mission?" She asked me and I timidly glanced over to the Sergeant Major—my father. 

"That won't work." Peggy instantly said with no doubt in her voice. 

"I'll pull rank." I stated and Peggy counter that statement,

"He has a higher rank." 

"But i'm his daughter." 

"You know that he has never acknowledged that." 

"He will now." I insisted before turning and walking towards him—before Peggy could sike me out of it. 

I trained good soldiers, the best soldiers actually. I was respected. I had a high rank. I was apart of almost every single battle brief and discussion. Every map, every plan...I was apart of it. 

He could do this one thing for me.

He would do this one thing for me. 

Walking up to him was already risky, not many did that. I tried to keep it down to a minimum. 

I had already approached him as I was asking him about Bucky, he didn't seem to be very happy about it that so I was going to have to really suck up to him if I wanted even a shot at getting what I wanted. 

"Sergeant Major." I spoke at my arrival to his desk. It took a minute but he eventually looked up from the paper he was writing on. 

"Sergeant." He said as a way to tell me to get on with whatever I needed to tell or ask him. 

"I am organizing a search and rescue mission in enemy territory. Just me and one other. I would like access to two uniforms and some weapons as well as a plane with a pilot." I explained the situation as scarcely as I could and I spoke with confidence in my voice. 

My father instantly furrowed his eyebrows, "Enemy territory?" 

I nodded once. "Hitlers main base."

The eyebrows raised this time, "And for what, again?" 

"Search and rescue. I have been made to believe that many of our soldiers have been taken in as hostages over our past few battles." I explained and my father obviously did not think that it was a good idea. 

"No." He suddenly said with no thought given to the plan. He turned and began writing whatever the fuck he was writing before. 

I blinked. 

No? 

No?

"Sir, it wouldn't cost us much to just send myself and one soldier into their base. We would be in and out and it would save the lives of many." 

My father titled his head, "Or take two more lives." 

"We are not afraid of that." 

"I know, which is precisely why this is stupid." He was speaking so calmly that it was making me upset. 

My voice became more urgent. "This is not stupid. Our men have been taken." 

"You sound like a child." He was treating me like one. "Now please excuse yourself." 

It was as if I was 5 and sitting at the dinner table, learning manors for the first time. What the fuck was this?! 

I opened my mouth to say something else, anything else. But I said nothing. 

Like always. 

I said fucking nothing. 

Who cared about rank, I was his daughter. 

The daughter that he didn't respect in anyway yet I was being forced to respect him. I had no other choice. 

Respect. 

Respect. 

Respect. 

Was I truly respected? 

I was feared...but respected? 

Obviously not. 

I turned and began walking away, excepting defeat on the situation. 

But then I saw a group of soldiers...laughing to themselves as they glanced over at me. 

They were laughing at me and my attempt at rescuing their fellow soldier. Their friends. Their mutuals. Their brothers. 

I froze in my foot steps. 

I was forced to respect my father just as any other bellow me was forced to respect me. 

But they didn't respect me because they laughed at me behind my back. They didn't respect the work that I put in to keeping them alive everyday, helping them get home to their families. 

We were one of the only bases to have not been attacked because of me and the work that I put in. 

With one impulsive thought, I was yelling. 

"I am the highest ranking officer anywhere I fucking go!" I finally snapped, whipping my body around and pointing at my so-called father. "And this base—" I looked up to the many men now watching this argument as no one ever dared to even raise their voice at the Major. "better start fucking acting like it!!" I was screaming. Like—top of my lungs screaming. 

My father's eyes were wide with rage and a smile crawled onto my face, "Be very fucking careful with the way you talk to me in these next few moments." 

"You're out—Valeska." He shrugged, dropping the pen in his hand onto the table as he did so. 

I scoffed as I looked away from him for a moment, shaking my head. "That's Sergeant to you." I informed him as I looked to his eyes once again. 

"The hell it is." My father abruptly stood from his seat and I took a slight step back. 

"You better fucking step back." He taunted me and I couldn't believe that the man standing in front of me was my father. 

"Try me." I shrugged, "You gonna fight your own daughter? Very manly of you." 

Before I knew what was happening, a harsh slap sent my face flying to the side and I could taste the blood leaking into my mouth almost instantly.

He didn't move any further as his eyes glared into my own. A make-believe staring contest that I wasn't going to lose.

"This base," I shook my head as I spoke much more quietly than before. "Nothing. It's nothing without me." I began tapping on my chest, angry tears piercing into my eyes. "I trained these men and I made a name for us. The first fucking woman, in the world, to become the Command Sergeant Major of an Army base." I took a step towards my father, "People fear me and my name. Not yours." 

I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of that because...how pathetic did he have to be for a woman to be more feared than him?! 

"And i'm a woman!" I barked out and laid a hand over my chest as I laughed in his face. 

I. Laughed. In. His. Fucking. Face. 

"How pathetic." 

He blinked a few times as I just barely spotted the very little amount of water lingering in his eyes. 

A fucking bitch ass Sergeant Major. 

The staring contest was over and I glanced down to his desk to try and see what the hell he was writing before I came over to him. 

It was a letter to someone. Who? I didn't really care. 

My eyes wandered over to the newspaper sitting next to the letter and I quickly shoved him to the side as I grabbed a hold of it, yanking it into my hands and flipping it opened. 

"Valeska Romanov." I read from the pages. "Valeska Romanov. Valeska Romanov. Valeska Romanov. Valeska Romanov. Valeska Romanov." Each time I read my name, it came out faster and harsher. "Mh," I titled my head. "Your name doesn't seem to appear anywhere."

My point was proven.

Chapter Text

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid." I repeated to myself as I repeatedly pressed the end of my gun onto my head—hitting myself again and again. 

"Calm down, Val. We got this." Steve's voice gave me no reassurance, especially because of the amount of doubt laced within it. 

"We do not, got this." I made clear. "This is enemy territory we're talking about." 

My head shook with fear, "Have you seen the camps of innocents that Hilter has set up? Innocents. What do you think happens to his real enemies when they are caught?" I asked Steve and he looked to be almost numb just as he asked, "You mean Bucky?"

That shut me up. 

The chance of something happening to us was worth the chance of getting Bucky out of that place—if he was in it. 

"Okay so, the Hydra camp is in Prosper tucked in between these two mountain ranges." Peggy began to explain as she unfolded the map sitting next to her and then pointed to where she was talking about. "It's a factory of some kind." She stated and I nodded, scooting closer to where she was sitting so that I could see the map better.

Steve was now so big that all he had to do was lean onto his elbows onto his knees and he was practically looking directly down onto the map. 

"We should be able to drop you two around the doorstep." The pilot called back to us and I smiled to be polite, even though he couldn't see me.

"Just get us as close as you can." I told him and Steve nodded at me in agreement.

We didn't want to put either the pilot or Peggy in danger just for Steve and I to do this. 

"You know, you two are going to be in a lot of trouble when we land." Steve spoke the words that I was thinking. 

"And you two won't?" She glanced from Steve over to me. 

"Where we are going, if anyone yells at us we can just shoot them." I told Peggy as I sat back and proceeded to load my gun. 

"And they will, undoubtedly, shoot back." Peggy told me but I just simply shrugged.

Steve grabbed ahold of his shield that he had been using as a prop for the past months. "Well let's hope it's good for something." He said, looking down at it. 

"Agent Carter," The pilot called back from where he was sitting. "If we're not in so much of a hurry I was thinking we could stop off in Lucerna for a late night fondu." 

Peggy didn't say anything, she just glanced at Steve with worried eyes.

He looked to her with deadly eyes. Ohhhh, he was madddd. 

I was glancing between the two of them with raised eyebrows. 

"Stark is the best civilian pilot that I have ever seen." Peggy suddenly said—a little louder than necessary. "He's brave enough to fly through this airspace, we are lucky to have him." 

Seriously..? Stark. 

That was who was flying this damn plane?! 

Steve slowly began to nod before he motioned between Stark and Peggy. "So are you two..." 

I blinked.

"Do you..?" 

Peggy tilted her head, waiting for Steve to spit out his inappropriate question. 

"Fondu." He stated with a nod, like that meant something? 

I slapped his chest and he instantly looked at me with raised eyebrows.

My eyes were wide and they sent all the message that I needed to get him to shut up. 

"This is your transponder." Peggy, thankfully, began to explain. She was just deciding to move past Steve's idiotic and unnecessary question. 

"Activate it when you guys are ready and the signal will lead us straight to you." Peggy handed me the boxy device, "Just make sure you two are together when you do activate it or we won't be able to get the both of you out of there." 

Steve took the device out of my hands and I instantly smacked him. Now that he had more muscle to him, I could hit him a lot harder and he didn't even flinch. 

"You sure this thing works?" Steve yelled out to Stark and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. 

"Here we go..." I muttered. 

Steve was flipping the device around in his hands as Stark said, "It's been tested more than you, pal." 

Suddenly a sharp hit raddled the plane. 

An alarm started to alert Stark, just as the turbulence only grew worse. 

I grabbed ahold of the seat next to me so that I wouldn't fall off my own seat, seconds later I felt Steve's around wrap around my waist just as he stood—taking me with him. 

His other hand slammed the transponder into my own hand and Peggy stood up urgently just as Steve flung open the back doors to the plane. "Get back here!" Her hands latched onto Steve's arm which held his shield, trying to pull him back. "We're taking you all the way in!" 

The sound of the planes engine failing was so loud that I could barely hear Peggy. Small explosions shot out of it and I pushed against Steve slightly to let him know that he could let me go. 

"As soon as we're clear, you turn this thing around and get the hell out of here!" Steve shouted out to Peggy and I grabbed onto two parachutes, slammed one into Steve's hands while I began to wrap mine around myself. 

"You can't give me orders!" Peggy insisted but Steve just simply shook his head as he shouted back, 

"The hell I can't! I'm a captain!" He smiled after his little joke as Peggy had no amusement on her face. 

Steve's parachute was tightly strapped onto him just as mine was and he looked back at me, grabbing onto my hand as he nodded once. 

I nodded back at him before looking to Peggy and saying, "I'm sorry." 

Then we jumped.

So many shots were being fired from the ground that I was almost certain we wouldn't make it five feet without being shot but as we both rushed to different parts of the ground, our parachutes opened and we slowed down just enough to not die from impact. 

I looked up to see Peggy's plane turning around a faint smile spread across my face. 

I prayed to God that she would be okay. 

The minute I landed on the ground, I was far from Steve. I needed to find where the hell he landed so that we could figure out our game plan. 

We made a faint plan back at the base but it was nothing definite. It was thrown together quickly as this whole situation was activated through impulse. 

I had a plan of my own that I was mainly going to follow and it seemed pretty good to me, all I needed to do was sneak past the guards and find an opening into their base...the only problem with that was that there was no way I was sneaking past those guards without being noticed. So I was most definitely going to have to kill a bunch of people. 

I sucked at doing that. 

I wasn't going to lie—I had shit aim. I had no clue how the soldiers did it. I always had the gun sitting where it needed to sit in my hands and then I would get it close to my face so that I could try and aim where the bullet would be heading...then it wouldn't hit and I was screwed. 

What I was good at, on the other hand, was hand to hand combat. I could break a guys spinal cord in less than a second. 

That was what helped me become Staff Sergeant....that and my father. 

But whatever.

I quickly unlatched the parachute from my body and then I tried to look around and see what way I need to go. Many trees were surrounding me which made it extremely difficult to know where the base was exactly—I was honestly shocked that I didn't land in a tree, there were so many. 

I soon decided on heading East. I had a compass in hand and I followed the way it led me all the way until I could hear men talking and tanks moving. 

I changed directions a little bit but soon found myself hiding behind a tree directly next to an entry way. 

My only problem was that there were so many men, I didn't think i'd be able to go anywhere—not even run further into the forest without getting shot. 

Shit.

It was foggy and the sun was no where in sight, as it was night time, so nobody could see me as I peaked around the tree. 

My eyes locked into the many men who were running towards the same direction. They were all extremely distracted my something. 

By someone. 

"Yes, Rodgers!" I murmured to myself just as all the guys that I was worried about suddenly left their stationed spots.

Within seconds I was able to quickly make my way across the long spread of dirt grounds and to the door that I planned on walking through. 

My hand instantly grabbed a hold the handle and as I pressed it down, I rammed my shoulder into the door as I was expecting it to open immediately. 

Nope. The door was locked and I all I did was put myself through a lot of pain. 

"Ow.." I groaned, sliding down the door slightly as I had boney shoulders. That hurt like a bitch.

I needed to figure out another plan and I had to do it fast. Huffing out a breath of air, I turned away from the door—

A gun was pointing at my face. 

I froze. 

"Well that was fast." I murmured just before my hand rushed up to the tip of the gun and I rushed it down and away from my face, then I used my other hand to punch the guy in the face. 

A shot was fired out of the gun but all it did was hit the floor. I twisted the gun sharply and then yanked at it, trying to just simply take it from the man but he obviously did not let go.

I then slammed it forwards, which caused it to hit the man straight in the gut and he let out a sharp groan. 

My foot went flying towards him, landing straight in the groin area which led him to bend over in pain. That was when I quickly grabbed the strap of my gun, which was lying over my shoulder, and pulled the gun to my hands. I was close enough that this shot would be easy. 

With a shot to his back, he was on the ground and paralyzed if not dead. 

I crouched down next to him, rolling the body over with a grunt forced out of me. He was really freaking heavy. 

A ring of keys was strapped to his belt and I thanked God for giving me it. 

I ripped the ring straight off of his belt and I popped up off of the ground, rushing back over to the door. 

I tried to just guess on which key would work and—Holy Shit. I am a phenomenal guesser! 

The door opened for me with just the lightest push and my heart rate picked up with excitement. 

I was closer to finding Bucky. Much closer.

I had no clue where Steve was but I wasn't focused on that. He could take care of himself. He was a newley made super soldier after all. 

I quietly closed the door behind me and examined where I was. It was an empty and dark room which had a glowing blue device as its only light source. 

My eyebrows furrowed as I had never seen something like the device every before in my life. 

Was this some kind of new nuclear weapon? 

Oh no—I had to get this information to my father and I had to do it fast. Something like this could cause us to lose the war. 

With a more frantic urgency, I rushed across the room and through another door. That led me to some random hallway that I crossed quickly.

Another door was at the end of the hall and just as I went to open it, someone else opened it from the other side. 

My eyes widened and my hands rushed to my gun, pulling it off of my shoulder and pointing it at whoever I was about to meet.

The door widened and the minute I saw the colors of the American Flag, I let out a harsh sigh of relief. 

"Damn it, Rodgers." 

"Woah—woah!" Steve whisper-shouted.

I rolled my eyes and lowered my gun just before taking a quick glance behind him. "What's that way?" I nodded towards the halls behind him. 

He just simply shook his head as he walked forward slightly and let the door fall shut behind him. "Just dead ends." 

I slowly nodded my head as I turned to look at what we were dealing with. There was really no where else to go. 

I took in the hallway that we were in and that was when I realized the damn thing was completely made out of glass. 

"Um...Steve." I spoke up and he let out a low, "Mh?" 

I pointed to the glass we were standing on, "Look down." 

Below us was a complete other room with what looked to be hundreds of hostages. Many cells were built in throughout the room and more than double of how many prisoners were supposed to be in the cells were shoved in them. They all looked to be slowly dying...

Before I could even say another word on what we were going to do, a loud bang echoed throughout the hall and all of the glass underneath of us shattered into a million pieces. 

Steve fucking shot the glass. 

My eyes widened as we began to fall and I quickly tried to find what on Earth I was about to land on. 

There was some kind of thing that looked to be a water tank directly underneath of us which shortened the drop. 

I braised for impact as my feet slammed down onto the tank and the pressure flooded from my feet up to my head. I couldn't stop my legs from collapsing and before I knew it, I was lying on my back and letting out a groan of pain. 

"Damn it, Rodgers." I said for the second time and he let out a laugh. 

"I didn't really think that through." 

"Yeah, no shit." A cough pushed itself up my throat and I suddenly couldn't stop coughing. I eventually sat up and try to hunch over a bit to really get it all out of me but gosh.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked, sitting up with my but I just stuck a hand out as my other hand held onto my chest. 

More and more coughing. 

"Val."

"I'm fine." I croaked out, coughing one last time. 

After a moment of silence, Steve started laughing and I instantly shoved him off of the water tank. 

He rushed to the ground with a harsh thud and I slid off of the tank moments later. 

That was when I heard a deep voice come from somewhere else in the room, "Sergeant Romanov?"

My eyes snapped over to where I heard the voice coming from just to see a cell of men all staring at both me and Steve.

Many cells lingered behind them and I didn't waste a second before I was sprinting over to them all. 

"Who are you supposed to be?" Some guy asked as he was staring at Steve. 

"I'm...um...Captain America." He replied nervously yet confident. I couldn't help but let out a light laugh just as I held out a hand and said, "Keys."

Steve threw the keys to me and I unlocked the first set of hostages. 

We began to run around to each cell and unlock the doors, asking each cell of guys if they had seen Sergeant James Barnes. 

"There's an isolation ward in the factory." A random guy spoke up. "But no one's ever come back from it." 

My heart dropped but I just simply nodded my head. "Alright." 

"Okay—listen." Steve suddenly began talking. "The tree line is northwest, 80 yards past the gate. Get out fast and give 'em hell." 

I nodded as I turned towards the soldiers, "Got that?" I asked with raised eyebrows. Their eyes all fell onto me just before they quickly nodded.

"We'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else we find." I explained. 

"Wait—you know what you're doing?" Some guy asked and he obviously meant it as an insult. He was reminding me that I am a woman.

"Don't get yourselves killed because then this would've been a huge waste of my time." Was the only response that I gave him before I left with Steve to go, hopefully, find Bucky.

Chapter Text

"Bucky." I breathed out as I saw him. 

He was strapped down to a fucking table. Steve went into the room first because he wanted to be all manly or something, I didn't know nor did I stop him, so he was already moving towards Bucky to get him off of the table. 

He was mumbling random numbers as his eyes were closed, "Three-two-five-five-seven." 

I was frozen in the doorway but Steve was already to him. "Bucky." He said urgently and Bucky instantly stopped speaking as he opened his eyes. 

"Oh my God..." Steve muttered and instantly started to unstrap Bucky from the table. 

That was when I finally snapped myself back into reality and rushed over to the two of them, helping Steve with the straps.

"Hey—Hey, Bucky. It's me, it's Val." I said just as I unstrapped the last one keeping him tied down to the table. I set a hand on his shoulder just as he looked at me with confused eyes. 

"Valeska?" 

"Mhm." I nodded and I looked to Steve, "Steve's here too." 

"Steve." Bucky stated just as Rodgers started to lift him up. 

"Yup, come on." He nodded and gently helped Bucky off of the table. Bucky slightly fell onto Steve as he was finally standing and they both just kinda stared at each other for a moment. 

"I thought you were dead." Steve finally spoke and Bucky looked him up and down. 

"I thought you were smaller." 

I cracked a smile but the moment was short lived as we suddenly heard an explosion from the hall. 

Steve looked to me and then to something behind me. I followed his gaze to see a map. I didn't really get to memorize it before Steve was throwing one of Buckys arms around his shoulder and starting towards the door. 

"Come on." He shouted to me and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion at his sudden mood change but didn't waste a second before following. 

As we left the room and rounded a corner, Bucky spoke up in a wobbly voice. "What happened to you?" He asked Steve. 

"I joined the Army." He replied in a joking voice as we all knew he could have never gotten that big just from joining the freakin Army.

"He let some scientists shove that serum you told me about into his body." I told Bucky and he let out a sharp laugh, 

"No way you actually did that." 

"Badass, huh?" Steve raised his eyebrows.

"More like sneaky. Didnt you know about Val's opinion on that thing."

"What—the super serum?" 

"Yes, the super serum." Bucky said just as he lifted his arm off of Steve's shoulders and began walking on his own. 

We were walking so fast that we were almost running but Bucky still managed to stay with us even though he was limping. 

"I guess I never asked Valeska her opinion on the matter." 

"Mh." I spat out, "How ironic." 

A cheesy smile slid onto Buckys face just before he asked, "Did it hurt?" 

"A little." Steve shrugged as he tried to play it off but I couldn't stop myself from tattling on him. 

"Don't you believe a word he says, he was screaming like a little girl that whole time."

Bucky let out a laugh and Steve pushed my arm without even looking at me. 

Before, that wouldn't have even fazed me. Now...I sorta went flying into the wall. 

Luckily, I caught myself before I smashed right into it. My jaw was dropped in surprise, "You little—"

"So is this new look permanent?" Bucky interrupted me and I widened my eyes with rage. 

"So far." Steve said shortly and I had to run to catch up with them. 

They kept speeding up so every time I thought I was caught up and I began to slow down slightly, I would just have to speed back up again. 

After a hot minute of this happening, I finally started to complain. "Come on, guys, slow down—"

A hand grabbed onto my shoulder and before I knew it, I was looking up at the ceiling. 

The air was knocked out of me and my eyes were wide. Tears swelled in my eyes as I did not have air moving through my lungs. 

Fuck fuck fuck. 

A boot smashed into my side and I went flying into the wall next to me.

And he's strong as fuck, awesome!

A sharp pinch in my neck caused me to freeze up for a minute but it was gone seconds later—just as air graciously decided to fill my lungs once again. 

By the time I rolled over, Bucky and Steve were already beating the guy up. 

I didn't exactly care to watch that so I just stared up at the ceiling as I focused on catching my breath. 

"Are you okay?" Bucky asked as I could feel him get closer to me. 

"Never better." My voice sounded like a frog and I began coughing right after speaking. 

"Here," Steve held out a hand as he walked over to me and I great fully took it. He helped me stand up but as he did so a shooting pain ran throughout my entire body.

"Fuck." I muttered as my eyes squeezed shut for a moment. 

"What, what—are you okay?" Steve urgently asked as his other hand gently sat on my lower back. 

I didn't say anything and I didn't move. 

"Valeska." Bucky spoke up and I held out a hand to shut him up. 

"I'm...fine." Sharp inhales of breath were helping me speak. "He just probably broke something." 

Steve's hands slowly fell away from me and another shooting pain rushed through my body.

"Yeah, he broke something." I nodded and I opened my eyes so that I could focus on moving. A broken bone didn't change anything. I had broken bones before, it wasn't new to me. 

I decided to try and take a step forward but my body did not like that.

My legs went weak and I almost fell but luckily Steve rushed forwards and caught me. "Mhm.." I mumbled out in a whine. "Definitely broke something."

"No, no, no—you're fine." Steve insisted. 

All I could do was shake my head. This was one of the one times that I just couldn't agree with that...I couldn't just hide the pain this time because for some reason it felt multiplied.

I had gotten so many injuries throughout the war, including being shot, but this...something about this ached and burned. It was taking over my entire body and the only thing that I could classify it as was a broken bone. 

Bucky was looking from me to Steve again and again before he began to speak. "Okay, so, think about...um...think about—"

"Bucky." I interrupted him and he closed his mouth, waiting for me to continue. 

"Stop." 

"Got it." He nodded once. 

We made it to the abandoned room and another explosion went off in the distance which caused me to flinch slightly. A shooting pain ran throughout my entire body and I winced. 

Another explosion. They were getting closer and we were running out of time. 

Steve lifted me up and sat me down on a table that was laid against the back wall to the room just as I moved my hand to grab the transponder out of my pocket. 

We were out of time and Steve needed to get everyone out. He needed to get Bucky out. He didn't choose this. He was drafted into the Army. Steve and I chose this. 

The minute the transponder was in my hand, I slammed it into Steve's hand. "Take.." I winced, "This." 

Steve's eyebrows furrowed as he looked down to his hand, "What—why, I don't..." 

I began to nod just I looked to Bucky. "Hey, i'm gonna need you to take over for me alright?" 

"Valeska." Steve stated and I closed my eyes as the pain was starting to get really bad. 

Explosions were getting closer. 

"We have to go, Steve." Bucky said and I felt a hand land on my knee. 

I opened my eyes to see Bucky staring right at me. So much sorrow filled his eyes but as I looked to Steve, only anger filled his. 

"I don't know what's..." Goddamnit! "What's wrong with..me...Steve." The pain was getting worse and worse. What the hell did that guy do to me? 

"You have to get the men home or this whole mission was worth nothing." 

"I don't care, Val! I'm not leaving you here!!" He suddenly screamed and I took in a deep breath before I tried my best to yell,

"I can't walk!" 

"I'll carry you." Steve shrugged and I instantly shook my head. 

"Too painful." 

"So is dying." 

"I don't care." 

Another explosion. 

"There had to be some kind of med kit throughout here." Bucky suddenly said and he darted out of the room before I could even think, his hand leaving my leg. 

"See," Steve threw out his hand, "That's a good idea!" 

"You gonna help him, Cap?" I asked as my eyes fell shut again and a second later I heard Steve's footsteps running out the room. 

I was going to die...I truly was going to die. 

I needed to get Steve to listen to me, to get the men home. 

No matter what—I was a goner. If Steve did manage to get me out of here, I would never make it home. He needed to leave and he needed to it soon because the place was obviously falling to shambles. 

I heard footsteps walking back into the room so I quickly opened my eyes. 

It was Bucky.

"Hey," He started as he rushed over to me. "I'm going to need you to keep your eyes opened for me." He said and his hands gently cupped my face, tilting it up towards him. "Okay?" He asked and I blinked rather slowly before saying, "Okay."

He had never been this kind to me or this gentle with me....nor had he ever held onto my face. This was all new. 

After a moment or two, his hands fell away from my face and they laid against the top of my knees, end of my thighs. 

Bucky wouldn't pull his eyes away from me and I tried my best to keep the eye contact but for some fucking reason I was feeling very tired. 

After a couple minutes, Bucky grew to be very antsy. 

He walked away from me to pace around the room but he kept his eyes on me. It was kinda creepy. 

Then all of a sudden he stopped and looked straight at me. "I'll be right back, okay?" 

I furrowed my eyebrows but nodded. "Okay." 

"Please don't die while i'm gone, okay doll? Please, please, please , don't die."

I stuck up a weak thumbs up and Bucky nodded once. "Right back—i'll be right back, just gonna go check on Steve." 

"Mhm." 

"Okay...don't die." Then he was running out of the room.

I could've sworn that forever rolled by and I still wasn't dead...Bucky still hadn't returned. 

For a while there I could still hear Buckys footsteps in the distance, checking each room. I stopped hearing those a while ago. It was silent. It was weird to hear silence as I was sure so much chaos was occurring outside.

At some point I laid down on the table that I was sitting on, using my arm as a pillow. It was painful to move but once I was relaxed, the pain simmered down. 

I focused on my breathing but that wasn't working very well because my breathing was very off and on. 

My heart would stop for a moment or two and then kick back on. That was a weird feeling. 

Then, about a million years later I had finally decided on the fact that...He wasn't coming back.

Damn...

Bucky wasn't coming back for me.

Chapter Text

With a loud crack, I knew the woman's arm was broken. I knew for a fact that it was broken when she started screaming. 

Never scream. 

The weak ones would scream.

Soon, two men came over to the mat and took the girl away. I waited for my next opponent. 

I didn't get to train very often anymore....I wasn't exactly sure why. I wanted to get better so that maybe they would send me on missions like they sent the others. 

They would always tell me that I was ahead of my class, that I fought better and faster. 

I would only nod. No words spoken. 

You spoke words from what you were feeling and I couldn't feel anything. Feeling would mean emotion and emotion would be weakness and weakness would mean death. 

Only idiots died. 

My next opponent was slightly more difficult but I managed to get her pinned on the mat with only a gash in my head and a broken finger as my repercussions. 

A nice and easy day. 

 From keeping my own mental calendar, I knew that my time to go into the ice chamber was coming up. They told me that it refreshed the mind and allowed my body to rest so that I could fight my best during training.

I didn't like the ice chamber. It was cold and uncomfortable and it almost caused me to start screaming a few times. 

I always blacked out in the ice chambers from going too numb too fast. I asked why I was the only one to go into this specific chamber and I did not get an answer. 

I never got answers. 

All the other girls got to go to ballet classes. I figured that out by asking one of the girls. I wanted to go to ballet class. That sounded like so much more fun than a stupid ice chamber. 

I walked over to the sink that sat in the corner of the room and rinsed my face off. Blood coated it and I felt disgusting. 

A line of girls were piled behind me as I finished washing my face since it was the end of class. Everybody was always bloody at the end of class. If you weren't, you were doing something wrong. 

I walked over to the double doors which led us out of the room and then I waited. You had to wait for the men to tell you that you were allowed to leave. If you left before they gave you the clear...

I couldn't exactly remember what would happen but I knew it wasn't good. 

I knew it had happened to me before. 

The ice chamber made my memory foggy. 

The men eventually gave me the clear and I led us all out of the room and to our sleeping quarters. Many girls ran to the locker room to try and be the first to get a shower but I only sat on my bed and waited. 

Soon enough the men came into the room and asked for me. I stood and left with them as a few girls gave me nasty looks. 

As we walked down the hall, I was told that I was to do something new. I asked if that meant I wasn't going to be going into the ice chamber and they actually gave me an answer. 

"You won't be going in today. Maybe next week." 

A wave of relief washed over me and it just barely showed on my face. I quickly covered that up. 

After walking down a few halls, we stopped in random room and the guy put handcuffs on me. I wasn't sure why, I thought I could be trusted. 

We left the room and then I was put into a car. After a while we got out the car and we walked into a new building. 

It was cold outside like always. It was always cold. 

But we Russians had nothing but our winter. 

I should've felt comfort from the cold. 

Everybody else did.

I was starting to get nervous. 

Where were we? 

Why were we going to a new place? 

Did I do something bad? 

Was this my punishment? 

Oh...I hated punishments..

They were so painful....

The minute we walked into the building, I could hear people screaming. 

My heart rate began to pick up.

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. 

I took in a deep breath and then let it out. Maybe they were telling me that I was finally able to go on a mission. 

I was going to get my Black Widow suit. 

I was going to have purpose.

"Right this way, sir." A pretty woman spoke as she led us down the hall. She has the same kind of hair as me—a deep red that had natural curls. She did her hair nicely. The curls bounced the right way and weren't too frizzy. That must've taken her all morning. 

I wasn't exactly sure why I knew that because I had never done my hair before. I had only ever pulled it back into a slick back bun. 

We were soon led into a room that had a chair in the middle of it. 

Some weird contraption was connected to the chair and it looked awfully terrifying. Hopefully I wouldn't be the one to sit in it and the room was just another stop before we got to the room where i'd get my suit. 

The door was shut behind us and my hope of going on a mission was slowly falling away from me. 

"Please sit." A man nodded towards the weird looking seat and fear took over my body. 

I was going to be screaming.

Chapter Text

I blinked once. Twice. 

Oh. I could leave. 

The door to my ice chamber was opened and many men were standing around, writing stuff down and checking different machines. 

I stepped out of the chamber and blinked a few more times. 

I was so cold. So so so so so cold. 

I was shaking.

Shaking so badly that I couldn't even think.

I was soon handed some blankets and then dragged away to a room where I got changed into my training uniform. 

As I went and practiced with the other girls, as usual, I had never seen them before. Every time I came out of the ice chamber, there were new girls and the old ones were no where to be found. That stunted me from making friend like the rest of them could do. 

It confused me.

A new routine that I had was training with a man instead of a woman. There was this guy that had private training sessions with me. 

The men said that I was too excelled for the other students and that I needed a real challenge for me to get any better. 

The man that I trained with was strong. Extremely strong. 

And he had a freaking robot arm. It was so unfair but the men said that he was just the challenge that I needed. 

The metal arm man was mean and when we sparred, he cheated. I hated it. 

He always would laugh when I fell or when I would miss a punch. He was quick but I was faster so when that stupid metal arm would be about to murder me, I could move out of the way easily. He didn't like how fast I was. 

I had also been getting good at catching his punches just like he would do to me. 

Anytime I tried throwing a punch, that stupid metal arm would catch my fist. So I made it my goal to catch his punches—specifically the ones thrown by the metal arm. 

The men who usually were taking notes while I was in the ice chamber started to give me doses of this random serum..? They just told me that it would help my immune system which would help me stay healthier. 

Healthier=stronger 

Stronger=I kick ass. 

The first time I tried catching a punch that metal man threw at me, I managed to catch the punch but it hurt so badly that my jaw dropped and I immediately went weak. 

He lunged forward—brutal and efficient. I tried to quickly sidestep just as his cybernetic fist punched into the wall behind me, shattering the concrete. My eyes widened at the sight but he didn't waste a seconds before he was turning and lunging at me again.

He grabbed me by the throat before I could even process what was going on, lifting me off the ground. 

I let out a struggled grunt as I twisted mid-air and kicked off the wall behind him, spinning and landing a sharp elbow to the back of his neck. 

He stumbled—momentarily. I was pulling myself off of the ground and taking in sharp gasps of breath. 

The rest of the fight, he kicked my ass. 

"Again." The man nodded towards me with no emotion in his voice. 

I wanted to groan out in exhaustion but I complied.

 We clashed—fast. I threw a jab; he deflected. I swept his leg—he hopped back. I ducked under a haymaker from his metal arm and slid behind him, landing a sharp elbow to his spine. He grunted just before he spun and backhanded me. I completely went flying sideways, hitting the mat hard.

A harsh cough worked its way out of my throat and I slowly but surely pushed myself up and off of the mat. "Why do you always have to hit so hard?" I complained but got no answer.

My days were endless loops and I couldn't seem to remember the details of them. The girls that I trained with—blank faces with no names. The men who would drag me away and strap me to the chair—blank faces with no names. The metal arm man—another blank face with no name.

Who were these people? 

Why didn't I have a past? 

Was that normal? To not remember....

Did I have something to remember? 

I had my next class to go to. I needed to hurry up before I was late. 

I was sitting in one of the few bathrooms in the place as I cleaned blood off my face. The metal arm man had really beaten me up this time. 

The side of my head cracked opened and I was sure that I needed stitches. I couldn't go to anyone about it until the end of the day so I needed to hurry and get to my language class.

I was on my 6th language. 

I had already knew, English, Russian, Romanian, German, and French. I was now learning Italian. 

I didn't enjoy learning new languages but I had to. It was a requirement to graduate.

The class seemed to last forever and only a few other girls were in the class this time. I was pretty sure the others had died. So many girls died a day that I stopped keeping track, especially because all girls that I knew were gone the minute I stepped out of my ice chamber.

After my language class, I walked to the sleeping quarters of the building and found my bed. 

Then I fell asleep. 

The next day I woke up. Sadly.

Chapter Text

I chose to sit down in the chair farthest from Claude. He liked to flirt and I didn't have the patience to play into it all. Usually, I would ignore the sly comments and the occasional awkward closeness...sometimes a little more than that closeness. 

But today....I was tired and I had been training other Widows most of the day so I was worn out.

"So...you wanted to see me?" I asked as I crossed one leg over the other. 

Claude nodded as he set his glass of whiskey down. He always drank whiskey. "Yes. I did." He nodded as he replaced his whiskey glass with the remote to the tv. 

"We're famous, baby." Claude spoke to me with a grin plastered on his face and I moved my focus onto the tv just as the channel suddenly switched to a news broadcast. 

"They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize, they can take a whole country down in one night. You would never see them coming and yet our Avengers are trying to destroy them." Flashes of pictures popped up on the screen of many different people. 

"It appears we are..." I murmured.

"Look, look!" Claude shouted out in excitement, "Memorize these people, Valeska. Memorize them! They are your next mission." 

From those words, I immediately zeroed in on what people were being shown in front of me. 

A guy in a spangly suit with a shield, a guy with a hammer and an obnoxious outfit on, a girl that looked oddly familiar, a machine looking guy, a big green guy, and some guy with a bow. 

Okay.

Memorized.

"Sir..." I narrowed my eyes slightly at the look of the woman on the screen. I tried to focus on her face, see if that was what was familiar. "That woman." I stated and Claude let out a sigh. 

"She betrayed us, Valeska." My eyes snapped over to him and he truly looked to be hurt. "She has done no good and only harm. You'd be saving not only us but many other people by taking care of her—do you understand me?" 

I slowly nodded my head before reverting my eyes back onto the screen. That was when I saw him. The metal arm man. 

"The Winter Soldier." Claude suddenly said. "I want you to go out there and help him. He seems to be struggling lately."

That confused me. "What do you mean?"

"He still hasn't been able to complete his mission and we have given him weeks." He shook his head, "Wasting time. We need you to go out and help him." 

But he was training me..? How would I do any good if he wasn't able to complete the mission? He was the one training me so my abilities weren't any better than his. 

"But sir—"

"You are graduating here soon, are you not?" 

"Yes, sir, I am." 

"Well, great." He shrugged as he stood up from the couch that he was sitting on. "You complete this mission and you can consider that your diploma." 

I blinked. 

What?

He walked over to me, stopping as he was in front of me. "Go into the Psych Education Center and do some more practices before the mission. I have a feeling that you will need your new abilities." His hand found its way to my own and I felt his fingers skim over the stone which was engraved into the top of my hand. 

I couldn't help but glance down to the stone myself. 

I hadn't remembered it being put there but I did know that I hadn't always had it. It was some red stone and it just sat there...in my hand. It shined ever so lightly so you could see it through both sides of my hand—the palm and the back of it. But it was more noticeable in the back. 

I slowly nodded my head before I got up from the chair and carefully scooted around him so that we would no longer be touching. 

I exited the room as quickly as possible.

I let out a sigh just as I was out of that man's presence. A chill ran through me and I quickly shook out my arms to try and calm myself. I titled my neck slightly and really focused on my breathing....

I was fine.

I was calm.

I let my eyes fall shut, only for a moment, just so that I could imagine the Psych Education Center standing in front of me. The room that I wanted to walk in...I tapped into that energy and then I slightly flicked my wrist as I snapped my fingers. 

A crack of red shot up in front of me and a smile spread across my face. 

I wasn't technically allowed to use my powers out side of the P.E.C. but...no one was watching. 

The crack in front of me looked like a lightning bolt frozen in time, but a red lightning bolt. 

I lifted my hand up and then lifted my hand out to the side of me—the line of red followed, opening up a portal in its path. 

My eye instantly locked onto Wanda. My friend. 

She was sitting criss-cross on the floor with one hand sitting on her knee and the other moving just slightly in front of her face as blocked were floating in the air. 

The second she saw me—the blocks dropped. 

"Val." A soft smile spread across her face and I stepped through the portal, letting it snap close behind me. 

"Hey, Wanda." The obvious excitement in my voice caused her to raise her eyebrows. 

"What's going on?" 

"I'm going on a mission." I blurted out and she slightly froze. 

I quickly made my way over to her and sat down in front of her. She didn't seem as excited as I thought she'd be. 

"Wanda." I spoke and she began to slowly nod her head. 

"Yeah." She said just so I knew she was processing what I told her. "You're going on a mission." She repeated and I nodded my head.

My eyes snapped up to the few cameras in the room and I knew that if I cut off the camera, somebody would come storming into the room. Wanda and I found that out the hard way. 

So I just decided to cut off all sound around us instead. 

Air was easy to manipulate since it was already so easily seen. All I had to do was focus in on the little specks around me and then make them really really tiny. For some reason that canceled out any noise. 

"So, you know that guy that had been training me?" I began to explain just as I muted the air around us and Wanda nodded. 

"Yeah—the guy with the metal arm." 

"Right." I slightly titled my head. "Well apparently....he's not doing too good on his missions." 

Wanda's jaw slightly dropped as her eyes widened. "No way.." She murmured and I quickly nodded my head, 

"Right. And also, they call him The Winter Soldier." 

"Oh—that's ominous." Wanda wiggled her eyebrows and I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh, 

"Yeah well, you know he matches the part."

"Oh, I know." Wanda waved a dismissive hand at me. I had explained, in detail, every single training session that The Winter Soldier and I have had to Wanda. She had never seen him so I carefully explained what he looked like and what he was good at when it came to fighting. 

He was a popular pick when it came down to who was going to go on the next mission. 

Allegedly, his body count was almost 30. 

His kill body count. 

And he was training me. For what reason—I had no idea.

"How is he not doing good on his missions?" 

"That's what i'm saying." 

"And you're being sent out there to help him?" Wanda asked to clarify and I nodded my head. 

"Yup. It's going to be my first time out there." 

"Wow..."

"Yeah." 

Silence fell around us and I gave Wanda quick glimmer of a look before I un muted the air around us. 

"Can you show me something else before I go?" I asked as I stood up from the ground. "I think i'm leaving either today or tomorrow." 

"Of course!" Wanda exclaimed as she popped up from the ground as well. 

Everything that I knew, I had learned from Wanda. 

Before the stupid red stone had been placed into my hand, Wanda had been in the P.E.C. for a while. 

She was training with her brother, Pietro. Pietro had been given different abilities to train with so he was in a different section than both Wanda and I. 

The minute I was given the stone, Wanda could feel it. We both didn't know what it was or what it did but we slowly figured it out. What we learned was that my abilities were strikingly similar to hers. 

That was when all of the fun started. 

We tormented guards and we turned the room into rubble. We destroyed rooms and practiced on actual people to see what we could do with the powers. 

We found a way to make Wanda's powers stronger with the stone and so then we were just throwing energy back and forth. Even for a while there, Wanda and I were banned from being close to each other.

The torture through punishments was so fucking painful but so fucking worth it. I had forgotten my memory more times than I found count but the stone had stored it all. 

Man—that was crazy to figure out. 

It was like the stone was my own personal friend. A friend that always stood by me and I couldn't get banned from being close to it. 

I named her Cherry. 

It was an inside joke made between Wanda and I and we decided that the stone had to be named Cherry. 

"So, what i'm getting from Cherry is that she can manipulate reality." Wanda informed me just as she wrapped her powers around the blocks that she was just messing with, causing them to light up in a bright red color, then she quickly and carefully set them down onto the table.

My eyes widened at Wanda's words, "Wowsa, Cherry." 

Wanda smiled and then hovered her hand over top of my own. A red glow surrounded the both of us before quickly disappearing. 

"I'm thinking that we try and..." Her hand raised slightly and within a second, a dagger was in her hand and my eyes widened.

On instinct, I gasped, "Wanda!" A laugh escaped my lips as I snatched the knife out of her hand, "You're going to get us beat." 

She began to laugh as well, "Oh—come on! That's so cool." 

"The guards won't think so." I reminded her and she just simply shrugged her shoulders. 

"You try." 

I scoffed just as I tossed the dagger into the air and clenched my hand into a fist, watching as the dagger obliterated into thin air. "I have no clue how you just did that." 

"It's not hard, just imagine the object being in your hand and then focus in on it—bit by bit." She explained to me and it did me no good. 

"Nothing is happening." 

"Cause you're not doing it right."

"Well," I scoffed, "Obviously!" 

"Here," She was suddenly right next to me and I couldn't help but jump, causing her to laugh. Within seconds, my eyesight was moved out of my body and into hers. I was seeing through her eyes. 

"Can you see yourself?" Wanda asked and I felt weird as I replied, "Yeah." 

I would never get used to her doing this. It always creeped me out because it was as if I was being shoved into a little box into her brain where I couldn't move and could only speak when she allowed me too. 

It was weird to say the least. 

"Focus on what i'm doing, what i'm feeling." She ordered me to do and I obliged. As another dagger found its way into her hand, I focused on every last thought and action so that I could just copy and paste it all. 

Suddenly, a sharp knock at the door caused Wanda to shove me back into my own body and I quickly turned the knife into ashes just as a guard walked into the room. 

They walked straight to me and grabbed onto my arms, not even giving me a second to think before they dragged me out of the room. 

The minute we were in the hall, we turned into a room which led us to another hall. 

I had never been down this hall before.

Through another door and we came to a sudden halt. 

Seconds later, Claude was next to me with his hand wrapped around my arm as he continued to drag me forward. 

"Sir." A random man spoke as we approached what looked to be a prison cell. My eyes landed on a guy with a buttoned up white long sleeve shirt on and black pants. A little red bow sitting at the top of the shirt. "He's—He's unstable." 

We didn't stop walking. 

"Erratic." Bow tie man made clear but Claude ignored him. 

Through the cell we went which led to another wall of bars. Those had to be opened for us. 

So many guards stood around the room with guns pointed in the same direction. What the hell was happening? 

The cell door behind us closed and we continued to walk further into the room. 

That was when I saw him. 

Holy fuck, he looked awful. Hot. But awful. 

It was the metal arm man.

We came to a stop not far away from him and Claude just barely let go of my arm—I snapped my arm away from him so that I could step away. He only glanced at me for a moment before he took another step towards metal man. 

He didn't have a shirt on and I couldn't help but instantly look to where the metal met his skin. So many scars covered his shoulder and I had to look away. 

His complete face was showing which I had never seen before—he always wore his mask while we trained. 

"Mission report." Claude ordered him to give but the guy wasn't even looking at us. He was zoned out, staring at a wall. 

"Mission report, now." Claude repeated and chills ran through my entire body as the metal man's eyes were completely empty of life. He looked like a robot and my heart rate began to pick up as I was just expecting him to pounce—Expecting him to snap.

He was so still that I wasn't sure if he was even breathing. 

Claude twisted his body and sent a hand flying at the man's face, using his momentum to make the slap harsher. 

Metal man's face went flying to the side and he kept it there for a moment before looking to Claude and saying, "The man on the bridge."  

The man on the bridge. 

The man on the bridge. 

I rushed through my mind to try and figure out if a bridge was apart of the news broadcast that I watched but it wasn't. 

Within a moments noticed, I decided that I needed Wanda. 

I had always been extremely nosy and so was she. Her powers excelled mine greatly and maybe she could see what the hell was going on in metal man's mind. 

I slid my fingers together just ever so slightly, creating a slip in the universe between me and Wanda. 

"Who was he..?" Metal man asked with furrowed eyebrows. This was the most amount of emotion that I had ever seen on his face before. It was weird to see. 

He had always been such a robot that I... 

"Blonde." A hushed woman's voice echoed through my mind and I almost jumped. Luckily, I kept the control over myself and took in what the voice was saying—what Wanda was saying. 

"Tall." 

"Said, "Bucky?"" As Wanda told me this, a man's voice played in my head. "Bucky?" "Bucky?" "Bucky?" It echoed again and again until I shut the tunnel between me and Wanda.

"You met him earlier this week on another assignment." Claude explained to the metal man whose name was possibly...Bucky.  

Bucky. Bucky. Bucky. 

It sounded so familiar. Or maybe it was the man's voice who said it. 

Metal man looked so genuinely distraught as he looked away from Claude and just simply stared at the floor. "I knew him." He insisted before his eyes landed on me. 

Claude sat down on some random seat next to the big ass chair that metal man was sitting on but he didn't look at Claude one time—no, his eyes stayed on me. 

His eyebrows were slightly furrowed and confusion was evident in his eyes. Why was he looking at me like that? 

"Your work has been a gift to mankind." Claude began to ramble and I couldn't get the sound of the blonde man's voice out of my head. 

As I took in a deep breath, a reached my hand up to "itch the side of my face" but really I just wanted Cherry to be closer to me. The stone. 

"Get me the picture." I spoke so quietly that not even the man next to me heard it.

I let my hand drop and I quickly opened back up the tunnel between me and Wanda. With only a second passed, what looked to be a video was playing in my mind. 

Whipping my head around, my mask no longer on my face as it lingered on the ground a couple feet ahead of me, I was exposed yet I didn't care. 

I was going to kill all of these people. I had to kill all of these people. 

The man which stood a decent distance away from me had a strange look on his face. Confusion? Disappointment? Disturbance? Pain? 

"Bucky?" The man asked and I couldn't help but try and think of why that felt familiar to me. 

Nothing came to mind. 

"Who the hell is Bucky?" I asked just as I—

The video was cut short. 

"You shaped the century." Claude's voice rang through my ears and I shut the tunnel between Wanda and I, once again. "And I need you to do it one more time." 

Bucky was no longer looking at me but at Claude. His eyes were laced with murder. No longer confusion but anger and disappointment. Frustration. It laced the air around us. I could practically feel it myself. 

"Society's at a tipping point between order and chaos." Claude explained. "And tomorrow morning, we're gonna give it a push." That was when he glanced over at me, "Valeska Romanov will help you." 

Metal man's eyes were locked onto me once again. 

"But, if you don't your part, she can't do hers, I can't do mine." 

I shifted nervously on my feet and I glanced around to a couple of others people in the room. They all looked so lifeless. It was so fucking creepy. 

"And Hydra can't give the world the freedom it deserves." 

After a moment or two, "But I knew him." He was still pushing the narrative of knowing the blonde man. 

Claude stared at metal man for a second before he sighed and stood up. My heart rate picked up. 

"Prep him." 

For some reason... I started to freak out. My breathing began heavy and my eyes grew wide. I couldn't bring myself to eyes away from metal man as he suddenly went completely numb—covering up all emotion.

"He's been out of cryo freeze too long." The bow tie man said and I didn't understand what that meant.

"Then wipe him and start over." Claude shrugged and I took a step forward. 

"Excuse me, sir? What are we doing?" I asked but only got dismissed. 

"We aren't doing anything." He turned towards metal man as the bow tie man walked over to him. "He is just going to help organize The Winter Soldiers mind." 

I began to shake my head, "Claude, if he says that he knew the man then he probably did and I think that—"

"I don't give a damn about what you think!" He snapped at me just as he turned and grabbed onto my throat. He instantly tightened his hand around my throat before, throwing me backwards. 

My eyes widened out of shock and I stumbled back, trying to catch myself before inevitably running into a random guard. 

The Winter Soldier was being pushed back against his chair and tied down. 

No, no, no, no, no. This was what they did to me. 

I didn't know they did it to other people too. 

"Hey." I shouted out as I pushed off of the guard and started to dart towards the metal man. 

An arm wrapped around my waists, keeping me from going any farther and I couldn't help but reach to the arm in instinct and focus all of my energy onto the situation at hand. 

He was grabbing onto me—keeping me from getting to metal man. 

My mind rushed to the stone which led me to be flipping through different realities. Different universes with different outcomes. 

I skipped to the one where the man didn't grab onto me and I layered that one on top of our own—like cutting out a puzzle piece and glueing it onto an already completed puzzle.

I managed to get my hands on one of the men next to The Winter Soldier. I used Cherry to turn the man into dust. Seconds later I was unconscious.

Chapter Text

Sitting in an empty and hot ass car was not the best way to be spending my morning, especially not with The Winter Soldier, but at least I was out of the Red Rooms. 

For the first time...

"He shouldn't have sent you here." The Winter Soldier shook his head and I cracked a smile.

"And why is that?" 

"You are an easy target." He spoke like the answer was obvious. "Easy kill."

"If I was easy to kill then i'd be dead."

"You're going to be dead." 

"With the snap of my fingers I can turn you to dust so let's chill it with the tone." 

"What tone?"

Our many body guards were separating and scoping out the area before we left the car. The goal was to always try to be as discrete at possible but metal man kinda screwed that for us during his last mission.

Whatever. We would still try our best. 

"The tone of you acting like i'm an incompetent little child." 

"You are an incompetent little child." 

"Oh—really?" I tilted my head and I planned on continuing the mellow argument but suddenly something felt...off.

I could tell that The Winter Soldier was going to try and speak so I quickly shook my head and slapped his chest so that he wouldn't speak. 

If it wasn't for us being on the mission together—he would've most definitely just murdered me but he didn't murder me and he did listen. We fell to an eerie silence.

"Who is this?" It was muffled but I could hear it. The body guard that was going to get us into the building that we needed to go into was on the phone with someone. Someone he obviously didn't know. 

Within a second, I used both my hands to act like I was sliding open two windows. This opened a direct path to the body guard and his phone call. 

"The good-looking guy in the sunglasses, your 10 o'clock." A man's voice spoke and our bodyguard slowly turned to glance around himself.

"Your other 10 oclock." 

He turned again and, "There you go." The man over the phone spoke and I quickly slid my arm out once again to be able to follow wherever the hell we were supposed to be looking. 

In an instant, it was as metal man and I were floating and we could see everything around us but, still, nobody could see us. That was when my eyes landed on a black man with sunglasses on his face, a phone to his ear, and a drink in his hand, sitting down at a random table at the outdoor spot of a restaurant. 

I glanced back to The Winter Soldier, through this, asking if we should attack, but he just simply shook his head. 

"You're gonna go around the corner to your right." The man over the phone explained to our bodyguard. Sitwell. That was his last name—Sitwell. "There's a gray car two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride." 

"And why would I do that?" Sitwell asked.

"Because that tie looks really expensive, and i'd hate to mess it up."

I rolled my eyes just as our bodyguard slowly hung up the phone and started walking towards the gray car that the man was talking about. 

I let the pathways close as the energy I was using was starting to take its toll on me. 

"Can you follow him?" Metal man asked quickly just as he leaned over and grabbed onto one of his guns, loading it and shoving it in his holster.

"I can try to slip through the..um...the reality's but," I shook my head. 

"But what?" Metal man asked.

"I've never done that before." 

He let out a frustrated sigh, "Of course you haven't." 

I scoffed just as my eyes narrowed on him. "Fine. I'll follow them and you better be there when you are needed, got it?"  

"I don't take orders from you." He stated blandly and a hot flash of rage flooded right through me. I couldn't think of anything else to do so out of pettyness I reached out, turning his newly loaded gun into dust before I closed my eyes and held my breath, focusing on slipping into nothingness. 

Luckily, I was gone before The Winter Soldier could get his hands on me.

Slipping between reality's was weird because every single scenario of what was playing out in every reality was laid out in front of me and I had to make sure that I stuck to the correct path. 

It always gave me a headache whenever I tried doing it and now that it was in a public space with plenty of people, all of the different out comes for their lives were also popping up around me. 

Holy fucking shit—I was going to pass out. 

I truly thought that I was going to pass out and blow our cover so I quickly focused on the reality that I needed, sending where I needed to pop back into the reality to Cherry and then huffing out a breath of air.

With a blink of my eyes, I was in the trunk of this gray car. It was hard to keep myself grounded in our reality because the damn car was moving so every second I was supposed to me in a new spot—moving with the car. 

When the car came to a stop I was able to truly focus on grounding myself back in our reality until I was peaking over the back seat to see what was going on. 

The man who called Sitwell over the phone was dragging him out of the car and I quickly duck back down so that he couldn't see me. When I heard the car door slam shut, I quickly threw myself over the seats so that I could get to the door and get out of the car. 

I tried to throw an illusion over myself—copying the look of a near by person. 

I pressed into my ear piece just as I said, "Following target into 416 Solly Avenue." Then I focused on trying to act as normal as possible as I followed from a distance. 

The second that they were in the building, another man came around the corner and grabbed onto Sitwell. 

"Copy that. Moving in." Metal man's voice sounded in my ear. 

It was the blonde man. The blonde man from the vision that The Winter Soldier claimed he knew. 

"Bucky?"

The memory played in my head as I quickly and quietly followed them into the abandoned building. 

They were dragging our bodyguard up stairs and through halls—it was all very aggressive and gruesome. They had no regard for the man at all. 

When I realized that we were going all the way to the top of the building, I got ahead of them and slipped through our reality, popping out in a random spot on the roof. 

Just as a heard an aggressive hit and then Sitwell grunting, I quickly ducked behind the first thing I saw. 

"Tell me about Zolas algorithm." Blonde man insisted as he followed the rolling boy of Sitwell.

A woman was following behind blonde man but I wasn't focused on her.

Sitwell quickly tried to get to his feet, his suit a mess and his face showing obvious weakness. I was itching to tell Claude just how pathetic his defense system was.

"Never heard of it." He shook his head as he was now walking backwards, blonde man still walking towards him as the woman trailed behind.

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" 

"I was throwing up. I get seasick." 

What the hell were they talking about?? 

I could only see the back of all of them which caused me to miss the slip up of Sitwell—he got too close to the edge and almost fell off the damn building but blonde man caught him. 

The woman came to a stop behind them and I tried to quickly analyze her. She had hair that was the same color as mine, a deep red-orange color. Her hair was shorter than mine though and straight. Her outfit was a normal civilian outfit and she looked to be around 5'7 maybe 5'8. 

The blonde man looked to be much taller...maybe 6'3?? 

He was also wearing basic civilian clothing.

"Is this little display supposed to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof?" Body guard asked with a snarky tone. "Cause it's really not your style, Rogers."

Of course. He just had to be an asshole. 

"He's practically killing himself." I muttered into my ear piece and with no emotion in his tone, The Winter Soldier said back, "Collateral damage."

"You're right." Blonde boy told the bodyguard before letting go of his suit and smoothing it out gently, "It's not." And with a nod of his head, he said so calmly that I almost didn't catch it, "It's hers."

Blonde boy moved and the red head quickly kicked out a leg, sending Sitwell off the building." 

My eyes widened and I stood up from behind my hiding spot, trying to focus a bundle of energy into my hand. 

"Oh, wait—what about that girl from Accounting, Laura..." Red head suddenly turned to the blonde and he shook his head,

"Lillian." He declared. "Lip piercing, right?" 

"Yeah. She's cute."

"Yeah...i'm not ready for that." 

I lifted my arm and let the wave of energy fly, darting towards the red head. 

Just as the energy hit her, her whole body was surrounded in a red light as she flew to the ground, slamming her back into the little bit of barrier that there was—serving as a wall. 

The blonde boy darted his eyes over to me as some guy with wings came flying over the edge of the building with the damn bodyguard in his hands. 

"Oh my God..." I mumbled before wrapping my fingers around another bundle of energy and throwing it at the blonde, then I quickly turned and started darting towards the edge of the building. 

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. 

I was just going to jump off the building and let The Winter Soldier deal with the rest. I was hoping that I would be able to sneak through the walls of our reality and pop out at the ground before I hit it and splattered everywhere. 

I pressed into my ear piece as I darted for the edge. "I'm going to jump." 

"Can you not kill yourself..?" 

"I'll move myself to the ground. I need you up here now." 

I glanced back to see blonde boy and the red head standing around Sitwell as he was on the floor. He was on his hands and knees as he looked to be catching his breath. I moved my gaze back to in front of me.

"Zolas algorithm is a program—for choosing!" I heard the words shoot out of Sitwells mouth and my eyes widened. 

Suddenly, I felt hands grab onto both of my arms and I let out a grunt of a scream.

I was being lifted off of the ground.

The bodyguard was still fucking speaking. "Insights targets." 

"What targets?" Blonde boy asked and I shut my eyes for only a moment as I felt the energy around me shift, compacting together. A dagger was now in my hand and I sent it flying at Sitwell.

"You!" He quickly replied.

I hit my mark just as I felt a snap in my arm. The man carrying me had tried to quickly move my arm to change the direction of which the knife was moving towards but that did nothing but hurt me. 

A fire of pain shot through my arm and I let out a scream, "You dick!" 

Another pinch of pain ran through my back and up my spine. A let out another groan of agony before I was suddenly falling through the air. 

I was in too much pain to focus on catching myself before I hit the bottom so a sharp smack raddled through my entire body just as it ran numb. 

I couldn't move. 

Holy fuck. 

Holy shit. 

Oh no.

He was going to kill me.

Metal man was truly going to murder me. 

Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck. 

I was paralyzed. 

Fuck! 

"A tv anchor in Cairo," I heard Sitwells voice and it didn't sound too good. Worse than usual. 

"the..." He let out a cough, "Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City," Another harsh cough that led into plenty others. "Bryce Banner...Stephen..Strange, anyone w-who's a threat to Hydra. Now, or in the future." 

"In the future?" That was blonde boy asking. He had that very sophisticated man voice as the other guy had a more casual voice. "How could it know?" 

Sitwell let out a harsh yet pathetic laugh. The laugh turned into a cough as I was sure blood started to pour into his mouth. "How could it not?" He asked sharply. 

"The 21st century is a digital book." A few dramatic breaths later, "Zola taught Hydra how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns," 

Come on. He had to die soon. 

And where the hell was metal man?!

"emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zolas algorithm..evaluates people's...past to predict their future." 

"And what then?" Red head spoke up.

It took a minute but Sitwell answered, "Then the insight helicarriers scratch people off the list....A few million at a time." 

I tried to stay awake to hear whatever else he was going to say but my head was heavy and my eyes were closing uncontrollably. 

No. No. No. No. 

Time escaped from me and I wasn't sure how much was exactly gone when I came to realize that I was in a moving vehicle. 

I blinked a few times to adjust to the light just as I took in what was happening around me. 

"Insights launching in 16 hours." A woman's voice rang through my ears and I pinched my eyes shut. 

Wow—my head was killing me. 

"We're cutting it a little close here." She informed whoever else was in the car. 

"I know." A man spoke. Blonde boy. That was blonde boy. 

And the woman—I opened my eyes just to make sure. She was leaning forward, her head next to the blonde boy. 

Both me and the woman were in the back seat as blonde boy and the guy with the wings were in the front. I didn't know what they did with the bodyguard.  

The woman had red hair which confirmed that she was the red head girl from the roof. 

"We'll use her to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly." 

I furrowed my eyebrows. Her? Was I her? Cause I couldn't access that shit. I barely was allowed out on this mission and look at where that got me. 

"What?" I finally spoke up and the red head whipped her head around to look at me. 

I froze. All thoughts left my mind. 

I blinked. Once. Twice. Then a laugh slipped through my lips just as I said, "Well...this is creepy."

"Good—you're up." She nodded before quickly glancing down to my tied up hands.

"It's like looking in a mirror," I shook my head, "Did you guys notice this?" 

"Oh, we noticed." Blonde boy muttered. 

My ears began to ring just as glass was shattering around me. A hand reached into the car through the newly broken window and wrapped around my arm. 

The metal hand yanked me through the window and glass sliced through my skin in almost every spot it could. I let out a hiss of pain just before I was in the air for point five seconds, then slammed down onto the top of the car—my back most definitely putting a dent in it. 

The Winter Soldier used his metal hand to rip the rope off from around my wrists just as I heard shots being fired from his right hand. 

"You just can't do anything right—can you?" He slightly shouted over the noise of cars flying by us and shots being fired into the roof of the car. 

"I was doing fine before they paralyzed me!" I shouted back and he slightly froze. 

"What?"

The breaks slammed and my heart dropped as I started to slide, metal man going with me as we flew off the top of the car and onto the free way. 

With one tuck of a roll, he was on his knees and sticking an arm out to stop himself from sliding. 

His right hand grabbed onto my leg as his left metal hand dug into the road, making a god awful noise just as he gradually halted us into a stop. 

He quickly let go of me as he stood up. 

The cars around me were flying by so fast that the braid in my hair moved with every passing. 

Cars were honking their horns and swerving to get their distance around us, The Winter Soldier didn't care as his eyesight was fixed on the car in front of us.

I could feel the slight movement in my arms coming back but it wasn't exactly enough to even prop me up off of the ground. 

I looked over to the car that I was just in to see the girl who looked freakishly like me to be sitting on blonde boys lap, pulling out a fucking gun. 

Oh, shit...

Just as the gun pointed at metal man, a car slammed into them from behind. 

I'm going to have to move. 

My breathing picked up as I desperately tried to get movement in my body to come back. "Come on, Cherry." I desperately whined, hoping the stone could possibly help me out. 

The cars were rushing towards us and The Winter Soldier didn't even look back at me. 

I was screwed.

I closed my eyes and focused everything onto the stupid stone engraved into my hand. If there was any moment where I truly needed the stone, it was now. 

"Come on, come on, come on." 

Nothing was happening. Not even a spark of energy was felt around me. It was as if the stone wasn't even there. 

"Damn it—Cherry!" I groaned while I watched The Winter Soldier flip onto the roof of the car just as it was about to hit him. 

His knees landed on the car as his metal arm slammed down into the roof hovering over the drivers seat. In a second, the wheel to the car was in his hand. A second layer, it was lying on the freeway. 

The car was darting to me and I pinned my eyes shut, praying that I wouldn't die. 

The good news for me was that my body was tucked in just enough for the car to drive right over me and miss any body parts that it could've ran over. 

My eyes opened just as the second car was driving over top of me, the car that rammed into the first car, and I was dumbfounded at what I was seeing. No fucking way I was that lucky. 

In a second the car was gone and I let out an exasperated sigh. 

Then I looked over to the direction in which all of the cars were coming from and that relief was quickly gone. 

More cars were coming my way and I didn't look to be so lucky with them. 

I slammed my head back onto the concrete as I groaned dramatically. 

I was gonna kill the guy who did this to me. 

Every second I could feel a bit of my strength coming back so the paralysis was not from the fall that I took but from something being injected into me. 

I looked back to see The Winter Soldier still on top of the car but dodging shots that were being fired at him through the roof.

Yeah—he wasn't going to save me. 

I could just barely move my arms so I lazily dragged one of them away from the side of my body so that I could push myself over and onto my stomach. 

With every movement, a harsh grunt escaped through my lips as it was taking everything in me to move my limbs. 

Then, suddenly I felt hands wrapping around my arms and lifting me up from the road. 

"Hey—"

"You're fine, we are here to help." A woman's voice in formed me but I still felt the need to try and get away from her. 

It didn't exactly work because I could barely move my body. 

Another pair of hands were grabbing onto my waist before I was lifted into the air and thrown over somebody's shoulder. 

"We've got her. Taking her to the car now." A man's voice spoke and I tried to throw punches at his back. 

They were so weak that I wasn't even sure he felt them. 

Before I knew it, I was being thrown into one of the big jeep like cars that Hydra liked to use to copy the governments military cars. That's how I knew that I was actually going to be fine but I was still pissed off by the whole situation. 

I minute later, we were speeding forwards and The Winter Soldier was jumping onto the hood of our car. 

I peaked between the two front seats so that I could look out the windshield and I saw the car in front of us ram into the side of another car before quickly swerving back onto the road. 

Metal man was holding onto the top of our car as we sped up to hit the car in front of us, throwing them off the road slightly. 

They hit the side barriers to the road in such a way that it threw the car over and caused it to start rolling. With each rolled, the car was flying higher up into the air. 

A door fell off of the car just as it was mid air and along with it came three whole people. 

The only three people in the damn car.

They slid across the freeway as some sort of shield supported them on top of the car door. 

Blonde man had his arms tightly wrapped around the red head girl but the other guy went flying away from the two of them, rolling across the highway roughly. 

We came to a sudden stop and The Winter Soldier jumped off of the top of the car, a man next to me getting out of the car just to hand him a gun. 

I watched the blonde man and the red head look to The Winter Soldier and then quickly jump up from the ground. The woman took off sprinting in the opposite direction than the man and The Winter Soldier shot, what looked to be a grenade, at the man. He quickly brought the shield in his hand up to protect his body as he crouched down slightly. 

The minute the shield was hit, he went flying so far that I 100% thought he was dead. I had no idea where he went. Crashes were heard in the distance for only a moment before another car of men pulled up and started to pile out of their car, guns in hand. 

I was able to shake my hand slightly and a smile slid onto my face. 

My hands were now able to be moved which meant that Cherry most likely was up and running. 

Shots immediately were being fired but I didn't care, all of my attention was on the stone in my hand. I could just feel my arms enough to move them slightly but my legs were still out completely. 

"Come on, Cherry." I mumbled as I tried to grasp at any type of energy around me. 

For only a moment, a pinch of red started to surround my hand but it was gone just as quickly as it was there. 

"Fuck!" I complained, letting my hands fall back down onto my lap. 

I had never felt so weak before...so helpless. I was always the strongest in the Red Room. I always knew what to do or how to help myself. 

But this time I didn't know. 

I didn't know anything.

I didn't know who these people were or why we needed to eliminate them. I didn't know what the hell Sitwell was talking about or what Zolas Algorithm was. The woman who looked exactly like me—who was she? Why did she look exactly like me and why wasn't I told that she was going to? The blonde man...why did he feel so familiar? 

So many questions and yet I didn't have one answer to any of them. 

And I was paralyzed. 

And most definitely getting a good zapping for completely failing my part in the mission. 

Maybe I could tell on Sitwell. 

He told on us first so...it's deserved. 

A harsh pain that ran from my hand up to my head caused my eyebrows to furrow. Another wave of pain, trailed up my arm and across my shoulder, up my neck and straight to my brian. "Ow." I muttered. 

My hand was on fire. My hand was on fire. "Ah, Gosh!" My eyes widened from the pain and I looked down in confusion as I logically thought that there was a fucking fire on my hand. There was not. 

Just Cherry. Lighting up like a fucking light bulb!

"Alright, Cherry. The fuck are you doing—" Another sharp pain ran from my hand up my arm and to my head. I grunted as I held onto my hand with my other hand, putting a massive amount of pressure to try and sooth the pain.

My head was also pounding like crazy and I wanted to start screaming. 

What the hell was happening to me? 

The feeling in my legs was starting to come back and the movement of my arms was more free but, man, my head hurt. 

The many guns shooting around me was not helping anything either. 

"What's this place?" I asked as we walked inside. 

"Well, this..." He reached over to the light switch and suddenly, rows of lights were turning on. "This is my home." 

"Your home." I stated and he nodded.

"Why haven't I been here before?"  

"Because I didn't trust you." He started to make his way over to a desk with multiple computers on it and I slowly nodded my head. 

That was fair. I wouldn't trust me either. 

"Sounds about right." I murmured.

I blinked. 

The fuck was that?

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them. Was I day dreaming? No...it was too...

What was happening to me? 

I was dying. 

Oh my—I was dying. 

"Come on, kid. Give me some energy—the suit gave out again." 

I huffed out a breath of air but complied anyway. I twisted my wrist in the air to circle around a ball of energy, then I sent it flying towards the machine. 

Within a second, the machine was powering back on.

What was this? Some kind of mutation? A virus? 

What was going on inside of my head? Did I have a tumor or some disease? What exactly did that guy give me? 

"They're going to come looking for me." I made clear. "And when they do, they will find me."

With a sharp shake of his head, he spoke confidently. "No they won't." 

"You're overly confident." 

"I am sure." 

I began to voice my thoughts but he suddenly looked at me with a determined look on his face. "You said that you were born in 1918, correct?" 

"Yes..." I said hesitantly. "And, you know, oddly enough, you took that information and didn't question it." 

"What's to question? You were born when you were born—anyway, that's beside the point. You didn't have the technology that we have now. You didn't have me." 

Oh my God. 

Memories. 

They're memories. 

That was me...that was...I was there. 

That guy, he helped me. I passed out after a mission—the first mission since I had gotten the stone placed in my hand and I passed out. I woke up and he said some snarky remark to me. Then he helped me. 

I had gone on other missions. I did so regularly. But then...Holy fuck.

"You know, you're my girl. And I found a girl, that looks just like my girl."

"What are you talking about?" 

That's why I had never been allowed on missions...

I was allowed to go. 

But I got out.

Chapter Text

3rd Person

Tony stood from his desk the minute Natasha and Steve walked into the room. "You found her?"

Steve let out a light sigh before saying, "Well, it's a bit more complicated than that."

"Then uncomplicate it." Tony insisted but Natasha shook her head,

"They've got her again. Her mind is corrupted—we can't do anything about that."

Tony looked down to his feet, then back up as annoyance was starting to take over. "So what happened?"

It was silent for a hot minute and just before Tony opened his mouth to say something else, Steve spoke up. "He was there."

They had talked about this yesterday. Steve, apparently, saw Bucky—The best friend of his that died in 1944.

But now the guy had a metal arm and was practically unstoppable. I mean, the guy caught Steve's shield for gods sake.

"Look," Tony started, his hand falling to his face. "It's been a really long day. Like, Eugene O'Neill long so how about we skip to the part where you're useful."

Steve scoffed as Tony didn't know what it was like to go against this guy. Tony had been sitting in the comforts of his home

"We're doing everything that we can."

"It's not enough!" Tony suddenly snapped and both Steve and Natasha sorta froze. "She's been locked in that place for two years now and..." Tony shook his head, "I haven't been able to get her out."

"And how many years was she locked in there before?" Natasha reminded Tony, "She knows how to handle herself in there."

"Only because she doesn't know anything else while she is in there." He began tapping on the side of his head with so much aggression that Steve furrowed his eyebrow in concern. "They take out who you are and replace it with filth. You remember, don't you Natasha?" Tony pointed a hand out to her as he continued his rant, "You have no memory but of what they give you. You are designed to kill once you get in there and to get out..."

Natasha was frozen as she stared at Tony. Too many memories popping up in her mind that she wasn't ready to deal with.

The one that was showing up the most was the memory of Clint. Without him...Natasha never would've gotten out.

Valeskas story was awfully similar.

"Last time—" Tony began to speak but was cut off,

"Last time was different. She was severely injured and that thing in her hand was the only thing keeping her alive." Natasha waved Tony off as she began to pace up and down the room slowly.

"What thing in her hand?" Steve asked, looking from Tony to Natasha but he got no answer.

Natasha knew what it was but all Tony knew was that Valeska had it placed into her hand. Steve knew nothing of it.

They didn't say anything so Steve repeated himself, "What thing in her hand?"

Tony looked to Natasha as she was the only one who had information on the subject and she stopped her pacing to look at Steve.

"You understand that Valeska is just some experiment to Hydra, correct?" Natasha asked just to be sure Steve understood that no matter the kind of past he had with Valeska, she was only a killing machine to the organization and she was only going to continue to be a killing machine while she was apart of it.

Steve ignored it. "Natasha." He stated and she began walking over to Tony's desk.

"Look, for some reason, Valeska had always been the Black Widow."

"Black Widow..?" Tony asked in confusion. He didn't pay attention to anything but what was going on in his life so of course he didn't know anything about Black Widows.

"Thats what they called us." Natasha replied just as she made it to the desk.

"I was genetically created in the Red Rooms to match the description of Valeska." Natasha sat down at Tony's desk, instantly beginning to type something into the computer. "They were beginning the experiment of the Reality Stone."

"Reality Stone?" Tony repeated, glancing to Steve, and Natasha nodded her head.

"The Red Rooms are connected to Hydra through training and equipment. Hydra began to create a division of individuals who would be put under mass amounts of mental and physical stress, pressure, pain, anything that you could think of to try and alter how their brains would pick up on the energy and matter around them. When they discovered the Reality Stone...everything seemed to shift."

Natasha backed up slightly and tilted the computer to the side so that both Tony and Steve could see it better.

A picture of a red stone was shown on the screen with a long description underneath of it.

"Look," Natasha pointed to one of the paragraphs within the description and began to read it out loud.

"What has been found about the rock, other wise known as the Reality Stone, is that it is able to create a red energy that can be used as a weapon. Matter may be converted into dark matter and the life of humans may be absorbed. As of now, the stone is safely stored away by a man called the Collector."

Natasha pulled her hand away from the screen as she finished reading. "That is really all we know as the public has only seen one person withhold the powers of the stone."

"And who was that?" Steve asked.

"Last I heard, it was absorbed by Jane Foster." Natasha shrugged as she leaned back in Tony's chair, crossing one leg over the other.

"Wait," Tony furrowed his eyebrow in confusion, "like, Thors Jane?"

"Yes."

"Okay...So what happened?" Steve asked and Natasha shrugged her shoulders. "Really only Thor knows, but somehow Hydra got ahold of it and placed it into Valeska." Natasha shook her head as she continued,

"They were almost certain that she was going to die because that was how Jane Fosters body was reacting to it. No human body can withhold the Reality Stone."

"And that's why they created you?" Tony asked, "Just in case Valeska died, they wanted a back up."

"Allegedly."

Tony let out a scoff that sounded slightly like a laugh, "Allegedly." He nodded before his voice raised and his arm flew up, "Do you two not know anything, for sure?!" He scoffed once again, "I mean—come on."

"Tony." Steve cautioned but he didn't seem to care.

"You know all about this Reality Stone—like, what even is that? Maybe you should figure that out to bring you both back to Reality!"

Natasha just simply rolled her eyes at Tony's little tantrum before she turned in the chair and pulled herself closer to the computer, typing more stuff into it.

"It was a computer that claimed to be a man that was telling us this information, Tony. So i'm sorry if we cant completely rely on it." Steve made clear but it did no good.

"Yeah." Tony nodded, "You should be sorry—"

"Oh my.." Steve rolled his eyes as Tony kept on complaining.

"—because the information that you're giving me is getting us nowhere!"

"You know what, why don't we call Pepper into here?" Steve suggested and Tony held out a hand as his head began to shake,

"No, no, no. Not necessary because she would just side with me."

"And what exactly would she be siding with?"

"That you two are both idiots."

"Pepp—" Steve began to call out but suddenly the arm of Iron Man was flying towards Tony. A second later, Tony was pointing the hand Steve's head, a slight glow shining from the palm of the hand. "I'll blow your head right off."

A smile cracked on Steve's face just before a door behind Tony opened.

"Did someone called for me?"

Pepper was at the door.

"Nope." Tony quickly spoke up. "Everything's good in here, how about you go relax. Take the rest of the day off—"

"Tony! What are you doing?!" Pepper let the door shut behind her as the sound of her heels quickly clicking against the floor got closer to Tony.

He let out a groan just before he lowered his hand and turned towards Pepper. "We were having a civil conversation."

"Yeah—sure you were." Pepper shook her head before continuing, "What did we talk about?"

Tony stayed quiet for a moment but then Pepper raised her eyebrows.

"Not to use the suits in the house..." He mumbled and Pepper nodded.

"And what are you doing?"

"Using a part of the suit in the house..."

"Hey guys, if you can stop taddling on each other like little girls, it would be great to get back to our previous discussion." Natasha interrupted and Steve let out a low chuckle.

"Of course." He nodded and Pepper quickly ordered Tony to put the hand of the suit away before she exited the room.

"You're annoying." Tony told Steve just as he returned the part of the suit that he was wearing.

"I think the machine was correct." Natasha spoke up before Steve could say something back. "There is no other possible explanation for why we look so alike. We would have to be twins but I was born..." Natasha shook her head, "Years after Valeska."

Tony slowly nodded his head as he was obviously thinking about something.

"Do you think that there are others?" He finally asked and Natasha furrowed her eyebrows.

"What—like, other people created to be remakes of Valeska?"

"Yeah."

"Not only you but your sister, Yelena Belova." The robotic voice spoke and Natasha glanced to Steve.

"You both were genetically created and then carried in the womb of your mother. The two of you were supposed to be identical replicas of Valeska Romanov, but as you see, that did not happen."

"And what happened to my mother?" Natasha couldn't help but ask. She had no memory of her as she was instantly taken away to the parents assigned to her by the Red Rooms.

"Well, she wasn't a good carrier for our experiment. So she was executed."

Natasha's stomach ran empty as a pit took its place.

"Yelena Belova." Steve stated as Natasha went quiet. "She was created to be a copy of Valeska as well."

"And where is she?" Tony asked.

"I'm not sure." Natasha spoke quietly.

"Anyone else?"

"Yelena looks nothing like Valeska." Natasha informed the computer and it was quick to reply,

"That is true, but she has the same personality and fighting techniques as Valeska Romanov. You just so happened to acquire her looks."

So many thoughts and memories ran through Natasha's mind as Steve spoke up to ask his question, "And are there any others?"

"Oh, plenty. Just most of them have died." The computer assured him. "Adrah Porlay, Citra Dysis, Izel Manika, Valarie Romanov, Sanya Romanoff, Tasha Ruby, and Wanda Maximoff"

Steve was dumbfounded by how many people were created by just the idea of Valeska.

The Valeska that he had grown up with. The Valeska that died in 1944. The Valeska that he thought was forever gone until he met Natasha.

"Oh—And then one experiment where they tried to genetically modify her genes into a boy. His name was...Pietro Maximoff."

Steve's next question came quickly, "And who is still alive?"

"I believe Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are still alive as they were apart of the Enhancement Program, other wise known as the Miracles Program." 

Steve and Natasha looked at each other before looking back to the computer. "And what is that?" Natasha asked.

"That is the program in which different individuals were put through the treatment to give them enhanced abilities."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows, "Like..."

"Like, Energy Manipulation and Mind Manipulation."

"Wanda Maximoff." Steve said and Tony slowly nodded.

"And she is.."

"With Hydra." Natasha once again spoke quietly.

Tony looked straight to her, "So we don't have any leads?" He asked and Natasha shook her head.

"Oh—fantastic!" Tony threw his arms up.

Natasha let out a sigh, "Here we go again.."

"We've got nothing—they're either dead or still locked up in that place or just plain out missing. And you—oh..." He let out a low laugh, "Who even are you?! Nobody knows! Not. One. Person. Knows."

"That's enough." Steve finally shut down Tony's complaining and Natasha slowly but surely looked back to the computer.

Chapter Text

I carefully took in a breath and then I carefully blew it out. Everything was going to be fine. It wasn't my fault. I would've gotten away if it wasn't for him paralyzing me.

I would've gotten away if it wasn't for him paralyzing me.

I would've gotten away. 

I would've gotten away? 

I would've gotten away. 

Gotten. Away.  

Away. 

Where would I have ran? 

Home? 

Where was home? 

What was home? 

Was that home?

The vision? 

Him. 

That guy. With the beard. What was his name?

"Wanda..." I spoke quietly but she heard me clearly as we walked down the hall, Pietro falling us closely behind. 

He always liked to act as a body guard to Wanda and I even though both of us were stronger than him.  

"Yes?" She asked but she was mainly focused on the blocks that she was holding up into the air. She loved those blocks. Always had them with her.

"I..." Could I tell her? She was my closest friend but I wasn't sure. She wouldn't call me crazy but...Pietro was behind us. He could be awfully judgy. 

"Just say it." Pietro nagged me and I sent a glare back to him. "I'll plug my ears if that will make you feel better." He was obviously saying that as a joke but I went ahead and told him to do it. 

When he didn't, Wanda rolled her eyes and suddenly formed a bubble of red around the two of us. 

"Okay, spit it out." She insisted.

"Cherry gave me another memory." I finally blurted out and Wanda's eyes widened. 

We both thought the memories were done being shared with me. That Cherry had given me the only memories that she managed to store. 

"Another memory? A recent one or a further back one?" She was quick to ask and she seemed intrigued—like, in a good way. A little bit of weight was lifted off my shoulders but the majority still lingered. 

"I believe that it was further back." I declared. "Much further back. I felt younger within it." 

Wanda moved her blocks around in the air but she still didn't let them drop. "Okay, where were you?" She asked as her eyes went back to the blocks and the bubble of energy stayed strong around us. Pietro was obviously annoyed.

I sighed, "See this is where i'm confused." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I wasn't here." 

Some kind of energy field in front of us caused Wanda's mind to unfocus on everything that she was doing. The bubble around us flickered and the blocks in her hands dropped. 

We came to a halt as our eyes snapped forward. 

"Um—what is that?" Pietro spoke up and I had absolutely no idea. 

It was some kind of blue block that was locked in some kind of metal machine. 

Suddenly, flickers of electricity shot around it and I quickly stepped back.

A distant explosion rocked the ground underneath of us and I felt Pietros hand wrap around my wrist as he was suddenly in the middle of Wanda and I. 

When I looked down to the sudden touch, I noticed something off about Cherry. 

She was glowing rather bright. Brighter than she had ever looked before. 

My eyebrows furrowed and just before I went to say something, I was interrupted by some kind of speaker echoing a man's voice. 

"Report to your stations immediately." The man spoke urgently. "This is not a drill. We are under attack!" 

My jaw slightly dropped as this had never happened before. We had plenty of drills practicing what this would be like but no one had ever truly located our base.

The noise of footsteps and many soldiers shouting in the distance caused my heart rate to spike. 

"We are under attack!" The words were repeated and that was when Pietro decided that it was time to go because suddenly we were moving. 

His quick speed dragged us to where we were ordered to go in every practice drill. 

A safe room where the three of us would stay until someone came and got us. Claude said that we were too valuable to lose in a situation like this. 

We came to a harsh stop as Pietro quickly let go of us and moved to the code to the door. He pressed in a few numbers but they weren't working. 

"What is—" Wanda began to ask but Pietro interrupted her,

"I don't know." 

Suddenly, I felt a hand wrap around my wrist once again and I freaked out. 

I quickly brought my arm up, taking the arm of the person with me, and then I twisted my body which caused the arm to twist in an angle that it most definitely shouldn't have twisted.

That was when I used the energy around me to wrap around the person, freezing them in place. 

I was quickly backing up only to realize I knew the man. 

I let out a groan, "Gosh, Claude." In a matter of seconds, the energy field was gone. 

"Good work." He praised but I didn't care for it. 

"What is going on?" I insisted and he just shook his head. 

"Come with me. All of you." 

He instantly took off walking and I glanced back to Pietro and Wanda before following him.

With just one turn down the hall, we were walking up two sets of spiral stairs and then into a room with multiple men typing into multiple computers. 

"Who gave the order to attack?" Claude instantly asked and a man stood up from his desk. 

"It's the Avengers." That seemed to be the only explanation that man deemed to be necessary but another man quickly stood afterwards. 

"They landed in the far woods. The perimeter guard panicked."

Claude slowly nodded his head before turning towards us three, "They have to be after the scepter." 

I furrowed my eyebrows, "What is that?" 

"A very important stone." He replied without looking to me. He was thinking of something and I glanced to Wanda so that she could get the cue to figure out what. 

"Like Cherry?" Pietro asked and Claude looked to him like he was stupid, 

"What's Cherry?" 

"The stone in my hand." I corrected for Pietro and Claude then nodded, 

"Ah, yes." He shrugged, "Like Cherry." 

I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Can we hold them?" Claude made his voice louder as he asked the room. 

It was silence for only a few moments before a soldier spoke up, "They're the Avengers."

Claude wasn't taking that as an answer. "Deploy the rest of the Tanks." 

"Yes, sir." I heard different men say as many started to rush around the room. 

"Concentrate fire on the weak ones. A hit may make them close ranks." He ordered the room before lowering his voice, once again, to keep the conversation just between us three. "Everything we've accomplished...we're on the verge of our greatest breakthrough." 

I nodded in understanding. Wanda and I had been rapidly excelling in the use of our powers while Pietro was getting faster everyday. 

Claude had always said that we were his everything. Without us...Hydra would not be what it was. 

"Then let's show them what we've accomplished." Pietro shrugged with that familiar smug tone of his. 

"Send us out there." Wanda agreed and I slowly nodded along with them as I seemed to have no other choice. 

He looked from Pietro, to Wanda, to me. "It's too soon." 

"We are ready." Pietro insisted.

"Maybe...maybe the twins but not Valeska." Claude mumbled out and instantly began to shake his head as he took the statement back. "No—our men can hold them." He turned away from us and started to walk towards the middle of the room, "We will not yield!" He shouted out to the room and his voice echoed off the walls.

"The Americans sent their circus freaks to test us. We will send them back in bags." He came to a stop in the middle of the room just before yelling, "No surrender!" 

All of the men in the room shouted it back in a chant. "No surrender!" 

Claude nodded once, then quickly walked over to us—not stopping as he walked right past us. "I am going to surrender." He muttered to us. "Everything will be deleted."

My eyes widened as Pietro was instantly beside Claude because of his quick speed. 

I slipped through the barriers of our reality in a rush, popping out directly behind Pietro as we began to walk back down the stairs. 

Wanda was quickly behind me as she ran to catch up. 

"If we give the Avengers the weapons, they may not look too far into what we've been..."

"Us." I stated and Claude said nothing in return. "But i've gone on missions, they know about me."

"This will give them the cue to back away. All they want is to defeat us." Claude shrugged. "It's as simple as that." 

"If there are none left, there are none to do the investigating." Pietro mumbled under his breath but it seemed that only Wanda and I heard him. 

In a flash, Pietro was gone. 

"Now, where is he going?" Claude asked as we continued down the stairs. 

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "You're not going to like the answer."

Chapter Text

"Sending the twins out there together was a mistake." I muttered but my words were ignored. 

I was kept inside as Wanda went after Pietro. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Apparently, Claude had another secret room. Dude just always had more secrets.

I was put in the damn secret room as he didn't trust me to be anywhere. He also put a cuff around my wrist which cut off 90% of energy that I got from Cherry. 

Since Cherry practically acted as a heart to me, I was beat. I could barely stand up without becoming out of breath and dizzy. I fucking hated when he did this to me.

Only minutes after the doors were shut, I heard an explosion outside of the wall and I instantly became alert. 

I tried to keep my eyes opened but they kept fluttering closed. 

"Sentry mode." A man's voice spoke from the other side of the wall and I tried to focus on that if I couldn't focus on anything else.

That wasn't Claude's voice. 

"Okay, Jarvis, you know. I want it all." The man spoke to some other guy and I desperately wanted to look through the wall at whoever was standing there. 

I even tried for a moment but the stupid cuff around my wrist made me too weak.

"Make sure you copy Hill at HQ." He was stealing information. 

Fuck. I couldn't let that happen but I was. If I really, really tried...I could've moved. But I didn't. I stayed slumped against the wall just like I was ordered to.

"I know you're hiding more than files." The man muttered to himself and I snapped my eyes opened. "Hey, J, give me an IR scan do the room real quick." 

Oh, no, no, no, no. That wasn't good. 

"The wall to your left." A robot voice spoke out loud and that was when I realized that the man did not have another man with him but some robotic device.

"I'm reading steel reinforcement. And an air current." 

Bad news. Bad news. Bad news. 

I tried to push myself up and off of the ground to hopefully be ready for whoever was about to walk in. 

I was not going to die. No. I just simply was not going to die! 

"Please be a secret door. Please be a secret door," The whisper of the man was closer than before and fear sparked every bone in my body. "please be a secret door." The wall in front of me began to rumble and I knew that the door was opening. 

"Yay." The man childishly mumbled. 

"Fuck." I laid my head against the hard stone wall behind me as I knew I couldn't do anything else.

The stones were slowly but surely moved to the side and the man pushed himself right into the room but came to a sharp halt just as he saw me. 

I didn't bring my eyes away from him and his frozen body as I just waited. 

I was waiting to see what he was going to do. 

"Valeska." He breathed and now I froze. 

He knew me? 

"Random guy." I said back to him and a smile cracked on his face. 

"That's a start." He shrugged before he rushed towards me and my eyes widened with fear. 

I kicked my legs out to try and push me further back but I had no where to go. 

"Jarvis, deactivater." 

"On it." The robot voice spoke from the other room and some random metal piece came flying through the air and at the guy in front of me. 

He quickly caught it and pressed it against my cuff. 

I heard a snap and the pressure around my wrist slowly eased. 

He was taking it off of me? 

So...he wasn't going to kill me?

His hands grabbed onto the cuff and ripped it off of my wrist, throwing it to the ground behind him. 

Then he stood up and stepped away from me. "Now, all I ask is that you please don't run." 

Yeah, fuck that. 

I knew that the stairs that led down into the basement were a dead end. It only led to machines and technology that would get me nowhere. My eyes darted behind him as that was my escape route.

But they caught another pair of eyes. 

Wanda. 

Oh—thank God! 

I went to run towards her but I couldn't move. She was holding me in place. I watched as she held a finger up to her lips, telling me to be quiet about her presence. 

Then she tapped on her head as she looked at the man in front of me. 

"What are you looking at?" The man suddenly asked as he turned his body. Wanda was gone. 

I shook my head, "I won't run." 

"Do you know who I am?" He asked, turning to me again. 

"No." I stated blandly. 

He slowly nodded his head before pressing his ear and saying, "I've got Valeska." He then nodded his head towards the stairs. "Where does that lead to." 

"A bunch of junk." 

"Let's go check it out." 

I didn't stop him as he began walking down the stairs. I could kill him down there. Nice and easy. Then i'd get out. 

We slowly walked down the many steps and after each step, my mind became more confused. Cherry was trying to tell me something. 

Something felt...familiar. Cherry knew it and I knew it yet I just couldn't place it. 

I kept a nice distance from the man as I wasn't sure what his next move would be or why he was sparing my life. 

It seemed like he planned on taking me in as a hostage as he alerted his little Avenger friends that he had found me. 

Bummer. 

That wasn't going to work out for him. 

We continued down the stairs until the stairs came to an end and a hallway was laid out in front of us. It was all familiar to me, yet not. I had only been down here a few times before and I had lost the memory of all of those times—I was given the memories back by Cherry storing them for me.

It was all fuzzy.

"Guys, I got Strucker." I heard a mumble of a voice come from somewhere on the man walking in front of me. 

Must've been some kind of ear piece. 

"Yeah, I got something bigger." The man said just as we walked into the ginormous room that was our basement. 

A huge machine was hanging from the ceiling and it took up most of the room. Many other machines were scattered throughout the place as well as random parts and pieces. 

This was probably where metal man's arm was made.

He looked back to me as he continued to walk. "What is this place?" 

I stared at him with dead eyes, "Just junk." 

"Now we're lying. That's not very nice." He said with a shake of his head and click of his tongue. 

We walked only a couple of feet farther and that was when my eyes caught it. 

The shining light radiating off of the fancy stone. Claude must've moved it from its original spot. 

That was it. That was what Cherry was trying to tell me—that the other stone was down here.

The man slowed down his walking just as he noticed it as well. 

Oh, fuck...

"Thor," He began to say and my heart sunk. 

Okay. Okay. Act fast. You got this.  

"I got eyes on the prize." The man spoke and with a subtle flick of my wrist, a wave of energy wrapped around the guys head as I changed his perception of reality.

Wanda had shown me how to do it but I still wasn't the best at it. I didn't know how to make illusions that only the viewer would see...which caused me to also be stuck within the illusion. 

I could ilude myself into not being seen by them and my version of the illusion was always a mix of actual reality and whatever the hell I made the person see. 

The giant machine hanging on the ceiling suddenly began moving and I quickly moved away from it and to the wall, pressing my back against it. 

The man jumped back as he saw the machine moving and watched as it began to swim away from him. We were underwater. 

Overhead, the now whale like machine broke all of the walls and then tucked itself down into the abyss of the ocean. 

Bodies. So many bodies were scattered on the floor. Piled up into different piles. 

The man walked towards them and—

"Come on, kid. Give me some energy—the suit gave out again." 

I blinked. 

Was this apart of his illusion?

"You know, you're my girl. And I found a girl that looks just like my girl."

The memories. Those were the memories. 

Why the hell was Cherry showing them to me again now?

Tony bent down to one of the bodies. 

Tony? 

Tony. 

His name was Tony. 

I blinked again and again. My breathing was picking up. No air. None. 

I looked to the many bodies laid out in front of Tony, and I began to recognize them. I knew them. 

Blonde boy and girl who looked just like me. 

"That's Americas ass." I nodded with a smile, then winked at him. 

"That joke wasn't funny 70 years ago and it still isn't funny now."

I gasped a breath of air. 

Cherry—chill it with the memories. I can't process all of this at once.  

Tony placed his hand against blonde boys neck to try and feel for a pulse when blonde boy suddenly jerked up as he grabbed ahold of Tony's wrist. 

"You..could have...saved..us." He went limp once again and for some reason my heart seemed to run empty. 

That hurt to see. Who was he?!

"I do have friends." He said with a light chuckle. 

"Oh, do you now?" I tilted my head with a smile. Seeing his face for who he was, Steve—my boy, was just so refreshing. I had gotten my best friend back.

Tony shakily backed away from Steve. 

How did I know these people? 

Cherry....

I didn't understand. What were these memories that Cherry was showing me?

When did they happen?

"Why didn't you do more?" Steve stuttered throughout the words and I didn't want to watch the scene anymore so I pinned my eyes shut.

A low rumbling echoed around us and a light was flashing against my eyelids. 

I couldn't help but open my eyes and when I did, I saw that same machine that was hanging on the ceiling floating throughout space and into some kind of...worm hole. A worm hole connected to earth. 

And then it was gone. 

It was all gone. 

Tony snapped his eyes over to me but I was frozen at the wall as I knew him. I fucking knew who he was. 

He then looked to the stone sitting in front of him and I didn't even try to move. My brain and body hurt.

With a familiar energy running throughout the air—

my eyes snapped over to a corner of the room just to see Wanda and Pietro standing there. I furrowed my eyebrows but Wanda just simply shook her head. 

She had seen the illusion too and she was...

She was just letting Tony take the stone. 

Tony held out a hand and some metal arm went flying past me. 

I watched at Pietro whispered something to Wanda and she just waved him off as she stared intently at Tony walking up to the metal part holding the stone. 

I could've sworn that I saw a faint smile on her lips before I got really tired and everything went blank.

Chapter Text

Ow.

My body hurt. It really really hurt. 

I was in pain. A lot of it. 

Ow.

I could hear a light humming sound along side a bunch of chit chat. My eyes were shut and for some reason, I couldn't open them. I tried to move but I didn't go anywhere. 

I was frozen. 

"Thor, report on the Hulk." A woman's voice ordered and a second later a very enthusiastic male voice sounded from another point in the room. 

"The gates of Hell are filled with the screams of his victims." He was very proud of that sentence but as silence filled the room, he spoke again but with a less confident tone, "But not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no, wounded screams. Mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and flames of sprained...deltoids and..uh..gout." 

What the fuck was happening?

"Hey, Banner, Dr. Cho is on her way in from Seoul. Is it okay if she sets up in your lab?" Another man asked from another spot in the room. 

How many people were there?

"Uh, yeah, she knows her way around." The guy, which I was guessing his name was Banner, replied. 

Knows her way around...what did that mean? 

Gossip!! Where's Wanda when you need her?

"Thanks." His voice grew low as everyone else continued their other conversations, "Tell her to prep everything. Barton's gonna need the full treatment." 

"Very good, sir." A robotic voice said.

My heart skipped a beat as I recognized the voice.

"Jarvis, take the wheel." 

"Yes, sir." 

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

"Approach vector is locked." That same robotic voice spoke and I could hear some kind of machine moving, then I heard someone walking across the room. 

If I heard the stupid robot voice—Jarvis, then that most definitely meant that the guy talking to him was Tony. 

That meant that I was no longer home. 

Oh—fuck!

The steps walked straight past me and then stopped. Then I heard Tony's voice,

"Feels good, yeah?" He asked someone. "I mean—been after this thing since Shield collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..."

A guy lightly chuckled before that same deep voice from earlier spoke up, "No, this..this brings it to a close."

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for." Another man made clear. Steve. That was his voice. "I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?" 

"Banner and I will give it the once over before it goes back to Asgard." Tony told the two men, "Is that cool with you?" He then asked. 

It was silent for a moment. 

Tony spoke up once again, "Just a few days till the...farewell party. You're staying, right?"

The unidentified man huffed out a breath of air. "Yeah—yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels." 

Okay—who the hell was this guy and why'd he talk like that?

"Yeah, who doesn't love revels?" Tony and his snarky sarcasm. It was just plain annoying. "Captain?"

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and Hydra. So, yes, revels." Steve sighed just as his sentence finished, then I heard footsteps getting closer to me.

"When should she be up?" Steve asked as his voice was suddenly very close to me. 

"Hard to tell." Tony stated indecisively. "Now. In an hour. In a month..." 

"That's great—Tony."

"I'm just being straightforward." 

"Maybe be straightforward with an actual answer." 

"Okay—I don't know! Hows that?!" 

"Guys." A woman intervened and they both fell quiet. More footsteps, "Stop hovering and let her rest. Her mind has been in a constant survival mode for years now." 

"Thor, what can you tell us about the stone in her hand?" Tony asked and his voice was right next to me as well.

"Mh?" A deep voice asked, then I heard more footsteps. 

Was everyone just standing around me now? 

"The Reality Stone." Steve's voice was low and quiet. 

"Ah—the Reality Stone." Deep voiced man was just as close as everyone else. "Well, it is one of the six Infinity Stones—"

"Six?" A new voice asked. Another man. 

Holy fuck was I screwed. How many people were there? 

"Yea. Six." Deep voiced man had a tone in his voice that was signifying that everyone should know that there are six Infinity Stones.

I had no fucking clue what an Infinity Stone even was—or the fact that Cherry was one of them.

Look at that Cherry—making a name for yourself. 

So proud.

"Hey guys.." The woman murmured and everyone fell silent. "Is it supposed to be glowing like that?" 

"Is what—"

My eyes opened. Cherry shoved them open. 

Seriously?! All I had to do was give you a compliment? 

I gasped slightly as I instantly sat up on whatever table that I was just lying on. 

There were five people standing around me and just staring at me. I made eye content with all five before I really took in that I was in danger. 

If Cherry was awake that meant that I still had my abilities.

Energy flowed through my hands and Rogers noticed almost immediately. 

"Valeska." He warned but that only made my decision more clear. I sent a bolt of energy at him and he was sent through the air and into the wall, hitting it with a groan. 

A hand was on my wrist seconds later but I rolled backwards, falling off the table as I did so but catching myself as I landed, causing whoever's arm to twist which forced them to let go of me. 

With a quick ball of energy, I sent them flying at the wall as well. 

Just as I did that, someone's foot smashed into the side of my leg and the floor rushed up to meet my face. 

Within seconds, restraints were on me and a pinch in my back caused my body to run numb. 

The two that I had threw were already up—Steve and Tony. 

Heavy breathing was the only noise around me other than that same slight hum. 

I tried to take in my surroundings and that was when I realized 

"We're in an aircraft." I muttered against the floor. 

"Yeah." The pressure against my back was gone and suddenly I was being lifted. 

Some long haired guy had picked me up. "You are going to sit right over here and not throw another hissy fit." Deep voice. This was deep voice man. 

I was sat down on a chair in the very corner of the aircraft, completely numb and barely able to hold myself up. 

My head was leaned to the side slightly which then caused my entire body to start to slowly fall over. 

The others were discussing something but I was too focused on my continued fall. "Hey, um," 

"And how did it get to her?" Deep voice man asked, "The Collector was supposed to have it." 

"Okay, so, I don't know who that is but—"

"Help." I interrupted whatever snarky comment that Tony was about to make, hoping that someone would look over. 

"I'm falling." I stated the obvious just as Tony looked over to me. He quickly walked over to me and caught me before I hit the chairs lined up next to me. 

"Sorry about that.." He mumbled just as he lifted me back up so that I was sitting up straight. Then he pulled the seat belt over my chest, shoving each of my arms through the two openings, then clicked the belt together in front of me. 

He tightened it as far as it could go, then he backed away. 

As he looked at me, he huffed out a breath of air. "So how'd you get the stone?" 

I glanced down to my limp hand. "I don't know." 

"What?"

"I don't know."

His eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean, I don't know?" 

"It was just...there. I have no memory of it." My eyes probably looked dead and I get everything about me as neutral as possible. It was true that I didn't know when or where or how I got Cherry but I was going to say I don't know to absolutely everything so...they wouldn't really know that for a fact. 

"What do you remember?" 

"I don't know."

"You don't know what you remember?" 

I blinked. "It's all blurry." 

"Alright, listen up, smart ass—"

"Okay, okay." Rogers stepped in, pushing Tony to the side. "She's obviously not going to tell us anything."

Chapter Text

"Labs all set up, boss." A woman said just as she walked onto the aircraft. 

She was skinny and tall. Had a short hair cut. Kinda made her look like a boy.

"Oh, actually, he's the boss." Tony said as he looked to Steve who was unclipping my seat belt like I was a child. 

"I just pay for everything and design everything and," Tony stood up from his seat. "make everyone look cooler." 

Steve rolled his eyes as his hands fell to arms, pulling them out of the straps to the seat belt and then setting them on his shoulders. 

His hands then grabbed onto my hips as he asked, "Can you stand or walk?" 

"I'm thinking not. My body is still pretty numb." I stated as I was obviously annoyed and he just simply nodded. 

"Alright, then, here we go." His hands tightened their grip on my hips, which I could just barely feel, and then I was being lifted. 

My legs were weak so it was hard for me to keep myself up. 

He slipped my arm around his neck and then wrapped an arm around me, "Try to take a step." 

I huffed out a breath of air. This was so annoying. I tried to take a step and I just barely got my leg to move—all that energy came solely from Cherry. "You know, this would be a problem if you guys hadn't paralyzed me."

"We wouldn't have paralyzed you if you didn't attack us." Tony told me as he walked past us and headed out of the aircraft. The woman was still standing there but she was doing something on some kind of device so she wasn't really paying attention to us.

"You are basically strangers." I informed both Steve and Tony even though Tony was almost out of the hearing stretch. 

"Basically?" Steve pointed out as I tried to take another step but I sorta froze once he said it.

"Um," My mind went blank on what words to say. What was I supposed to tell him?

Steve stopped his slow steps which also caused me to completely stop. A beat went by before he asked, "Val, do you know who I am?"

"Stop calling me that." I muttered as I looked to the ground. 

I expected him to saying something else or re ask his question, but he didn't. He didn't say anything so I looked up to him. His eyes were full of so much hope.

....why? 

I barely even had a memory of him so what was there to remember?

"I was assigned to kill you so I know some stuff about you." I told him as I looked away from his eyes and to the woman with the device. She was now staring at us and the minute we made eye contact she looked away. "We aren't complete strangers." I finalized.

I could hear him breathe in and out. "I think you're lying to me."

"Then you need to stop thinking."

It took a moment but he eventually sighed and then we continued our slow walk. "What's the word on Strucker?" He asked the woman and she didn't hesitate to answer. 

"NATOs got him."

"The two Enhanced?" 

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins." That caught my attention.

I watched as she handed the device in her hands to Steve. 

He took it with his one free hand and I, of course, looked at whatever was on the screen. It was a bunch of crumbled buildings before the woman swiped the screen over to a picture of Pietro and Wanda, only they were much younger. 

"Orphaned at 10 when a shell collapsed their apartment building." She explained and we finally stepped off of the aircraft. "Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special, but it's on the way to everywhere special." 

"Their abilities?" Steve asked as he handed the device back to the woman.

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis." She was saying the fancy wording for it all. "Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, and mental manipulation."

I glanced from the woman's face, to Steve's and he looked like a deer in headlights. 

"He's fast and she's like a witch." I simplified for him and he nodded once.

"So you know them?" He asked and I couldn't help but smile and shake my head at the absurdity of the question. "Yes, I know them." I tapped his shoulder with the hand that was draped over it. That was the hand that Cherry was in. "How do you think she's managed to get half of those abilities." 

"You gave them to her?" The woman butted in and I rolled my eyes. 

"No, I didn't." I made clear. "Hydra did and I was just colateral damage. The other half of her abilities are from the other stone that you guys stole." 

"We didn't steal it, we took it back." A small smile spread across Roger's face and it was weirdly contagious. 

"And why do you say that?" I asked.

"It belongs to a friend of mine. Actually, to his planet."

"Mh.." I mumbled. "It makes more sense for Hydra to be the ones in the wrong." 

"Yeah, well, they're going to show up again and id be nice for us to know a bit more about them." Rogers said as if I would tell him anything else. They were the enemy. I wasn't going to help them.

"I'm sure it would be."

He sighed but, of course, the woman had more to say. "File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts." 

They volunteered...?

"Right." Steve nodded with a slight scoff. "What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"

"We're not at war, Captain." 

"They are." We then parted ways with the woman and I had never been so happy. 

Something about her was just so annoying.

Soon enough, Steve and I were getting into an elevator and going three floors down which popped us out in the middle of a gigantic room. The walls were completely covered with windows and I could see the very pretty sunset. I never really got to see the sunset so it amazed me at how beautiful it was. So many colors...

"Alright, we have to go up these stairs so is it okay if I just carry you?" Steve asked as we came to a stop at the bottom of a staircase. 

"That is absolutely not okay." 

"Well," Within a second he had slightly bent down and grabbed onto my legs, scooping me up into his arms. Before I could protest, we were already going up the stairs.

The robotic voice that I recognized could be heard from upstairs. "The scepter is alien. There are elements I can't quantify." 

I then heard Tony, "So there's elements you can?" He countered.

"The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside, something powerful." Jarvis explained.

"Like a reactor." Tony stated.

"Like a computer." Jarvis corrected. "I believe i'm deciphering a code."

"Here we go." Steve interrupted my ease-dropping to set me down and wrap an arm back around my waist. It only took a few steps for us to come to a rolling chair which he sat me down on and then continued to roll me over to Tony.

I was now able to hold myself up but my legs and arms were still decently hard to move.

"Oh—look!" Tony clapped his hands together just before he swiped his hand over top of something which shut Jarvis up. "You guys finally made it." 

"Yeah, well, she's still mostly paralyzed."

"We can't trust her." Tony stated as if it was obvious. I narrowed my eyes onto him as I couldn't trust them either.

Steve then nodded towards all of the information projected in front of him by one of his many devices. "What's all of this?" 

Tony sighed, "I'm trying to get information on whatever it is it that we took." 

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked back to Steve, "I thought you said that it was already yours to begin with? How do you not know what it is?"

Tony instantly pointed at me and then dragged his finger up to Steve, "Hey—no, what are you telling her?" 

"Nothing!" He instantly defended himself, "I only told her that it belongs to Thor so we didn't technically steal it." 

Tony rolled his eyes as he looked to the side, "You and your morals.." He muttered.

"I got information in return by telling her that." Steve then mentioned and that caught Tony's attention. 

"I'm sitting right here." I reminded the two of them and Tony's eyes snapped down to me. 

"What information?" Tony was practically ordering me to give him the answer and that made me get snarky with him. 

"Wanda's enhancements. They came from not only the thing you guys stole but from the stone in my hand." 

"Mh." Tony nodded once, "So you know what she's capable of?" 

"I do." 

"Great." He turned towards another screen being projected into the air at eye level, "Jarvis, keep note of that."

"Will do, sir." 

"I got it from here, Cap." Tony then said before starting his way over to us.

Steve still didn't let go of the chair that I was in. "You sure?" 

"Yup." 

They then swopped places and Steve started to make his way back down the stairs just as Tony rolled us across the room and down a random hall. 

"So, where are we going?" I asked as I leaned my head back against the chair. 

"To your new living arrangements." 

I furrowed my eyebrows just as I was rolled into a room that had a large glass room inside of it. It was like some kind of glass cage. 

"Are we serious?" I complained as we came to a stop. 

"So serious." He came around the front of me and then lifted me up and out of the chair. I didn't try to fight back because I knew that i'd soon have the ability to just make the entirety of the glass box disappear once I got my access to Cherry back. So this all was kinda for nothing. 

He helped me limp over to the door of the glass cage and then he typed in some kind of code before the door opened. 

The code was a bunch of shit so it was practically impossible to memorize. I only got, like, the first two parts of it down before I got lost.

He walked me into the cage and then sat me down on the little cot which sat inside of it. I couldn't really do anything but lay down as he walked out and shut the door to the cage. 

"Banner will be back with a serum for you to take. It should help bring your memory back a little faster." Tony explained from the outside of the cage. 

A serum, wow, just like home.

Chapter Text

I wasn't exactly sure what Tony meant by, "bring your memory back" because I still was not getting anything. 

I had been taking the serum for what felt like forever, though I was pretty sure it had only been a few days. 

I had seen no one else but this Banner guy.

He was nice but oddly shy for how dead set he was with everything. 

I found out after many failed attempts that I could not access Cherry and the abilities that she gave me.

This was just a bunch of bullshit.

I didn't lay down on my little cot but on the floor. For some reason the floor gave me a sense of comfort that the cot did not give me. 

The glass cage was big yet it was filled with practically nothing. All I had was the damn cot and then if I pressed my hand into the glass at just the right place, I had a bathroom. Hologram walls would show up around me and a toilet would come out of the ground—yeah, what kind of sorcery was that shit? 

It was quite confusing so I tried my best to not need the restroom. 

But as I stared up at the ceiling, complete darkness surrounding me as it was night time and all lights were shut off, I didn't feel threatened or scared. I was relaxed and completely fine with the situation that I was in. Even though it was torturous, just being locked in some cage for 24 hours out of a day, it was better than going through the actual torture of being in the Red Rooms. 

Though, I did miss Wanda and Pietro.

Suddenly, all of the lights in the room snapped on and I squeezed my eyes shut at the sudden bright light. 

I just barely peaked an eye open as I looked over at the entrance to the room, expecting to see Banner. He always showed up at the most random times. 

A groan escaped someone's lips just before I heard a male voice, "Oh—come on, Tony."

"Look, she's safe. She's fine." Tony's words were sharp and defiant. 

"Are we serious, right now?" Steve asked, throwing an arm up.

"That's what I said." I murmured as I rolled over to sit up. 

"This is what you call fine? This is what you call safe?!" His steps grew harsher, the closer he got to me. 

Tony followed, not far behind. "We can't trust her right now and you know that." 

"This isn't helping anything!" Steve pointed straight to the glass cage just as he arrived to it. "Now, what's the damn code to this thing." 

Tony's tone was playful as he said, "You better watch your language when you—"

"Now, Tony." Rogers interrupted and Tony furrowed his eyebrows,

"Okay, first of all, no one orders me around so this whole 'now' stuff needs to be put on hold. Second of all, you are not that stupid." 

"It's stupid to keep her locked up like a prisoner."

"...Maybe you are that stupid.." Tony muttered but then raised his voice as he asked, "Do you not realize how much power she holds?"

"The power of that stone." Steve spoke calmly and that seemed to have been the straw that broke the camels back because Tony's eyes widened,

"The Reality Stone!" "We give her back the ability to access that stone before she understands what is truly happening and she will be gone. Our reality at hand will be morphed into something that we won't be able to escape until she is gone and all of this will have been for nothing!" 

Steve turned back around, stepping away from the glass. "I understand that, Tony, but this—" He motioned a hand towards the cage, "Won't go over well for us once she does get her memory back." 

Tony shrugged, "I'm not worried about that right now."

Steve narrowed his eyes in him. "You realize who we're dealing with, correct?"

"Do you?" He countered and Rogers didn't waste a second,

"Yes. That is why i'm saying get her out of this damn cell and get her an actual room." He scoffed as he shook his head, "She's going to beat your ass." 

"She is right here, you know." I finally spoke up and Tony's eyes snapped onto me just as Steve turned around. "And I have no idea what you two think is going to happen here but i'll just tell you now that it's not looking like the odds are in your favor." 

Tony waved me off before he looked back to Steve, "She'll understand." 

They made eye contact and it went from a very intense moment to a very gay one, very fast. I furrowed my eyebrows as they seemed to be talking to each other through the damn eye contact. 

Finally, Steve looked to me and he nodded once, "What do you know?"

That confused me. "About what?" 

"Anything." 

"Cap, what are you—" Tony tried to ask, but Steve shushed him which caused him to raise his eyebrows in shock at the absurdity. 

I shrugged my shoulders as I looked to Tony, "I know that your name is Tony."

He looked to Steve with a, so-I-am-right expression on his face. "So the serum is working."  He stated like it was a fact and I narrowed my eyes on him in annoyance,

"No." I shut that down immediately. "I knew that before I got here."

That caught both of their attention. "Excuse me?" Tony asked and I tilted my head to the side as my eyes fell shut. I took in a deep breath and then let it out, trying to think of how I was to explain this to them. 

What was I going to say..? 

The stone in my hand knows you, but I don't.

I didn't understand what was happening or what the conversation that was just held in front of me meant. I was supposed to be getting my memory back but what memories were supposed to be coming back to me? 

I didn't understand. 

I opened my eyes and instantly looked down to Cherry, then I lightly tapped a finger on her. "She told me your name." 

"She?" Steve asked and I nodded my head with a light smile spreading across my face,

"Her name is Cherry." 

"That's stupid." Tony bluntly spoke and my smile quickly dropped as I looked him dead in the eyes,

"It is not." I defended and he narrowed his eyes on me,

"You named the Reality Stone, Cherry. It's kinda stupid." 

I blinked. "Reality Stone?" What the fuck was a Reality Stone?

Steve and Tony looked at each other with instant confusion. Then Steve spoke up as he looked back to me, "Yes, the Reality Stone. Do you not know what's in your own hand?"

I opened my mouth to defend myself but then I realized that I had no reason to do so. I absolutely had no clue what was in my hand. "Well...no."

Tony let out a sharp laugh just before he dragged a hand over top of his face. "And the thing is giving you information?" 

I shrugged, "Every once in a while." 

"Great so you've got a cosmic nuke embedded in your hand and it's feeding you bedtime stories?" Tony complained and I instantly furrowed my eyebrows,

"No." I shook my head. "Not a cosmic nuke," I cracked a smile. "that is a bit absurd."

"Okay—right, sorry. A cosmic rock embedded in your hand and it's playing physic charades." He looked to Steve, "If we take her out of there, we have no way of knowing that she won't just blow up the tower the minute she gets bored." 

A small smile played at Steve's lips as he obviously found the whole idea of that to be a bit much. "Tony." 

"No—i'm just stating the obvious, here. She's got a Reality Stone in her palm, Cap. You don't put that in a corner like Baby from Dirty Dancing and pretend it's all gonna be okay."

I didn't understand that reference at all and by the look on Steve's face, neither did he. 

Steve shook his head as he ignored Tony's whining and looked to me, "What else has the rock shown you?" He asked and I came up with a little white lie,

"Not much...nothing that important. Little things—bits and pieces." 

Tony nodded once, "Define, bits and pieces." 

"Like your name. I don't really know much else about you but your name." I gave him the short example and he seemed to be fine with it.

"Okay." He seemed to be finalizing something in his head. "I'm going to go talk to Banner. Maybe we can get Jarvis to do some scans and we can figure out—"

"No." Steve interrupted and Tony snapped his eyes onto him. 

"No..?" 

Rogers shook his head, "No. No experimenting on her." 

"It's not experimenting on her." Tony insisted. "It's just trying out new concepts of things to learn more about what was placed into her hand." 

A confused expression spread across my face just before I spoke up, "Isn't that...like, the definition of experimenting?" 

Steve held out an arm towards me, "Exactly—thank you. It's not happening, Tony." 

"Oh—come on." He groaned as he let his head fall back, "We could learn so much more."

"Get her an actual room." Steve ordered as he turned, not caring for Tony's whiny bullshit. "And take those damn restraints off of her." He said just before he was out of my sight. That was, apparently, him ending the conversation.

I blinked at the abrupt departure but didn't waste a second before I glanced down to my hands then up to a very annoyed Tony. Then I gave him a smile while I stuck out my hands, just to be petty.

I had a look on my face which was smug as hell and Tony was not playing into any of it.

He let out a harsh breath of air and I let my arm drop. 

"Come on, Tony. Loosen up." I pried at him for fun but all he did was shake his head and turn to walk away. 

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not going to shatter the fabric of reality in the hallway." I reassured him but lightly smiled as I said, "Unless the lightnings really bad."

Chapter Text

Tony let out another annoyed sigh as he reluctantly typed something into a tablet. The click of the door unlocking echoed loud in the glass cage.

"Let it be known I disagreed with every part of this." Tony muttered and I suddenly felt a mass relief around my hands. It was as if I had a block of cement taken off of my hands. 

"Oh, Stark. I didn't know you cared."

He shot me a flat look as he slid the cage door open.

"Let's not make this a moment."

I stood, a bit wobbly, but more than capable of walking now. He watched me closely—half-ready to bolt if I even twitched the wrong way.

I held up both hands in exaggerated surrender.

"Relax. No reality melting today." I stepped out of the glass cage and Tony lightly grabbed onto my arm as if that would truly do anything. 

We exited the containment room, the doors hissing closed behind us. 

The hallway outside was quieter than expected—either late, or everyone was avoiding the girl with a cosmic stone embedded in her hand walking throughout their halls. Probably both.

Tony led the way, tablet in one hand, keeping an eye on me like I might spontaneously combust.

Tony spoke quiet and calm, giving me the hint that it was late and he didn't want to be too loud. "I've got a room set up in the secured quarters. Smart glass, reinforced walls, no weapons." 

"So, a different glass box." I simplified for him and he gave me a very, very fake smile. 

"You want a minibar too, or just some gold bars under the mattress?" He spoke sarcastically and I gave him one short fake laugh. 

He turned sharply at a corner, and I almost crashed into him just as he stopped in front of a plain gray door.

"Here we are." His hand slipped away from me. "Your new five-star prison."

The door slid open to reveal a decent-sized room. Bed. Desk. A couple of chairs. It was actually... normal. Almost too normal. 

Clean white walls. A big window. It didn't look like a sort of room for a hostage. 

I stepped inside cautiously as I asked, "No armed guards? No retinal scanner? No super advanced technology that cuts off my abilities?"

Tony didn't deem it necessary to reply to that so he just continued with his own conversation,

"Jarvis is keyed to your voice. Ask him for anything you need—within reason."

He sighed before glancing around the room. "Just, please, don't redecorate the building into a lava castle..or..whatever."  

I pressed my lips into a line as I nodded once. I couldn't even do that if I tried but...it was good to know that they thought that highly of me. 

The door slid shut behind him just as he was walking away.

I stood alone in the quiet.

The window proved my theory to be correct, it was pitch black outside with very few scattered stars floating throughout the sky. The moon was so small, it was barely there so it did no good for any light. 

I truly thought about leaving. All of the fancy shit that he had set up around the room didn't mean much as I could just wipe it from reality but...

where would I go? 

I wouldn't want to go back to Hydra...I just couldn't do it. That was my home and I understood that but it was a home full of blood and I couldn't face that again. 

Even though it sounded crazy to me—being a hostage in this place was better than being a Black Widow in the Red Rooms. 

At least, that's what was presented to me. 

I carefully walked over to the decently sized bed and I pressed my hands into it. They sunk down into the bed and I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

I brought my hands back up and then I stared down at whatever sorcery was in front of me. 

What was placed onto this thing for it to feel like a...marshmallow? 

I slowly turned and then carefully sat down, slightly sinking down into the bed which completely freaked me out so I jumped straight back up. 

They were trying to suffocate me in my sleep, I was sure of it. 

I quickly walked away from the bed and sat down on the floor, a safe distance away from the suffocation machine. Then I laid down. 

I had been in the same clothes for days now and I smelled awful. The only gracious thing that Tony did for me while I was in the glass cage was give me a toothbrush. 

As I laid down on the ground, all I wanted was a shower and a new pair of clothes. I still had my fighting leathers on.

I would request both of those things in the morning.

I let my eyes fall shut and I was pretty sure that I was asleep moments later. I couldn't tell for sure. 

All I knew was, it felt like only seconds had passed before sunlight was beaming into my eyes and my heart dropped. 

I quickly sat up and practically flew into the air so that I could be awake and alert. 

Then it all hit me. 

I was in some random room with not so random, but random, people. Hydra wasn't controlling my day. I had no one to be alert to. 

I let out a harsh breath of air and widened my eyes slightly as if someone had just offended me. 

What a jump scare. 

"Someone’s at the door." The sudden robotic voice practically made me fly through a fucking wall. Jeez. 

"Um...okay..?" I replied scarcely. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to reply or not. 

The door opened a second later and Steve was standing there. 

"You're awake." He stated the obvious as he stayed put on the other side of the door—something that I wasn't used to. 

Everyone had always instantly walked into the room if someone specifically came looking for me. It usually meant that I was being taken away. 

My heart rate picked up. "Yeah." 

He glanced from me to around the room before his eyes landed back to me. "Can I come in?" 

I blinked. "Um," I nodded and then took a slight step back just before he stepped into the room. 

"I'm going to," He slowly closed the door, "close this." He then let out a sigh and looked back to me. "So, how's it going?" 

"You mean...being held hostage here? How is that going?" I clarified and Steve chuckled slightly, 

"You are not being held hostage." 

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, i'm not?" 

"No."

"So I can go?" I pointed to the door as I took just one step. 

He opened his mouth to say something but then thought against it. "Well, no." 

I tilted my head up, "Ah..." 

"But you're not a hostage. You'll understand that once Bruce finds a way to get your memory back." 

I almost immediately furrowed my eyebrows at that complete sentence but the one question that I decided on was, "Who's Bruce?" 

Steve waved a hand. "The guy who has been giving you different serums and stuff."

"Oh, right." I shrugged. "I don't get what you guys are exactly trying to do."

"We are trying to get your memories back."

"Right—I understand that. But what memories?" I returned my leg to where it once was so that I could be standing normally. "Can't you explain to me some stuff—if I truly am who you think I am?"

Steve tilted his head as he seemed to be running that question through his mind. 

I had never wanted Wanda's mind reading capabilities so badly in my life. 

"Yes." Steve finally landed on an answer, "I'll tell you some stuff..about you." 

"Great," I nodded once. "Okay, um.." I glanced to the door that he was standing next to and then looked down at my very messy clothing. My black tactical leather had a ripped sleeve, dried blood coating it, dirt, ash, sweat—all very disgusting."Can I get a shower first?" 

"Oh—yeah, of course." He instantly spoke before he turned and opened the door next to him. "I'll get you something to change into." 

"Don't find this to be stylish?" I tempted and he cracked a smile. 

"The...Hydra..uniform? No. No, I don't." He then stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him. 

I nodded once. Another abrupt end to the conversation. Did he do that a lot? 

It didn't take long for him to come back with a T-shirt, sweatpants, a towel, and a wash cloth. He set it all down on the one desk that I had in my new room and then showed the pieces of clothing to me,

"T-shirt." He stated as he held up a basic oversized shirt, then draped it over his arm. "Sweats." He held up a black pair of Stark-branded sweatpants. He then laid his hand on the towel, "Towel." He laid his hand down onto the wash cloth, "Wash cloth." 

"Thanks for the run down." I had more sarcasm in my voice than not. 

He handed all of the supplies to me before he nodded towards the door. "Bathroom's this way."

I followed him out into the hallway. The floor was slick and quiet, humming faintly beneath our steps. Everything in this damn tower was too clean. Too polished. Too...un-Hydra. Which probably should've been comforting, but all it did was remind me how much shit I was in for getting captured into a place like this. If Hydra found me and took me back...

We stopped in front of a frosted glass door and he gestured toward it."Jarvis already pre-heated the water. You should be good. Fresh towels on the shelf. Shampoo and everything stocked."

I stepped forward, brushing my fingers against the doorframe just as I lightly slid it to the side. The humid hot air hit me and I almost smiled, excitement taking over.

I hot shower...I couldn't even remember the last time I had one of those.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Steve asked cautiously and I stepped into the bathroom, turning as I asked, 

"What, worried I'll drown in the tub?"

"No." Steve tilted his head, "Worried you'll slip out of here using the fabric of reality."

I stared at him. Then snorted. "You almost made a joke, Rogers. Careful. You're gonna get fun on you."

He actually smiled then—just a bit—and looked away. "I'll be down the hall. Yell if you need anything."

"Yell if I fall in? Only if you promise to be my prince charming." I joked with him and he rolled his eyes as he turned away from me. 

"I'll be naked, you know. If I fall in." I continued the teasing and he glanced back to me.

"Hoping so." 

My jaw slightly dropped as I didn't expect that reply out of him. 

I wasn't exactly sure why I didn't expect the reply...he just..didn't seem like the kind of guy to say that? Yeah. 

I shook my head as I turned, eyeing the sizzling hot shower right in front of me.

It was just me, standing in a real bathroom. About to take a real shower. Wearing clothes that didn't smell like gunpowder and fear.

It wasn't freedom. Not really. But it was something.

And I'd take it.

Chapter Text

I used the towel in my hands to twist little pieces of my hair between it, trying to dry my hair faster.

"..Jarvis." I spoke out timidly and I instantly heard that familiar robotic voice,

"Yes, Valeska?"

I couldn't help but smile at the familiarity in the way he said my name. "Tell Steve to come to my room."

"Will do." Seconds later, I heard his voice again. "I have alerted Steve Rogers that his presence is requested in your room."

I nodded once. "Good. Thank you."

"Anytime, miss."

I threw my towel down onto my bed and then I walked over to the only mirror in the room, scrunching up little pieces of hair into palm.

Then I heard a knock at my door just before it opened. "Valeska?" Steve's voice rang through my ears and I turned to see him in a similar outfit as me.

I looked him up and down, seeing that he was wearing gray sweatpants and a navy blue T-shirt, and then caught my self as I was obviously checking him out. I quickly snapped my eyes back up to his own and gave him a short smile, "Hey."

"Hey." He greeted and shut the door behind him. He had something in his hands.

"What's that?" I asked and he slightly lifted his hand out.

A plate of food.

"For you." He said but then continued with, "I wasn't sure if you'd be awake or if you'd just go straight to bed."

"I didn't think that you'd be delivering me dinner." I countered.

He placed the plate onto the desk closest to him. "You've been through hell. Figured the least I could do was bring something that didn't come in a capsule."

I shrugged, "Not exactly," I said referring to the been through hell comment. "but thank you for the food." I stepped away from the mirror and made my way over to the food now sitting on my desk.

It looked to be a mix of breakfast foods, but for dinner.

I didn't care, it looked and smelled delicious.

"So," I started off the conversation just as I picked up a slice of bacon from the plate. "You knew me...back then?"

"Yeah. I did." A short answer but then he quickly added onto it. "You weren't exactly easy to forget."

He leaned back against the door that he had just shut and then crossed one arm over the other, keeping them tucked to his chest.

I furrowed my eyebrows but continued to stuff my face with food, talking with a mouth full. "That supposed to be a compliment?"

After a beat, "I think it was supposed to be." He chuckled lightly. "You were louder and sharper. You didn't exactly trust anyone but that never stopped you from helping people, which was something I loved about you—Always helped anyone who needed it, even the ones who didn't deserve it."

"Sounds stupid." I mumbled.

"It sounded brave to the rest of us."

"Who's us?" I stopped eating for a moment so that I could focus in on the conversation at hand.

Steve shifted, uncrossing his arms and moving his legs slightly. "Well, um, Bucky. He was a close friend of ours. You were really good friends with a woman named Peggy. Um.."

I tried to put a face to the names but nothing came to mind.

"You had a good pal in the Army—Micheal, I think his name was."

"Mh..." I nodded slowly but it was all a void in my mind. "Army, huh?" I asked and his eyebrows raised.

"Right, yeah. You were one of the first women to be anything ranked within the Army." He pushed himself off of the door and started to make his way over to my bed.

"I think you got some kind of award for it after you died." He spoke the information like it was the most casual thing in the world to say.

"I died?" I asked and he sat down on my bed.

"Yeah. Back in 43. We went on a mission together and that was when Hydra got you....we just thought you wondered off so we tried looking for you." His eyes were very distant and his words fell silent.

Back in 43.

"Wait—slow down, how old am I?"

Steve blinked himself back to reality. "You don't know when you were born?"

I opened my mouth to say something but then just simply closed it as I shook my head.

He took in a deep breath and then carefully let it out before he told me, "You were born in May of 1918–same year as me."

My jaw fell opened.

"We met in 1938. You were working your way up to Major Staff Sergeant within the Army and I was just trying to become a Soldier."

I couldn't help but blink again and again as I tried to process...

"And what year is it now..?" I knew that we were within the 2000s-2010s, something like that.

"2012."

"Wow..." I couldn't help but murmur.

"Crazy, init?" Steve nodded and I nodded along with him just I slowly made my way over to the bed so that I could sit next to him.

"So how old does that make..us?" I asked and he titled his head back and forth as his eyes narrrowed, "..93...94.."

"Damn."

"Mhm."

"And..." I was at a complete loss for words. "And how...and how are we still alive? How are we still...young?"

"I—" His words froze but his mouth was still opened, "I don't know what they did to you but..." He shook his head. "I went into the ice in 45 after I crashed a plan to save many civilians. Somehow the ice froze everything about me and I woke up 70 years later." He shrugged. "You know, you gotta move on. You gotta adjust to what's happening."

"And so, that's what i'm supposed to do?" I asked as it was the obvious underlying statement. "Adjust to the fact that I have all of these memories that I don't actually have?"

Steve looked to my eyes and he seemed to be memorizing every little line and color within them. Then he shrugged, "If we can get those memories back to you then I think that it will be a miracle. If not..." He went silent for a moment. "If not, i'm hoping you will accept what I can tell you. What we can tell you."

I made sure to only make the eye contact stronger, "And what if I just...can't believe you?"

He slowly began to shake his head, "Then I guess we'll just have to make new memories."

A silence settled between us—comfortable, but heavy. I glanced down at my fingers, which were tangled into each other. Then back up at him.

He was looking towards the door and I knew that he was going to be leaving soon.

For some reason that made my heart go empty. It made me feel alone even though he was still sitting not even an inch away from me.

I felt a light brush of his hand against my leg just as he stood up, the dip in the bed disappearing causing me to feel uneven. I stood with him as I wasn't exactly a fan of the bed anyway and he carefully made his way over to the door, not wasting a second before opening it.

"Give me a memory." I blurted out and Steve stopped in his tracks.

His eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Give you a memory?" He repeated and I shrugged,

"Something stupid—just between us."

His eyes held a glint of excitement at my request and his hand fell away from the door.

"Make me want to remember." I told him to try and signify what this moment meant to me. He needed to go back in his mind and find a memory that would possibly trigger something in my mind. If there even was something to be triggered.

Steve didn't answer at first. He blinked and then looked toward the floor like he had to dig through a very old box to find what I'd asked for.

Finally, he gave a soft laugh. "Okay. Alright, I got one."

My heart jumped with excitement.

"You used to sneak coffee into the base. Black market stuff. Real strong. Smelled like burnt rubber and tasted like battery acid—God, it was awful." He smiled wider now. "But every morning, you'd act like it was the best cup of coffee you'd ever had. And you'd make me drink it too, like it was a sacred ritual."

I tilted my head at him, curious. "Why?"

He looked at me, warmth in his eyes. "Because you said soldiers didn't get enough good things. So if all we had was bad coffee and frostbite, at least we'd have that together."

A weird feeling tugged at my chest. Familiarity, maybe. Or just the thought that I used to be someone who gave a shit like that.

I let out a breath. "That does sound stupid."

"It was," he grinned. "But I looked forward to it every morning. Just me, you, and a mug full of sludge that could strip paint off a tank."

A beat passed. I waited for something to happen. Another memory to run through my mind.

I got nothing.

I was disappointed and slightly feeling lost at what to do. I wasn't sure if I could one hundred percent believe the things that Steve was telling me because I wasn't a hundred percent sure on who I truly was.

"...I don't remember it," I said softly.

His eyes were sincere as he gave me a comforting, "I know." And that was all the words needed before he just nodded once and then slowly stepped back towards the door.

This time, he didn't stop. He walked right out.

The door clicked shut behind him, and just like that, I was alone again.

The silence was... heavier now. Not like before. Not like the kind of quiet that let me rest. It crawled up the walls and settled in my chest, like I was being watched even when I knew I wasn't.

I looked back down at the empty plate on the desk. I'd finished everything without even realizing it.

I couldn't sleep.

Not when my mind felt like a black hole with nothing anchoring it. Nothing to hold onto except secondhand stories.

I stood slowly and walked over to the window, palms pressed lightly to the glass. Stark Tower loomed over the city, glowing faintly under a sky that never truly got dark—not with all the lights below.

I leaned my forehead on the glass and let my eyes fall shut.

Maybe if it broke.

If it broke and I fell...it would all be over.

A sudden strange waft of air pushed against my body and I stumbled backwards slightly.

My eyes snapped back opened and I noticed the slight glow from Cherry lighting up my little space in the room.

I then caught my own reflection in the glass—barefoot, oversized shirt, tangled hair. I looked like a ghost trying to remember what it meant to be alive.

I turned away from the window.

"Jarvis," I whispered.

"Yes, Miss Valeska?" His voice, always calm.

"If I were to walk out of this room... would I be stopped?"

A pause. "No, Miss. You are currently cleared to access the residential and lounge floors."

Interesting.

"Thank you," I murmured, grabbing the hoodie Steve had left with the folded clothes earlier and slipping it over my head. I didn't bother with shoes. I didn't want this to feel official. Didn't want anyone to think I was trying to escape.

I just needed... air. Answers. Something.

The hallway was dim, hushed. One security light pulsed faintly from the ceiling, painting the floor in a soft blue hue. I padded forward on silent feet, glancing down both ends of the corridor.

Nobody.

I didn't know where I was going.

But I walked anyway.

A few doors passed—most of them closed tight, some slightly cracked. Behind one I heard what sounded like low music. Another had the rhythmic hum of machinery, maybe a lab.

But it was the door at the far end, with a faint red glow seeping out from beneath, that pulled me in.

My fingers hovered just above the doorframe.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to knock... or just walk in.

I didn’t even know whose room it was.

But I felt it. A pull. It could've just been me being nosey but I honestly didn't care.

It was like something in there might help me remember who I used to be.

Or I was truly going insane...

No. I was right. This felt right.

I stared at the glow slipping out from under the door, my breath catching in my chest. It wasn't the sterile white of the ceiling lights, or the soft blue Jarvis used when guiding me through the halls.

This light was red....Cherry red.

I didn't think.

I opened the door.

And what I saw made my heart stop; The room was completely dark—except for the floating mass of swirling, raw energy suspended in the center like a beating heart, pulsing and alive. Crimson fog danced across the floor in waves, spreading across the tiles and creeping toward me like it knew me.

I furrowed my eyebrows in complete and utter confusion.

But that wasn't the crazy part.

Standing in the middle of it—was me.

Not a reflection. Not a memory.

Me.

Except...she was wearing a Red Room uniform. Not the bloodied one I'd arrived in—this was pristine. Clean. Her back was turned, arms folded behind her like a soldier. Her hair was longer, pinned up in that too-tight, too-perfect style Hydra always made me wear.

My hand was burning. So badly that I thought it was on fire, and when I looked down to it, I almost thought it was.

My entire hand was bright red—almost glowing.

What the actual fuck was happening?!

What did Tony set up in here?

Was he planning on using this to torture me?

I wanted out.

I wanted the weird energy and weird burning sensation to be gone. I wanted to go back into the boring room with the marshmallow-like-bed.

I turned to leave but I was in front of me. She was there. Staring at me. No door in sight.

Her eyes were exactly like mine—but hollow. Glassy. The red energy surged for a moment, glowing brighter as she opened her mouth, "You remember me now, don't you?"

I stepped back instinctively. "What is this?"

"I'm the part of you they built," she said calmly and I couldn't help but make a look—a look that said, you are speaking a bunch of bullshit. "The part they made in the dark. When they took your memories, they gave you me in return."

"This isn't real." Was I telling her that or me that?

"It's reality," Her voice grew louder, the red glow intensifying. "Cherry kept this locked away to protect you. But now...you've opened the door."

"What—" Images began slamming into my head like shrapnel:

"Stay down!" I was practically screaming but I had to so that my soldiers could hear me. More shots were fired and I desperately tried to ignore the string of fear tying my steps down to the ground.

No matter how fast I ran, it wasn't fast enough.

Boots and boots and boots stomped around me. They weren't fast enough.

I gasped and blinked as hard as I could. What the fuck was happening?!

"Come on, you have to go on stage in like—" I looked down to my very broken watch and then looked back up at Steve, "10 minutes. You'll need the energy."

"If anything this is taking energy from me. Do you not realize how awful this tastes?" Steve laughed and I rolled my eyes.

"You are so ungrateful."

The music was too loud, the whiskey was too cheap, and Bucky was talking too much. Again.

"Alright, alright, one more," he slurred, clinking his shot glass against mine. "Winner drinks, loser carries me back to camp."

"You say that like I haven't already carried your ass back twice this week," I snorted, knocking the shot back like water. "You're getting soft, Barnes."

He made a mock-wounded face. "Soft? You wound me, Valeska. That's real cruel, coming from the woman who once headbutted a guy for stepping on her shoelace."

"That guy was a Nazi."

I let out an aspirated whine and rushed my hands up to my head, pressing my palms into my temples.

Screams. All that I could see, hear, smell, feel.

Screams. Cold, hollow.

Screams.

A scalpel. That was a fucking scalpel—pointed at my head. Some guy was speaking another language...maybe Russian? Damnit. Just kill me now...please.

"Dance with me." I insisted and Bucky gave me a look that said, he wanted to dance but wasn't sure if he wanted to dance with me. "Oh—come on. Live a little!" I grabbed onto his hand and pulled him with me as I walked to the dance floor. This was going to be the only time that I got off before I was back to being pushed in the dirt every morning, working my ass off just to stay alive.

"I thought you were mad at me." Bucky stated the obvious and I shrugged.

"Just...dance with me."

What the hell was that?

The man holding the stone spoke in Russian to me, "Don't move."

I didn't understand why I could understand him. I didn't understand how I could understand him.

The Stone was suddenly fusing to the back of my hand.

All I knew was fire. Static. Reality bending around me like glass shattering in slow motion. I was screaming but I didn't know for how long.

"What the fuck—"

"You're not made of steel, you know."

I looked up, startled. Peggy stood in the entryway, a mug in each hand. Her uniform jacket was unbuttoned, hair slightly undone, a rare sight.

"I thought you were sleeping," I murmured as my heart rate slowed down and I looked away from her.

"I thought you were." Peggy crossed the tent and handed me one of the mugs, I took it even though I didn't exactly want whatever was in it. I felt numb. Too numb to be ingesting anything.

It was hot and smelled like real tea. The kind only I could find in the middle of a warzone.

I mumbled a thank-you, and stared at the steam.

"You stitched up five men today. Shot seven," Peggy said gently, sitting beside me. "You haven't eaten. Haven't slept. What are you trying to prove?"

My jaw clenched and the answer in my mind was very clear, "That I can survive."

Peggy tilted her head. "To who?"

"To everyone," I whispered.

A pause. Then Peggy set her mug down and turned to face me fully. "You don't have to earn your place here every damn day, Val. You're already one of us. You're already enough."

My throat burned at the words she was speaking, tightening so that tears would pierce my eyes. "I don't feel like it. I feel like... like if I stop for even a second, I'll lose everything."

Peggy didn't respond right away. She reached over and took my hand—bloody knuckles and all—and held it firmly. "Then fall apart. Right now. Just for a second. I'll be here. And when you're ready, you can put yourself back together again. But you don't have to do it alone."

Something cracked in my chest.

I didn't cry. Not really. But my breath hitched, and my fingers curled tightly into Peggy's.

It was the first time in months that I let myself lean against someone else.

Tony sat next to me, patting my leg for just a second before he pulled a blanket over top of me, "You're safe now, kid." He reassured me but the thought of going back there...it haunted me. I barely knew anything about myself but what I did know...what I did know was that I never ever wanted to go back to that place.

I dropped to my knees, clutching my head as the memories physically hurt me.

The memories poured in too fast, too hard. Everything—all of it—was back.

I couldn't breathe.

She knelt in front of me—my other self. The Hydra weapon. The ugly souled creature whom I wanted to rot in hell. Her face softened but mine hardened.

"You don't need me anymore," she whispered and I couldn't help but spit out,

"I never needed you."

"I'll go." She shrugged, "But I'll be waiting if you ever call me back."

She leaned forward, forehead touching mine.

And then, like smoke, she vanished.

The red light vanished with her.

The room was quiet.

I let out a blood curdling scream.

Chapter Text

The door swung open but I was on the floor, hiding my head between my arms. I was in so much pain but I couldn't understand why... 

My brain physically hurt. 

I couldn't exactly grasp onto what had happened to me or why I was so confused. 

It was as if those small little blank spots in my memories were filled in but also...also the memories that I had were swapped out for nicer—sweeter ones. And not so sweet ones. 

People that I hadn't known before...I now knew. 

Memories that I wouldn't have even dreamt of having...I now had. 

My heart hurt. My body hurt. My brain hurt. 

I wanted to cry but I was so...shocked that I couldn't do anything. I could feel anything. I couldn't process any kind of emotion because the memories were taking up so much space in my mind. 

"Steve—get in here!" Tony's loud voice rang through my ears and that only caused more memories to break into my mind. 

I started screaming again because it hurt...it really hurt. 

A red light was shining against the lids of my eyes but I refused to open them. If anything I squeezed them shut tighter. 

More memories. 

Which only led to more screaming. 

I had never reacted like this to anything—not even the awful torturous methods that they used on me in the Red Rooms. 

I had actually forgotten about most of the torture done on me and within seconds I had all of the memories back.

It was like I was there.

Scalpel to my brain. 

Electricity to my skull. 

Beating to my ribs. 

A touch to my arm caused me to snap my eyes open and jump away from whatever was happening to me. 

I couldn't take anymore torture and the instinct to counter any type of move made on me kicked in. 

My eyes probably looked rabid as I latched onto the arm of whoever it was and quickly pulled myself away from them. 

I made eye contact with Steve. 

Not the scrawny Steve that was taking up my memory...no, the new Steve. The Steve that I didn't know. 

I practically threw his hand down just as I made eye contact with him and then I scooted away even farther. 

"What happened, Valeska?" He asked calmly but sternly. 

I blinked, feeling a hot tear stream down my face. That was when I took in the room. 

Cracks in the floors, red electricity running through different parts of the floors and walls, junks missing. 

I didn't understand....where was the woman—where was me? 

She did this. 

I didn't do this.

Did I?

His eyes snapped away from me and to Tony who was still standing in the doorway, not even attempting to move as one wrong step could really hurt him. 

I had never done something like this before. Never. 

I didn't understand when or how it happened. 

As Steve looked back to me, he said my name soft but sharp. "Valeska." It cut through my panic and  for a moment my mind completely focused on him. "You're okay. You're safe. We're here." 

I shook my head, hard. I didn't know if I was saying no to him or to the memories—all of them. They were too loud. Faces and screams and laughter and bullets. It was like being drowned in my own life.

My fingers clawed at my temple. "Make it stop, please." My voice came out as a whine even though I didn't want it to. 

Steve reached out, slow, like he was trying not to spook a wild animal. His hand hovered over mine before gently wrapping around it.

"Make what stop?" He asked, slightly furrowing his eyebrows.

More and more tears streamed down my face. "Everything." I choked out. "Everything. I see everything. I see my father and I see you but different. Bucky, Peggy, the war..." That caused another sob to escape my lips. The war was bringing up almost worse memories than being experimented on by Hydra because I was so completely aware during the war. 

A hiccup of a breath rushed through my lungs as I continued, "It was so cold, Steve. It was so cold for so long.." I shook my head as I tried to rummage through all of the memories but they still hadn't stopped. 

And that was when I realized. 

That worst part of it all. 

"Oh my—" I choked out another sob. "It was him. It was Bucky." 

And that was when I finally broke. 

My body collapsed forward and I buried my face into Steve's chest, sobbing in a way I didn't know I still could. Not graceful or quiet—ugly, gut-wrenching sobs that came from a place older than pain itself.

And he held me. Like he'd done it a thousand times before.

Because maybe, back then, he had.

He didn't make us move or push me off of him. No, he held onto me just as tightly as I was holding onto him. 

I needed something to ground me. To remind me that I had a body and not just a mind. His body was that grounding. His arms were wrapped around my waist as I had my hands wrapped around his one arm and my face laid tightly against his chest. 

"You're okay, you're okay.." Steve whispered to me and I could just barely recognize that Tony was also saying something. 

"No—she doesn't need any of that right now." Steve's voice was sharp and I could hear the vibrations of it against his chest. 

"We don't even know what is happening to her. If anything, Banner will help her calm down." 

A beat went by as Steve gently moved my hair out of my face. "Okay—fine." 

"Jarvis." Tony instantly spoke. 

"Yes, sir?"

"Get Bruce Banner."

Chapter Text

I felt numb. So completely numb. 

I had multiple wires and shit attached to me as Banner was looking at some screen. Steve was leaning against a wall, staring at me. 

Tony was sitting in a chair, flipping a pencil around in his hand like a child. 

I blinked every once in a while but my tears seemed to have frozen my face in place. 

"How much longer is this going to take?" Steve asked impatiently. 

"Why," Tony asked, "got a date?" Steve didn't seem to find that joke funny but that didn't stop Tony from giggling to himself. 

Steve didn't date much back in the day but, then again, he was much scrawnier then so...I wasn't sure if that had changed much now. If it hadn't, maybe that was why Tony found the question so funny. 

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. His usual dickhead self making jokes in a situation where jokes were not necessary, at all.

"I don't have very more tests to run..." Bruce just barely spoke over a whisper as he analyzed something on the screen. 

"The EEG is done. The MRI and fMRI scans are done. I need to do some blood panels and genetic workups...um...it would be nice to do reflex, coordination, and response testings. I've just completed the Radiation Spectrum Scan." Bruce went through and labeled all of the fancy tests but what the actual hell were they? I didn't know.

"So what did that all do for you?" Steve asked the question that I was thinking. 

"Well," Bruce began. "The EEG measured the electrical activity in Valeska's brain. I'm going to look for any irregularities caused by trama, memory loss, or—" He nodded towards my hand, "Reality Stone influence."

Both Steve and Tony were looking at him with a blank face. 

"So, hopefully, I can see how I can stop this from happening again." He then began to walk over to me as he continued to explain. "The MRI and fMRI scans allowed me to look in at the brain to see if the memory loss was caused by emotional stress or if they physically cut into the brain. That would explain the physical pain that she is going through as she gets the memories back." 

Bruce started to take off all of the cables from my head and chest. "They also allowed me to see what triggered the brain into the emotional stress that she is in—why she got the memories and why she got them now." He removed the last cable and then set them all down as he walked back over to his computer. 

"The Radiation Spectrum Scans were so I could detect and track the unique energy signature of the Reality Stone." He typed one last thing into his computer before he continued, "The rest would be for different things like Hydra most likely altering her DNA—no human body could withstand a Reality Stone for as long as Valeska has. Basic physical checkup. Um—how the Reality Stone and Valeska work together. Stuff like that." 

"Sounds like a lot." I mumbled and they all looked to me before I could even get the full sentence out. 

"Yes, well." Bruce shrugged. "You've been through a lot so it will take a lot to get you back to normal.

What was normal?

To be going back to normal would be going back to the 1940s. There was no normal in sight. 

"Mh." I nodded once and then that was all the rest that I spoke for the rest of the time. 

—3rd Person—

The hum of the monitors was the only sound in the lab, save for the soft rustling of a blanket as Valeska shifted slightly on the cot they'd moved into the observation room. She was asleep now—or something close to it. Her vitals were stable, but Bruce knew better than to trust numbers when it came to trauma this deep.

He had hooked different monitors up to her head so that he could observe her dreams—more specifically, REM sleep.

He wanted to look at, and study, her subconscious memory restoration. 

Now it was 3:13am and Bruce hadn't taken his eyes off of Valeska—not even for a second. 

He stood with his arms crossed, in front of the glass, watching her. Not like a scientist observing a subject. More like a doctor trying to understand how a patient was still alive.

Her brain patterns had started leveling off, but the readings... They weren't normal. Not for a human.

Not for anyone.

"Her gamma output fluctuated when the memories hit," Bruce muttered under his breath. "And the neural mapping around the hippocampus looks almost... rewritten."

A beat.

He leaned closer to the monitor. "It's like something went in there, deleted specific file paths, and then force-downloaded everything again at once."

"I've done that to my laptop before," came a voice behind him. "It didn't end well for the laptop."

Bruce didn't need to turn around to know who it was. "Tony."

Tony strolled in with a half-eaten protein bar and a tablet tucked under one arm. He looked at the vitals, then at Valeska, then back at Bruce. "You gonna tell me if she's a ticking time bomb or should I call Fury now and ask for a glass cell with a vibranium padlock?"

"She's not a bomb," Bruce said calmly, though he didn't sound fully convinced. "She's more like... a broken circuit board trying to reroute its power source."

Tony took another bite, chewing thoughtfully. "And what's the power source? Cherry? Or something else?"

Bruce hesitated. "Both. Her brain, her nervous system, the Reality Stone—they're all syncing again after years of being artificially suppressed. The more memories she gets back, the stronger the Stone becomes. And the more connected it is to her."

Tony stopped chewing. "... So what you're saying is, the more she remembers, the more cosmic juice she's packing."

Bruce nodded. "Exactly."

Tony blew out a breath and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "And here I thought my PTSD was complicated."

There was a silence.

Then Bruce said quietly, "She could snap the world in half if she wanted to."

Tony tilted his head. "So let's make sure she doesn't want to."

Bruce turned away from the screen. "It's not about want, Tony. It's about capacity. I think we've underestimated how much of her is still wired to that... other version of herself. The one Hydra made."

"Yeah. I met her once." Tony scratched the back of his neck. "Well, the post-Hydra version. Back in Malibu. She was... broken. But not empty. You know? She still cracked a joke. Still snuck my coffee when she thought I wasn't looking."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "She did that?"

"She had a caffeine addiction. And I was too fascinated by the glowing rock in her palm to stop her." Tony paused. "But we let her go back to them. Hydra. We didn't stop it."

Bruce didn't say anything.

Tony sighed. "So now what, Banner? You gonna keep wiring her up and running tests until she flatlines? Or do we actually do something with this?"

Bruce's jaw tightened. "What do you mean?"

Tony pushed off the wall, voice lower now. "We've got a girl with a god-tier rock hardwired into her nervous system, and enough emotional trauma to put all of Asgard into therapy. You're telling me we're just gonna hope she keeps it together?"

Bruce looked away. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying we need a failsafe," Tony replied. "A system. Something smarter than us. Something that doesn't sleep or forget or break down when its memories come back."

Bruce turned toward him slowly. "You mean Ultron."

Tony didn't blink. "Yeah. I do."

Bruce stared at him, heart racing. "Tony, we're not ready. That tech's years away from—"

"No. It's not." Tony tapped his tablet. "I've been building the framework. Jarvis has the diagnostics. Fridays in pre-code. The cradle's almost finished."

Bruce's stomach sank. "That's not the point. You're playing with fire."

Tony's voice was steady. "So is she."

A silence fell between them. They both looked through the glass at Valeska again—still, quiet, breathing shallowly as she slept.

Bruce finally muttered, "If we're gonna do this... it has to be for the right reasons."

Tony gave him a tired smile. "Aren't you the one who said we should start trusting science again?"

"No," Bruce replied. "That was you."

Tony laughed dryly. "Right. My bad."

The lab lights dimmed slightly as the energy readouts from the Reality Stone flickered across the monitors once more.

And in the silence, both men stood at the edge of something they couldn't take back.

A soft whoosh of the lab door sliding open broke the silence.

Steve stepped in.

His shirt clung to him like he hadn't changed since he had found Valeska screaming. Eyes bloodshot. But alert.

"What are you two doing?" he asked flatly, his gaze flicking between Bruce and Tony.

Bruce's shoulders tensed as he had never been very good at lying. Tony and Bruce had kept the whole Ultron idea to themselves for quite some time now. Every added code or data was kept from the others as they hadn't agreed with the idea of Ultron. "Running diagnostics. Trying to understand how she's still standing." A short answer.

Steve didn't look at the screens. His eyes were locked on them. "You're talking about her like she's a weapon."

"She is," Tony said simply, arms crossed again. "Just one we've grown sentimentally attached to."

Steve took a step forward. "Don't start that. She's not some prototype with a reset button."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "You think I don't know that?"

"I think you forget," Steve said, voice quiet but firm. "You wrap it in a problem set, put it in a lab, and suddenly she's a line of code you're trying to debug."

Tony let out a breath, stepped closer. "We're out of time, Rogers. You felt what happened up there. That red light? That wasn't just emotional. That was dimensional bleed. The Stone reacted—she reacted—and I saw our infrastructure fray at the seams."

Steve turned to Bruce. "You agree with him?"

Bruce hesitated. "Not... completely," he said. "But Tony's not wrong. The scan data—it's not just trauma. The Reality Stone is waking up. And the more memories she gets, the more powerful and unstable that connection becomes. If it fully syncs..."

"We lose her?" Steve asked.

"Maybe," Bruce replied. "Or maybe the world becomes exactly what she remembers it to be, not what it is."

That hit Steve hard.

He turned to the glass again. Valeska shifted slightly in her sleep, her brows furrowing like she was still fighting something even unconscious.

He exhaled slowly. "So what's your answer? Build another suit of armor around the world?"

Tony's voice dropped. "Not a suit..." He looked to Bruce, just to make sure he didn't disapprove the idea of telling Steve about the new coming of Ultron. "A mind." Tony stated as Bruce didn't seem to have a thought against it. "A defense program. Something that can analyze threats faster than us. Stop them before they start."

It didn't take him long to figure out what Tony was talking about. It wasn't as if Tony tried warming up the idea to the rest of The Avengers about a million times. "Ultron," Steve said grimly.

Tony didn't deny it. "We keep waiting until the fight's on our doorstep. I'm tired of being reactive. You think SHIELD was bad? Try waiting until another alien army comes looking for one of the six most powerful objects in existence and realizing your strongest defense is having a literal PTSD war hero in a hoodie."

"That 'war hero' is a person," Steve snapped.

Tony leaned forward, serious now. "And she'll be the first casualty if we don't prepare. I'm not saying we replace her. I'm saying we help her carry the weight. We build something that gives her the chance to just be a person again."

Bruce looked down. 

That part... 

That part, he agreed with.

Steve's voice softened. "Then say that. Don't talk about failsafes like she's an experiment gone wrong."

Tony turned to him fully. "We're all experiments gone wrong, Cap. Some of us just happen to come with higher stakes."

Silence. The air around them fell into a thick silence. 

The monitors behind them beeped softly—the constant reminder that Valeska was in harms way and Steve couldn't bear to see it.

Steve finally looked at Bruce. "And you? You're going to help him build it?"

Bruce looked conflicted. He rubbed at his temple. "I don't know. I want to believe we can make something good out of this. But Ultron's not just tech, Steve. It's a philosophy. One mistake and we're no better than the people who built her."

Tony looked back toward the glass, a strange flicker in his eye. "The only difference is—we know better."

A beat passed, then Steve said, "That's what they said too. The people who built the Red Room."

Tony didn't respond.

Bruce closed his eyes for a second. "Let's not fight about this. Not tonight."

Steve moved closer to the window, watching Valeska like she might disappear if he blinked.

Finally, softly, he said, "She deserves a future. Not a cage."

Tony's voice was quiet behind him. "So let's make sure she lives long enough to get one."

Chapter Text

"What's the rumpus?" Banner asked and Tony patted him on his shoulder as he passed by.

"Well, the scepter." Tony glanced to me, "And the Reality Stone."

I tilted my head to the side as I was annoyed to be hearing all of this talk, once again. All Banner and Tony seemed to talk about was the damn Scepter and Reality Stone.

I was annoyed.

And I didn't even have Steve to use as my escape goat.

He was out with Natasha—my doppleganger. His little girlfriend.

Okay—well, she wasn't his girlfriend but they flirted so goddamn much that they were practically there.

"You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive."

"Which one was Strucker, again?" I asked and Banner answered without looking at me,

"The one who was experimenting on you—Reality Stone."

"Ah," I nodded. Strucker placed the stone into my hand. Strucker gave me the Super Soldier Serum. Strucker insisted that my brain be cut apart and reconstructed.

"So i've been analyzing the gem inside of the scepter, as well as the gem inside of Valeska's hand." Tony explained to us both just as he picked up some tiny device and pressed it against the air in front of him. "You may recognize..." An array of orange appeared in the room. Some kind of hologram. It was a circle of technology and wiring.

I furrowed my eyebrows at the sudden appearance.

"Jarvis." Bruce stated as a greeting and the orange ball was quick to say back,

"Doctor."

"Started out, Jarvis was just a natural language UI." Tony began to explain his big idea. "Now he runs on Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone other than Pepper."

I smiled at the thought of Pepper. I had so many memories of her yet I hadn't seen her since arriving at The Avengers tower. She was probably busy running Starks company...

"Top of the line." Tony made clear.

"Yes.." Banner murmured.

"I suspect not for long." Jarvis spoke up.

Oh.

This was about the stupid Ultron idea.

"Meet the competition." Tony said just before tapping that little screen of his into the air next to Jarvis.

A hologram of blue, double the size of Jarvis' hologram, popped up in front of me and it almost looked to be...human like.

"It's beautiful..." Bruce was completely taken back by the look of this thing. His eyes were mesmerized.

"If you had to guess, what's it look like it's doing—" Tony could barely finish his question before Bruce was replying,

"Like it's thinking."

"Mh." I leaned back in the chair that I was sitting in as I examined the weird looking thing.

"I mean, this could be..." Bruce didn't even finish his sentence. Mr. Seven PhDs was at a loss for words.

Damn...

"It's not a human mind." He made clear and Tony nodded his head.

How the hell did I get mixed into this shit? I had no care in the world for what was happening.

"I mean, look at this." Bruce looked back to me with obvious amazement coating his face.

I raised my eyebrows and nodded, "I'm looking."

"They're like neurons firing." He stated, looking away from me and to Tony.

"Down in Struckers lab, I saw some fairly advanced robotics work." Just as Tony said this I raised a hand,

"I remember that." I was trapped in that little secret room of his when Tony did that.

Both Tony and Bruce ignored me just as Tony continued, "They deep-sixed the data, but...I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

"Artificial intelligence." Bruce nodded.

"Ultron." I stated just for the fact of hurrying this whole discussion up.

Tony instantly pointed at me, "This could be it. This could be the key to creating Ultron."

Bruce laughed lightly as he began to shake his head, "I thought Ultron was a fantasy."

"Yesterday it was."

I let out a sigh just as they began to pace around the room. Well—mainly it was Bruce pacing around the room and Tony following him around like a puppy.

"If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol..?"

"That's a man-sized if." Bruce made clear.

"Our job is if." Tony countered and couldn't help but agree with that. "What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach, turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for Veronica."

Who's Veronica?

"Don't hate. I helped design Veronica."

Oh, another one of their fancy tech robots.

"As a worst-cast measure, right?" Tony asked.

Bruce nodded.

"How about a best case." Tony offered. Blah blah blah blah blah."What if the world was safe? What if, next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will," He made very clear. "they couldn't get past the bouncer?"

I was just about to open my mouth and say how stupid all of these analogous were but then Bruce spoke,

"The only people threatening the planet would be.. people."

"I want to apply this to the Ultron program." They had a whole fucking program for Ultron? "But Jarvis can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here. That's three days. Give me three days."

"And if it takes longer than that?" Bruce asked and Tony's vision slowly drifted over to me.

"Well...we have her."

I blinked. "What?"

"Worst case scenario," Tony held up his hands in defense, "we just need a little juice from that fancy gem of yours."

"No way Hozay." I instantly shook my head. "I'm not contributing to any of this."

"That's why I need these three days." He looked back to Bruce with pleading eyes.

"So you're going for artificial intelligence, and you don't want to tell the team?" He made clear and I raised my eyebrows.

Sneakyyyy.

"Right. That's right. You know why?" Tony asked and I let my head fall into my hands,

"I have a feeling that you're going to say why—" I was quickly interrupted:

"Because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the man was not meant to meddle medley." What the hell did that mean? "I see...a suit of armor around the world."

A beat passed.

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony." Bruce murmured.

"I've seen colder." Tony’s words were cold.

After Tony and Bruce had a little gay moment of eye contact to themselves, Tony continued, "This one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron."

I could've sworn that I saw both Bruce and Tony's eyes glance over to me just before Tony turned and started walking back over to his computer. "Peace in our time. Imagine that."

I slowly began to nod. "Imagine that..."

Chapter Text

I sat cross-legged on the bed in a pair of joggers and an old army tee that I found in Steve's closet, flipping through some old Shield file Tony had let me keep.

My wet hair was messily tied up and there were at least three coffee mugs stacked on my nightstand. I didn't plan on moving for at least another couple of hours.

I wanted to find out more about this whole genetically altered thing going on. Why did Natasha look exactly like me? Why were only Wanda and Pietro experimented on with me? How could I get them out of that place without being dragged back into it myself?

"You planning on showing up looking like a war ghost?" The sudden sound of a woman's voice snapped me out of my trance but I still did not look away from the files as I recognized the voice almost instantly. It sounded so similar to mine that it didn't take much guessing to know who it was.

"Didn't know this was a red carpet thing." I told Natasha as I unpinned a photograph of Bucky and sat it to the side, not wanting to see it.

Natasha strutted into the room with a dress draped over her arm and a no-nonsense glare on her face. "It's a party. You know—music, drinks, actual fun. I know that might be a foreign concept, but we're working on your social rehab."

I finally looked at her and narrowed my eyes, "I'm not good with glitter." Was my only concern as I knew the dress in her hands was for me.

"Lucky for you, this dress doesn't have glitter. Just cleavage." She said just as she lifted the dress up to admire it, a grin plastered on her face.

"You'll survive." She then insisted as she set the dress down on my bed. "Besides, Tony said he wants you there." As she saw that the fact of Tony wanting me at the party did no good at budging me out of my spot, she added, "Steve wants you there."

I couldn't hold back my faint smile. I missed Steve so much and...it was just nice to have him with me. To have that one person that could remind me of what home was like.

"You're blackmailing me with Steve Rogers?" I laughed lightly as the idea was silly.

"I'm motivating you with Steve Rogers."

I clicked my tongue a few times, "See, that's where you've got me wrong. Steven Grant Rogers can't motivate me to do anything."

"Steven. Grant. Rogers?" Natasha repeated slowly with an amused look.

I blinked, "Oh—shit, you have to keep that to yourself."

She sucked in a breath of air as she tilted her head, "I don't think i'll be able to do that."

"Natasha."

"I cannot believe that is his full name."

"Natasha!"

Okay—so somehow she got me in the dress.

I wasn't even sure how it happened but I didn't really catch on to the fact of wearing it until I was being zipped into it.

"Suck in." Natasha ordered and I held my breath as I made my stomach as flat as possible.

The zipper went up nicely and she patted my back just as it was up. "Beautiful."

She walked around to the front of me and smiled spread on her face just as she looked me up and down. "Gosh—you're going to killing all of the fellas in there with this body. "

Of course that caused me to smile. She had the body. She looked perfect.

"You're one to talk." I shook my head and she gave me a look.

"Hey—anything that i've got, you've got. Don't you forget that I was made from you."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "That's weird to think about."

"I'm practically your daughter."

I gasped, "Don't say that."

Natasha let out a laugh, "It's technically true."

"That makes me feel so old."

"97 years." She reminded me and our conversation ended there.

Natasha left to go get ready herself and I made my way downstairs.

The dress was just a basic black dress that fell to my ankles. Natasha gave me a pair of black heels to pair it with.

I kept the natural curl in my hair—not my most favorite hairstyle but it was the least damaging.

The party was in full swing.

People laughing, dancing, and mingling with drinks in hand. The Avengers were spread out across the room. Music was playing.

My eyes instantly locked onto James Rhodes who was telling a story that earned a round of laughter.

I looked away from him and to the other people throughout the crowd.

Wow, did Tony invite a lot of people.

I didn't exactly throw myself into conversation at first. I lingered near the edge of the room—watching. An old habit.

My hand was killing me for some reason. The entire thing burned like crazy and Cherrys shine was extra obnoxious which I was afraid would bring attention to me.

But then I saw Steve and we quickly made eye contact. He was standing at the bar and within a second he was walking over with two drinks in hand, passing one to me.

I gave him a warm smile as I took the drink.

"Now, don't go and get your hopes up because we can't get drunk." He nodded towards me just before he took a drink of his.

I paused. "We can't?"

"No." He grumbled, bringing the cup back down. "We can't. Super Soldier Serum prevents it."

"Oh.." I looked down to the calorie filled drink that I was planning to use as my escape goat tonight. "Damn."

A light chuckle rolled out his mouth just as he took in the outfit that I was wearing.

"You clean up well."

Oh, Steve and his usual awkwardness.

"You're just saying that because you haven't seen me in about 70 years." I winked at him, "I used to wear stuff like this all of the time—remember?"

He smiled as he shook his head, "Oh, I remember."

I rolled my eyes at him as the fact of him being a man was very apparent.

The conversation fell into a silence and I couldn't decipher whether it was an awkward silence or a comfortable one.

Great news was that Sam suddenly showed up and asked to steal Steve. Steve said that he would stay with me as he knew I had never been a fan of parties and stuff. Nothing to do with big crowds was ever my forte but I told him to go ahead.

The amount of uncomfortable pain that Cherry was putting me through was about enough for me to not be able to keep up a very happy-go-lucky act.

Anytime that I was even the slightest upset, Tony would think that my mind was retreating back into my Hydra based mind.

I had just stopped getting tests and bloodwork done on me. I didn't want those to start back up.

I tried to cover my Cherry hand up with my other hand as I leaned back against some random wall.

Everybody seemed to be extremely invested in their conversations so I was fine by myself. No one tried to bother me.

I ended out closing my eyes for a moment, trying to focus on my breathing so that I could ignore the pain in my hand.

Cherry. Hurry it up—this is not the time.

The littlest bit of aggravation caused Cherry to act like this. I just wasn't sure what it was this time.

With one sharp breath, I opened my eyes and decided that maybe walking around would distract me a little more.

I could ease drop on people's conversations. People watch.

It would be fun.

I pushed myself off of the walk and began my walk around the very large room. The majority of the conversations were boring. Something to do with money or work. Those would be the type of people that Tony invites to parties.

I saw Steve playing pool with Sam and they seemed to be having a good time.

Thor was having a dramatic conversation with a bunch of random people—obviously showing off with things about himself.

Tony was talking to that James Rhodes guy just as that one annoying woman from a couple weeks ago showed up. The one with the short hair and lean figure.

I then decided that I had no reason to actually be at the party. I hadn't even seen Natasha and she was the one making me show up.

I froze in my steps for only a minute before they started towards another direction.

The hallway that led to my room.

As I walked across the room, Thor walked over to Rhodes, Tony, and the annoying woman.

I caught a glimpse of their conversion and it was extremely difficult to listen to.

"Boom, you looking for this?" Rhodes repeated what he had obviously said before but it was only met with silence.

So he repeated himself again.

"Boom, are you looking for this—why do I even talk to you guys?" He interrupted himself. "Everywhere else that story kills."

"That's the whole story?" Thor asked.

Rhodes timidly shrugged, "Yeah...it's a War Machine story."

"Oh, it's very good then." Thor spoke with fake amusement. Bless his soul. He even threw in a fake laugh as he said, "It's impressive."

I cracked a smile just as I walked past them and up a few stairs, making my way down a hall.

People lingered here and there but the further I got into the tower, the less people there were.

Eventually, all that I could hear was the faint click of my heels against the solid marble floors.

That was when I realized that I didn't need to be wearing my heels any longer so I slipped them right off.

I held them both in my right hand just as I continued down the hall.

Footsteps.

I could've sworn I heard footsteps.

I slowly came to a stop—wanting to see where the footsteps were coming from.

The harder I tried to listen, the more sounds that I heard from the party.

I blinked a few times before shaking my head. I was always so paranoid for no reason at all. Some kind of sense in my head caused me to become alert to every last thing.

I talked to Natasha about it and she said that it still happened to her. She had been out of that place for years...

No—no, that was most definitely footsteps. I came to an immediate stop this time.

The footsteps were near my room.

I instantly let out a groan and muttered to myself, "I swear if one of Tony's lousy guests snuck into my room...nosey ass bitches..." I quickly took off walking towards my door, not wasting a second before I opened it.

And I instantly froze.

My entire body tensed.

I blinked.

"Bucky?" I spat out, completely and utterly shocked.

He was standing there.

Right. There.

Next to my bed. In his usual Hydra uniform. Metal arm. Gun in his hand—Gun in his fucking hand.

Oh—yup, and he pointed the damn thing at me.

My eyes widened and I ducked to the floor just as a shot was fired. "Bucky!" I barked out.

Music started playing. I wasn't sure from where but it was near Bucky.

I recognized the words to the song almost instantly.

"We'll meet again, don't know where—don't know when." Tears pierced my eyes as I heard them. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to take control of my brain.

That song...

Hydra had asked me way back when—what my favorite color was. I was stupid and young and nieve and I didn't understand. So I told them.

It was a song that I loved to dance to and Bucky was usually the one to dance with me.

You could slow dance to the song or do a more upbeat dance and the song still worked perfectly. It came out in 1939. It was my favorite song.

It was ironic how the song would relate perfectly to my current situation.

"But I know we'll meet again. Some sunny day." I freaked out. The song was ringing in my ears and I didn't know what else to do.

All that I could think about was the old Bucky. The Bucky that I could joke and dance with.

I guess my mind instantly went to a memory of that the second that I pushed out an energy of power—morphing the bedroom around us into whatever my mind was thinking of.

We were suddenly standing on dirt roads and the sound of little kids running around echoed around us.

Bucky stopped speaking. He froze. The gun was still pointed at me but he was no longer looking at me, he was looking around.

So was I.

My eyes landed on my old apartment. My father and I lived in a more abandoned part of Brooklyn. It was cheaper and my father didn't see the need to be spending money on a place that we rarely stayed in.

I stood up from the ground and I took off sprinting towards the stairs up to the apartment.

Buckys eyes snapped onto me and I looked back to him as he tried to shoot a bullet at me. The bullet turned into a balloon.

He just slightly followed the balloon up but then his eyes were back on me and his feet began moving.

I was sprinting up the stairs and into the building.

My apartment was on the 3rd floor—highest one.

I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do once I got in there but...It was an on the spot decision so...

His heavy boots were a haunting sound as they followed close behind me. He never started running but he never lost sight of me.

I was almost up to the third floor when the feeling of something wrapping around my ankle stopped me.

My eye widened and I let out a gasp just as I was yanked back down the stairs.

I tried to catch myself before I slammed into the pointed steps but I couldn't do it. My mind freaked out and the only soft thing that I could think of in the moment was a pile of hay.

I landed in a big chunk of hay and suddenly we were both falling through it all.

It wasn't in the normal compacted stacks that I should've placed it in, no it was just sitting there in a pile.

That time I completed freaked out as we began to free fall so I wiped it all out.

I slammed us both back into my bedroom.

The hard floors were not fun to land on but that didn't seem to bother him. Another shot was fired and I had to quickly roll to the side and push myself off of the floor.

My heart was crushed even though I knew he didn't know himself. He didn't know me.

I was just barely coming to the realization that I knew him.

He didn't know me.

He didn't know what he was doing.

The echo of the gunshot rang in my ears but I was used to the sound.

As another bullet was shot, I dove behind the bed and caught myself in a roll. My breathing was instantly unsteady and I could hear Buckys loud footsteps getting closer.

His heavy boots and the sound of his metal arm wrapping around the gun.

Either I was going to beat his ass, or die.

Well, the answer was pretty clear.

I took in a sharp breath and then popped up from the ground, instantly lunging for the gun.

My hands wrapped around the barrel of the gun just as he pulled the trigger again—too ate.

The bullet tore through the air behind me and slammed into the wall.

He snarled something under his breath—

Russian again, but not the words.

Instinct.

I twisted hard, wrenching the gun to the side.

He let it go—but only because it freed up his fists.

His metal arm came up fast. I ducked the first blow, the whoosh of it slicing the air above my head.

I threw an elbow into his ribs. Barely moved him. A grunt came out of me anyway, effort and pain mixing like poison in my lungs.

He grabbed my arm, spun me, and slammed me into the dresser. The impact sent pain splintering through my shoulder.

I kicked back, heel of my foot slamming into his knee. He staggered and I turned, catching him with a sharp punch to the jaw. He stumbled, just for a second.

"Damnit, Buck!" I grunted just as he came at me again.

I grabbed the nightstand lamp next to me, my hands fiddling to grab it before I got a good grip on it, and smashed it into his shoulder.

Sparks flew.

The light died instantly—glass raining down between us.

He caught my wrist mid-swing as I was trying to hit him again. Tight. Too tight. I cried out—but I wasn't done yet. I drove my head into his nose.

A harsh crack rang through my ears.

He reeled back. Not bleeding. Not yet. But stunned.

"You could at least remember me." I muttered through ragged breaths.

His eyes were blank. Glazed over. Just rage and orders and muscle memory.

He threw me to the ground.

I hit hard. Again.

My back screamed. My ribs throbbed. And Cherry—Cherry was blazing. Like she wanted out. Like she could feel the conflict between us and was clawing at my skin, begging to be used.

I didn't want to do that to Bucky...not yet.

He raised his gun.

Pointed it directly at my head, crouching down on one knee so that he could touch the barrel to my forehead.

No hesitation. No flicker of doubt.

My lips trembled. I blinked hard. "You gave me my first kiss in an alley behind that corner store!" I shouted out as I knew that faint memories like that helped me remember Tony and Steve.

He didn't react.

Fuck—okay.

"We used to go into that corner store everyday before church!" My words were rushed—extremely rushed. "The kiss was awful, we both knew it but we both wanted to get our first kiss over with."

He hadn't shot me yet. That wasn't like him. I must've been getting through to him.

"We didn't talk to each other for, like, 2 weeks after it." I tried to remind him of the awful memory but the most intimate one that I could think of.

"You thought that I was mad at you and that was why we weren't talking, but I wasn't mad you."

His eyes went from empty and numb to his pupils changing size again and again. The pressure of the gun loosened ever so slightly and I truly thought that I was getting to him.

I was getting into his head with these lousy memories...

Or not.

He pulled the damn trigger.

"Oh.." I almost laughed as I obviously wouldn't let him do that to me. Cherry was itching through my skin anyway so I had to put her power to some kind of use. I was stupid for not doing it before—canceling out the ability to shoot a gun. "You're a dick." I informed him before my hand rushed up to his head and I sent a blast of energy into his brain.

Chapter Text

I took in a deep breath and then let it out. 

What are the odds that anyone heard that?

The music was even louder than before and I was pretty sure that the party was around its peak so...probably slim.  

"Now, what the hell do I do with this body?" I was staring down at the unconscious Winter Soldier. 

I had never seen him unconscious before. 

It was kind of weird to see. 

Not even in the Army did I see him unconscious—oh, wait. No. 

That was a lie. 

When Steve and I found him at the Nazi base back in 1943. He was unconscious on that table. 

A chill ran up my spine. 

Bad memories. 

"Okay." I huffed out. "I will..." I pressed my lips into a line as I thought of a good idea. "Leave you here." I nodded once. "I'll go get Steve." 

Just as I turned to leave the room, I stopped. "Oh. Wait," I laughed lightly. "Jarvis?" I spoke out loud, expecting the usual reply. 

Nothing. 

"Jarvis?? Can you get Steve for me?" 

Nothing. 

I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked down to Bucky. "I swear he usually answers me." I defended myself even though the man was unconscious. "Okay, weird." I nodded and then left the room, tying an energy lock over top of the door. 

I had only ever done that once before and it was with the help of Wanda's instructions so that was pretty impressive to me. 

I walked through the hall and I tried to hurry up my steps. I wasn't exactly sure how long Bucky would be out because of the Super Soldier Serum. I hit him with enough energy, he should've been dead. But...he wasn't. Thankfully. 

I got to the point of seeing people and very person to look at me, took a second glance.

I did not think to check how I looked. 

Great...

I gave awkward smiles to each person I passed but I mainly tried to ignore the nasty looks that they were giving me. 

There also was a possibility that I had killed someone close to them so...that may have also caused the mean looks. 

"I'm very happy to be chasing cold leads on our missing persons case." That voice was familiar but I couldn't quite place who it was.

It was a man and he was obviously talking to someone else, just around the corner. "Avenging is your world." 

Thank God! 

Avenging. 

It was someone in The Avengers. 

"Your world is crazy." The guy finalized and just then they rounded the corner.

I came to a halt just as they did as well. 

Steve. 

I let out a sigh of relief. 

His eyes widened as he took in how I looked. "Valeska? What the hell happened?" 

"Can you come with me?" I grabbed onto his hand and yanked him with me, not waiting for an answer. He looked to Sam and Sam didn't hesitate to follow. 

"What...happened?" Sam repeated Steve's last question but I just shook my head. 

"I don't even know."

I didn't let go of Steve's hand until we got to my room. 

I had to undo the lock on the door which only cost a flick of my wrist. Then I quickly opened the door. 

Bucky was still on the floor. Still looking as dead as ever. 

"Holy shit!" Sam scoffed as he just simply peaked his head into the room. "Who is that?" 

"Valeska." Steve stated and I held up a hand.

"He's not dead." I reassured him. 

"No fucking way—is that the guy that you were with that one time?" Sam asked and I snapped my eyes onto him,

"That one time you paralyzed me?" 

He froze for a second. "Oh...right...My bad." 

"Yeah." I nodded as I looked back down to Bucky, "So what do we do?" 

"Okay," Steve quickly crouched down next to Bucky, "first off, what did you do?" He pressed his fingers to Buckys next, probably checking for a pulse.

I shrugged, "I hit him a few times and then sent a bolt of energy through his skull." 

Sam looked at me like I was a psychopath and I couldn't help but defend myself,

"He hit me first, okay?" 

"Alright.."

"Are you sure you didn't kill him?" Steve cautiously asked as he sat back in his ankles. "Because he looks pretty dead." 

I shook my head, "Give him a few more minutes and he will be awake."

"So, does that mean we should hurry this up?" Sam asked the obvious and I nodded my head. 

"I believe so." I spoke like a smart ass and Steve rolled his eyes. 

"Okay—someone should go get Tony." Steve said and I narrowed my eyes on him.

"You seriously think that's a good idea?"

"It's our only idea."

I guess it was our only idea...

Tony would know what to do. 

...Right? 

I hesitantly nodded. "Okay.."

"How much longer will he be out for, did you say?" Sam then asked and I shrugged,

"Just a few more minutes, give or take." 

"Alright." Steve stood up as he placed his hands on his hips. "I'll go get Tony. You two stay here." 

"You're making me stay here with her..?" Sam murmured and Steve only gave a him a glance before he walked out of the room. 

"Don't worry." I reassured him. "I won't kill you." Though my old ways did pop into my mind almost every time a person annoyed me even in the slightest...I wasn't going to murder Sam. "Just, he might." I looked down, expecting to see a still passed out Bucky. Nope. That was not what I saw. 

No, Bucky was blinking multiple times as he was waking up. 

"Oh—fuck." I took a slight step back as I reached an arm out in front of Sam so that I could hopefully put him behind me. "Don't kill him, got it?" I insisted but I was only met with silence. I snapped my gaze back to Sam and his eyebrows raised. 

"Oh, you're talking to me?"

"Yes, i'm talking to you. Why would I—"

"Well I just thought you were informing your little friend not to murder me." His tone was snarky and I didn't like it. 

My arm dropped as I let out a scoff. "He is not my friend." 

"Excuse me?" Buckys grumbly voice rang through my ears and I instantly looked down to him. 

There was something about him...

"Bucky?" I asked timidly. 

He didn't say anything. 

He didn't say anything.

He didn't move. 

He only blinked. Just once. 

But then it was too late because the door was broken down and the Iron Man suit was standing in my door way. 

My eyes widened as I watched the circle of light in the palm of the suits hand start to glow brighter. 

"No—wait!" I tried to stop him but it didn't work. 

Bucky was out cold moments later.

Chapter Text

"Now, why the hell would you do that?" I spat out and I could've sworn Tony just slightly laughed. 

"Why?" He asked. "I don't know, maybe because there was a deadly assassin lying on the floor in my tower! I was taking the only shot that I was going to have." 

"When he was already down." I made clear and Tony shrugged. 

That was the only response that I got. 

I scoffed and turned away from him. 

Bucky was in the stupid glass cage that I was once in. 

That stupid fucking cage.

I could hear Thors cocky laugh from the room over and then Clint's whining, "It's a trick!" 

"No, no. It's much more than that." Thor insisted. 

I let a hefty sigh just before I started my way out of the empty room that both Tony and I were standing in. "I'm heading back to the others."

"Be my guest." 

I rolled my eyes, continuing my route away from the son of a bitch.

"Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power." Clint was mocking Thors voice just as I walked into the room. "Whatever man," His voice returned to normal. "It's a trick." I could've sworn that I heard his voice crack which caused me to laugh lightly as I made my way across the room. 

Tony walked into the room just as I was arriving to the group of people joking around with each other.

Thor chuckled as he held out a hand, pointing towards his hammer which sat on the coffee table. "Please, be my guest." 

Steve was sitting next to Thor and there was plenty of room left on the couch that they were sitting on but I decided to sit on the floor, in between Steve's legs. 

I walked to the spot straight in front of him and then tapped on his arms so that he would move them out of my way. 

He was sitting like a typical man—man spreading as his arms sat on his knees so that he could lean forward. 

He sat up right and moved his arms out of the way, brining the beer in his hand up to his mouth. 

I then sat down on the floor in between his legs and leaned back onto the couch, placing both of my hands on his shoes. 

"Really?" Clint asked with raised eyebrows and Thor shrugged, knowing that Clint wouldn't be able to lift the hammer. 

"Yeah." His voice was very nonchalant. Calm and collected. 

Clint was glancing around to us and I sent him a wink with a short nod to encourage him to get up.

For some reason he had drum sticks in his hands so he quickly placed them on the floor as he, in fact, stood up. 

"Oh this is so gonna be beautiful." Rhodes spoke and as Tony sat down. He of course had to add his sarcasm to the conversation.

"Clint, you've had a tough week. We won't hold it against you if you can't get it up."

Scattered laughs spread around the group but I couldn't feel anything but annoyance towards Tony. Not because of the fact of him almost killing Bucky, intentionally. No—I understood that part. It was the fact of him not giving a flying fuck about my feelings towards the situation. 

"You know i've seen this before, right?" Clint raised his eyebrows at Thor and he gave a simple smile, waiting for Clint to be extremely let down. 

Clint wrapped one hand around the hammer and then pulled, instantly grunting as his efforts didn't seem to be working. 

He started laughing as his body relaxed, looking to Thor. "I still don't know how you do it!"

Thor chuckled and Tony joked, "Smell the silent judgment?" 

"Please, Stark, by all means." Clint said as he pointed from Tony to the hammer. 

"Yes!" I spoke up, intrigued by the idea of Tony not being right for once. "Why don't you give it a shot, Tony?" 

He ripped his glasses off as he stood, looking as confident as ever. "Never one to shrink from an honest challenge." His voice was full of righteousness. Each of his steps were calculated. 

I shook my head as my eyes rolled, an accidental smile spreading across my face. I couldn't help it. He was just such a dweeb.

"Get after it." Barton encouraged and Tony planted his feet as he slipped an arm through the little wrist strap and then carefully took ahold of the hammer, then he placed his other hand lower down on the hammer.

"It's physics." He stated. 

"Physics." Banner tilted his head to the side and I let out a laugh at the look on his face. 

"Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?" Tony asked, just to be sure. 

"Yes, of course." Thor smiled and Tony nodded, 

"I will be reinstituting prima nocta." He set one leg on the table and then begin to pull. It didn't take long for a few grunts to slip out of his throat and then he stopped, slipped the wrist strap off, and turned. "I'll be right back." 

I furrowed my eyebrows as he made his way out of the room but Steve quickly mumbled, "He's grabbing the suit." 

My eyebrows raised in realization, "Oh.." I let out a, pff. "Cheater." 

"Do you think he'll actually be able to pick it up?" That annoying voice asked. The annoying lady was here. The damn annoying lady was fucking here. Why was she everywhere that I went?!

"I'm not cleaning up the aftermath if the thing goes flying." Rhodes said as he looked around to all of us. 

"No one asked you to..." I muttered and Steve squeezed my arm with a light chuckle as he was the only one who heard me.

"Don't be a smart ass." 

I let out a half scoff, half laugh. 

"He won't be able to lift it." Thor reassured us all just as Tony walked back into the room with only the elbow down of the Iron Man suit on. 

"Now, don't be so confident in that." Tony spoke up and everybody shared little comments. 

"Here we go."

"Let's see it." 

"That thing isn't going to do anything for you." 

"This is hilarious." 

I just simply shook my head.

Tony quickly made his way over to the hammer and then wrapped the robot hand around it. The hand locked into place and then he pulled. Nothing happened. He continued to try and pull but it wasn't budging. 

He moved his position slightly, expecting that to do something? 

His arm strained against the pull and so he had to eventually stop. A large sigh escaped his lips just as his eyes snapped onto Rhodes. Just one moment of silent and,

"Go get it—"

"No! I'm not doing that."

"It could—"

"It's not a toy!" 

Anyway, both Rhodes and Tony had their Iron arms on and were pulling at this damn hammer. 

"Are you even pulling?" Rhodes breathed out as their robot arms sounded like they were going to explode because of how much energy and power that they were putting into them. 

"Are you on my team?" Tony retorted with furrowed eyebrows. 

"Just represent." Rhodes looked away from Tony and back down to the hammer, "Pull."

"Alright, let's go." Tony agreed and yet the hammer still did not budge.

I could've even believe that their egos let them give up but eventually they did. That was when Banner got up to try. 

That was so awfully mortifying to watch because he was yelling the whole time while trying to pull it and then when he finally let go he did some Hulk like move which would've been cool if he was The Hulk but since he was only Banner in the moment...it was so embarrassing to see.

Everyone was silent as he froze where he was and just sorta...looked around at us. Natasha gave him a pitiful smile but she still happened to have admiration in her eyes. 

...What was that about? 

I looked up to Steve as I had to see his reaction. He had the type of smile on his face that said he was about to burst out laughing which caused me to start laughing. 

That's caused a chain reaction. 

Banner hunkered back down into his spot and then I tapped on Steve's leg, "You're up." 

"What?" He asked and everyone began to agree with me that Steve was the next one to go. 

"Okay—alright." He nodded and then handed his beer to me as he stood. I moved out the way so that he could walk around to the other side of the table without stepping on me. 

"Here we go." Clint cheered excitedly and Natasha let out a light laugh. 

Steve had a cheesy smile on his face as he lifted his sleeves and grabbed ahold of the hammer. 

"Come on, Rogers." I smiled and leaned back on the couch once again, drinking out of his beer. 

The minute the liquid touched my tongue, my eyebrows were furrowed in concern. 

Ew—yuck.

I brought the bottle away from my lips just as soon as it touched them. 

Steve pulled at the hammer and I could've sworn I saw it move. My jaw dropped as I immediately looked to Thor who no longer had a smile on his face. His face was completely solid. 

Steve pulled at the hammer once again but Thor looked like he was seconds away from stopping him. Then Steve let go of it as he held up his hands in surrender, looking to Thor. 

You could visibly see the wave of relief that washed over him as he smiled and let out a scattered laugh.  

"Nothing." Thor shrugged and Steve had a shy smile on his face as he made his way back over to me. 

Stark then cleared his through as Banner was pointing towards Natasha and then me, "And, the Widows?" 

Natasha quickly shook her head, "Oh, no, no. That's not a question I need answered."

Stark held a hand up, "All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged." 

I shrugged, looking to Steve. "I'll give it a shot." 

He raised his eyebrows as he nodded once, holding a hand out towards me as he was still standing. I took in and he helped me up and off of the floor. 

A couple people whistled as I made it to the front and then I carefully wrapped both of my hands around the handle to the hammer. I manifested some energy out of Cherry, wrapping the energy around the hammer which caused a faint glow of red to surround it.

Then I pulled. 

Wow. 

That was difficult. Holy shit. I almost popped both of my shoulder out of their socket the minute I pulled. 

Well, it was worth a try. 

I, of course, couldn't not pick up the thing so I then I focused all of my energy onto Cherry and the image that I wanted to create. A tiny change in the reality wouldn't be such a big deal...it was just going to be a little mess up within our realm. I'd take it back just as quickly as I put it in place...maybe. 

Within in seconds, I was flipping through the different options of what I wanted the reality to look like and then...

The hammer lifted easily and I slid a hand off of it so that I could hold it in just one hand. 

The entire room went completely silent.

I only had the hammer for point five seconds before Thor raised his hand and the hammer rushed to it.

"What was..." I pressed my lips in a line to try and hide my smile and Thor didn't waste a second before he shook his head. "Nothing." 

"What was that?" I pointed to the hammer but Thor didn't seem to care about what had just happened. I raised my eyebrows, "Does this mean that I rule Asgard?" 

"Is the hammer in your hand?" Thor asked me and I glanced between him and the hammer.

"No." 

"Then no." 

My face dropped in disappointment. 

Damn. 

I reluctantly held up a hand and then slowly moved my wrist in a circle, pulling down the barriers of the morphed reality. 

The hammer was no longer in Thors hand but on the table and I started my way back over to Steve. 

"Ah!" Tony spat out, "She's a liar!" 

"Oh—shut up." I rolled my eyes, "You couldn't lift the thing either."

"But I didn't lie about it." He shrugged like he had just won over the conversation. 

"You do realize that she was able to pick up the hammer in a different reality if she managed to do that." Natasha spoke up and I gave her a thankful glance. At least someone had my back and didn't choose to constantly hate on me.

Thors face dropped.

"Okay, so we've agreed." Tony stood up from his seat as both Clint and Rhodes followed his lead. "It's rigged." 

I guess we were packing up for the night.

"You bet your ass." Clint agreed as he walked past Tony and patted him on the shoulder.

"Steve," Annoying woman stated. "he said a bad language word." 

Steve's eyes fell shut in annoyance. 

Me too, Steve. Me too.

 "Did you tell everyone about that?" He asked and Tony didn't even seem to hear him. 

"The handles imprinted, right?" He asked Thor. "Like a security code."

I dragged a hand over my face as I was beginning to get a headache. 

"Whosoever is carrying Thors fingerprints." Tony mocked and I looked down to Steve with a look on my face. 

Steve gave me a sympathetic look. He knew that I had been through a lot in the past 24 hours. Actually within the past 70 years.

"—is, I think, the literal translation." Tony continued.

"Yes." Thor finally said, shutting Tony the fuck up. "It's a very, very interesting theory." He stood up from his seat, drink in hand, and he walked straight over to the hammer. "I have a simpler one." With ease, he picked the hammer up. "You're all not worthy." 

"Ah.." I groaned as I tilted my head, Steve doing something similar and everyone else shouting out their complaints on that comment. 

"Oh, come—" The voice of whoever was talking was quickly cut off by an ear bleeding screeching noise. 

I rushed up one of my hands to my ear to try and plug at least one of them and then I grabbed ahold of Steve's shoulder to keep my balance as the noise was bringing physical pain to my head.

The others who were standing bent over in pain and Steve tilted his head as his eyes squeezed shut. 

The sound was gone a moment later and I let out a sigh, Tony pulled out a device from his pocket, some rubbed at their temples, and others let out profanities. 

"Worthy.." A low grumbly voice muttered from somewhere in the far back of the room and I was terrified that it was Bucky. 

Everyone slowly looked over to where they heard the voice coming from but I looked as soon as I heard it. 

But I didn't see Bucky. 

No.

I saw...some kind of...broken apart robot. 

"No." It said to us all before it tried to inch into the room, limping as it did so. "How could you be worthy?" The thing asked and I glanced over to Natasha. She looked to me in the same moment and we had a second of a silent conversation.

We both had no clue what the thing was. We both agreed that it was extremely dangerous and that we should probably be prepared for the thing to attack us. 

"You're all killers." The robot told us all, limping forwards a few more steps. 

Steve stood as he heard that, taking a slight step in front of me but not enough to completely push me behind him. 

I grabbed onto his arm with just one hand, keeping my eyes on the robot. 

"Stark." Steve cautioned.

"Jarvis." Tony tried to contact him but just like what had happened to me earlier, we got no contact. 

"I'm sorry, I was asleep." The robot in front of us apologized. "Or, I was a-dream." 

"Reboot Legionnaire OS." Tony muttered but got no response. "We got a buggy suit." Still, nothing.

"There was this terrible noise." The robot held its arms up in front of itself as if it was protecting itself against someone. "And I was tangled in...in..." It moved out his arms to the side of itself, glancing from arm to arm. "Strings." The robot spoke the word like it was a profanity. 

My heart rate picked up slightly because no one was doing anything. We all were frozen, looking at this robot crashing out. 

"I had to kill the other guy." My heart dropped. "He was a good guy."  

Bucky? Was he talking about Bucky? 

"You killed someone?" Steve asked with his now authoritative voice in place. 

"Wouldn't have been my first call." I could've sworn I heard Tony's voice slip in through there.

An underlying tone of it, at least.

"But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices." The robot seemed to have shrugged but it was so broke apart that I couldn't tell.

"Who sent you?" Thor asked, his hand tightly gripped around his hammer.

Suddenly, Tony's voice started playing. "I see a suit of armor around the world." The robot was playing a conversation back. The conversation that I was in the room for—between Tony and Bruce. 

What the hell?! 

"Ultron." Banner said as if he was telling us all, glancing to me specifically. 

"In the flesh." Ultron said with its usual robotic voice. "Or—no, not yet." 

Right, cause the thing was a robot. 

"Yet..." I mumbled to myself. 

"Not this...chrysalis." Ultron looked down at his robot body in what seemed to be disgust. 

That wasn't good.

I saw in the corner in my eye, Thors fingers impatiently wiggle around the handle of his hammer. Then I heard the click of a gun loading. 

My eyes snapped over to the noise—instinct almost kicking in. 

Luckily, Steve placed a hand against my stomach just as I went to take a step. I blinked. I realized that it was the annoying woman just becoming prepared. I looked back over to Ultron. 

"I'm on a mission." Ultron informed us all and the woman with the gun slowly stood up from the couch. 

"What mission?" Natasha asked. 

"Peace in our time." Ultron replied and I looked to Tony just as he looked back to me. I widened my eyes for just a moment and he looked back to Ultron. 

Just as the sudden crash of the glass walls behind Ultron breaking into pieces caused me to jump back behind Steve, two robots came flying into the room. 

I didn't jump behind him in fear but in the way of using Steve as a human shield—like I was trained to do. Put myself before everyone else unless I was given the opportunity to kill my target. Then, who cared about myself? 

A very selfish way of thinking but it was going to take a while for that to get out of my brain.

Steve's foot kicked at the table in front of us, flipping it up and into the air so that it could crash into at least one of the robots. He turned within the same second and grabbed onto me, sending us flying to the floor. 

The table flew back as the robot hit it, flying to the spot where we were just standing.

The annoying woman with the gun had to also fall to the ground to dodge getting hit by it. She instantly started to shoot at the robot and Thor smacked his hammer into the other one. 

That only did more harm than good because the robot went flying back and slammed into Tony which sent him flying into a book shelf. The book shelf broke in two and landed on him, keeping him stuck in it.

Ultron shot out a bolt of energy at Rhodes, who was standing right in front of the windows that looked down into the bottom floor—where the garage which kept the aircraft in it was, and his yell echoed throughout the room as he went crashing into the windows and down into the garage.

I quickly pushed myself out of Steve's arms and jumped up to my feet. 

Banner had grabbed Natasha and was running towards the bar. One of Tony's decoy robots turned towards them and shot out a ray of energy from its hand.

Without thinking, I threw both my hands out to hopefully send out a reality wave which would absorb out the ray of power and send it to some other reality.

I didn't have a chance to see if it worked or not because the other damn robot blasted energy at me. It missed and hit the chair next to me but the explosion was so strong that I went flying across the room. My back hit the wall and I let out a harsh grunt as I fell back to the ground. 

Banner and Natasha had jumped over the bar so that they could duck behind it as a robot continued to shoot at them. 

As I was seeing the room upside down, the idea of hiding behind the bar didn't sound too bad. 

I slowly but surely rolled myself over as more explosions went off. Natasha was now shooting at the robots with a gun, ducking behind the bar every few seconds.

Clint rushed over to me and grabbed onto my arms, quickly lifting me to my feet. 

"Are you good?" He was out of breath and bleeding from his head as he asked me this but I just barely nodded my head as I said, "Never better." 

His hands slipped away from me and I looked up to see Steve jumping onto the back of one of the flying robots.

Oh—fantastic. 

He threw a punch which did absolutely nothing so then he tried to throw another punch. Guess what—that also did nothing and the robot flew itself back into a wall. 

Steve went falling but the robot didn't let him. It turned quickly and grabbed Steve by the throat, shoving him into the wall. 

Then, within a second, the robot threw Steve back down to the ground which was a very awful fall to witness. I flinched watching him hit the ground because, damn did that look painful.

I took in a deep breath of air as I scooped my hand around the matter around me, forming a ball of energy in my hand. I lifted my hand and threw it at the robot.

The thing fell to the ground with a harsh crash, almost landing on top of Steve. I thought it was down for good but it slowly inched itself back onto its knees, showing me otherwise.

More blasts were heard from beside me so I then focused my attention onto that. Were there more robots? 

One of the many was shooting rays at Banner and Romanoff as they tried running up the stairs to the second level. I pressed my hands together in front of me and then carefully pulled them apart, the energy in my hands getting larger and larger. 

Then I sent it flying at the robot. 

This time it disintegrated into nothing. 

Should've done that the last time.

Another sound of glass breaking and I looked to see Clint flying through a window, landing in another room. I quickly grasped some more energy and directed it to the robot which was targeting him.

Another one down.

A robot which was cut in half came falling from the fucking sky and almost landed on me. I had to quickly grab ahold of it with the matter around it and then throw it into the wall next to me. 

I looked up to the upper level to see Thor standing there with his hammer in hand. He mouthed a sorry to me before he continued what he was doing. 

"Stark!" I heard Steve call out and my eyes snapped onto him. 

He was on top of another fucking robot. I let out a harsh groan as the boy had no clue when he was not helping. 

I looked over to where Tony was and he was also on the back of a flying robot. 

What the fuck are we doing?!!

My eyes widened at the absurdity. 

"One sec. One sec. I got this." He rapidly spoke and just a moment later, a harsh blow rammed into me.

"We are here to help. We are here to help. It is unsafe. It is unsa—"

"Oh, shut up!" I screamed as this was my final breaking point. 

These stupid robots that knew nothing but what they were programmed to do. Bucky was probably either dead or had escaped. Hydra was going to find me again. I couldn't stop arguing with Tony. 

Cherry was shining so brightly that almost all of the robots were fixated on me. 

Perfect. 

With both of my hands, I scratched into the matter around me and then I pushed out all do the energy within Cherry. My eyes squeezed shut and the only thing on my mind was the damn robots and their annoying repetitive frases. 

My arms rushed down to my sides and I could feel the relief. The extra energy and pressure within my body that was gone. 

My heart rate was beginning to clam and I peaked an eye open. 

All robots were gone. Steve was on the ground groaning and Tony looked half dead not far from Steve. 

"That was dramatic." Ultron came limping around the corner and I let out the loudest groan known to mankind. 

How was the thing still kicking it?!

"I'm sorry, I know you mean well." Ultron shook his head, turning towards Tony. "You just didn't think it through."

Steve was up from his place on the ground and Tony had scrawled onto the stairs so that he could sit up. 

Clint was not far behind me and I was standing in the middle of the room. Annoying woman was leaning against a wall, blood streaming down one of her arms. 

Natasha and Banner were still upstairs, peering down at us all. Thor was standing next to Tony. Rhodes was no where to be found.

"You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change." Ultron threw up his arms. "How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?" He walked over to one of the destroyed robots and aggressively picked it up. "With these? These...puppets." Ultron looked into the face of the robot before he threw it back down to the ground. 

"There's only one path to peace." Ultron finalized. "The Avenegrs extinction." 

Thors hammer suddenly crashed into Ultron and he went flying back into the wall behind him, crumbling into a bunch of pieces. 

The hammer flew back into Thors hand and I slumped down to the floor so that I could sit down.

A static echo of Ultrons voice was just barely heard as he said, "I had strings, but now i'm free."

Chapter Text

"All our work is gone." Banner stated in despair, searching through the computer in the lab. We all gathered around, not knowing what to do from here. 

"Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch." Banner explained to us all and Steve began to shake his head.

"Ultron."

"He's been in everything." Natasha spoke up from her side of the room. "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." 

"He's in your files, he's in the internet." Rhodes was holding his arm, walking across the room. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting." 

I glanced around the room, not understanding. 

"Nuclear codes." The annoying woman stated. 

I should probably learn her name.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodes repeated."Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

I nodded my head in agreement as that sounded like a pretty decent idea. 

"Nukes?" Natasha asked, "He said he wanted us dead." 

Steve didn't waste a second to correct her, "He's didn't say dead. He said extinct." His words were sharp and I couldn't help but look to him with detachment. 

I only ever really saw the sweet side of him growing up. And I guess when I saw the angry side to him, it never seemed so harsh because he didn't have the look to carry it out that way. 

Mh...

"He also said that he killed someone today." Clint added. "There wasn't anyone else in the building." 

I blinked. 

Oh—shit!

I turned and darted out of the room, all eyes following me but no bodies. 

I rushed down the hall and turned the corner, coming up to an elevator. I prayed that the thing still worked as I typed in the code to get it working. 

I had only gotten the code for this particular reason. Tony said that I was responsible for checking up on Bucky since I was the one who insisted we keep him alive. 

The click of approval opened the doors and I stepped into them before they were even fully opened, turning quickly and pressing the bottom level button. 

I rapidly slammed my finger into the close doors button until I watched the doors shut. I tapped my foot again and again, watching the numbers go down. We were pretty high up.  

I let my head lean back and I shut my eyes, my headache now a migraine. My kept tapping my foot. The sound of the floor levels passing kept me focused on one thing. It kept me out of my own mind. 

I felt weird. 

An uncomfortable kind of numb. 

It felt like I was back in the Red Room. 

The elevator came to a stop the doors dinged open. I pushed myself through them and locked my eyes onto the only thing in the room—the glass cage. 

And there was Bucky. 

Lying in the middle of the thing, his back to the floor with his knees bent as he drew faint lines into the air above him. 

My footsteps were the only sound in the room but Bucky didn't look over to me but he did stop his tracings. 

"Thank God you're alive." I spoke out loud and I hurried up my steps so that I could be closer to him. 

"And why wouldn't I be?" He asked as he let his hand fall back down to his side. 

I shook my head and then replied with, "Long story." 

"I've got time." A hint of sarcasm played at his tone and I cracked a smile. 

"Yeah, well, I don't." 

Bucky sat up slowly, bracing his forearms on his knees as his gaze locked with mine. I stopped at the glass.

"You seemed to be in a rush once you got here." Bucky stated the obvious and I shrugged. 

"Like I said, not a lot of time." 

"Does that have to do with the crashing I heard?" 

I tilted my head, "You're very talkative today." 

"I've been locked in a very fancy cage." He said like that was an answer to him speaking more than normal. 

Even when we worked together on missions, he didn't talk much. When we trained, he didn't talk much. 

This was more like...the old Bucky. The ladies man Bucky. 

"Yes, well..." I looked away from him and to everything else within the enclosure. "If you didn't try to kill me, this wouldn't be happening." 

"I wasn't going to kill you." 

My eyes snapped onto him. "What?" 

"Well—not at first." He corrected himself and I was at a loss for words.

I opened my mouth to say something—anything. But nothing came out. 

No emotion was on his face but his tone seemed to be lighter than it usually was. "I haven't been with Hydra for a couple weeks now." 

My breath hitched. He got out? But we had that mission together right before I was taken and...there was no urgency on his missing absence. 

"What do you mea—how did you..?" 

"I got into a fight with," He pointed a hand as he motioned it around, "those little friends of yours." 

Those little friends of yours. 

And Steve was apart of that...did Bucky realize that? Did he know who Steve was? 

"Something happened and then I walked away. I walked away and my brain has been scattered ever sense. So, when I showed up here...the plan wasn't to kill you. It was to see how you were doing." 

My eyebrows furrowed, "Excuse me?" 

"They didn't want you dead." He quickly spoke. "Just like the last time you got out. They didn't want you dead, they wanted you back." 

"I thought you said that you had walked away from Hydra?" I crossed an arm over the other.

"It's not that simple." He defended himself with a shake of his head. "You want to go back. Against everything—that is all you know."

"So you don't have memories of anything else?" I timidly asked as I knew the answer to the question would either make or break me. 

"I have my memories inside of Hydra, if that's what you're wondering..?" He looked to be confused. The first emotion that I could get from him. "And the memories aren't the best so I wasn't going back. The stone was a target on my back. You have more power than you know. If they got you—they got me. I needed you either turned in or gone." 

He tilted his head from side to side. "Or I needed to make sure that you were doing fine enough on your own so that I had enough confidence to leave you alone. But once I saw you, it was habit. The minute the fight started—you were my target and I wanted you dead. Honest mistake." 

I let out a scoff, "Honest mistake?! You tried to put a bullet through my skull!" 

"Which didn't happen." He was looking at me like I was dumb. "You are standing here now, perfectly fine." He hesitated. "Well—actually, you look a bit rough." 

"Thanks." 

"Anytime." 

I huffed out a breath of air just as I slightly inched away from the glass, "So how—"

"That's all you're getting from me." He interrupted with a dead set tone. 

I paused and then let a beat pass by. "So no more of this conversation?" 

"No more of any conversation until i'm out of this cage." He clarified.

I nodded once, "Great. Alright—well, do you want anything to eat?" 

"No."

"I'll get you a sandwich."

Chapter Text

Steve looked to me as I walked back into the room and I gave him a look that said, He's fine but I have more to speak to you about.

Wasn't quite sure how but it seemed like he understood me perfectly. 

"What's that?" I asked, seeing a bunch of scattered orange pieces in a hologram. 

"Jarvis." Tony replied and I stopped walking. 

"Holy shit—what happened him?" 

"Steve, she said a no no word." Clint spoke before Tony could and Steve completely ignored him. 

"Ultron got to him. This was who he killed." Tony explained to me. 

"Oh..." 

In my peripheral vision I saw someone moving so I glanced over to who it was. Thor. There he was. 

"Thor." I said with a smile, "Where ya been?" 

He ignored me and walked straight over to Tony, not wasting a second before his hand was around Tony's throat and he lifted him up into the air. 

Tony croaked out a gasp and Steve stepped forward, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" He cautioned and Clint murmured,

"It's going around."

"Come on, use your words, buddy." Tony struggled against his grip and Thor didn't hesitate to share his complaints.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." 

"Put him down." I warned Thor just as I grabbed onto the matter around my hand, a light shade of red surrounding my hand. 

A beat passed but then Tony was aggressively dropped to the ground. I didn't waste a second before I rushed over to him. 

"The Legionnaire." Steve ordered. 

"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north." Thor spoke with resentment in his voice, not bringing his eyes away from Tony.

He was crouched over with one hand on his neck, catching his breath. 

"Hey, hey, are you okay?" I asked as I stopped right next to him, putting one hand on his shoulder and the other on his back. 

"Fine." He coughed out and I let my hands fall away from him.

"And it has the scepter." Thor dropped the bomb on us and I looked up to him in disbelief. 

Steve let his eyes fall shut in disappointment. 

"Now we have to retrieve it, again." Thor gave us all a petty smile like this was our fault. 

We had no clue that Ultron was going to do something like that. Plus, it was Tony's idea to make the guy.

"Genies out of that bottle." Natasha said and we all looked over to her. "Clear and present is Ultron." 

"I don't understand..." A gentle women's voice spoke up from the corner of the room. I didn't recognize the voice at all. 

I looked over to whoever this woman was—as did everyone else. She looked kind of familiar but I truly had no clue who she was.

"You built this program." She reminded Tony. "Why is it trying to kill us?" 

"Has she been here this whole time?" I whispered to Tony and he mumbled a quick, 

"I think so."

It fell to silence until Tony started walking over to a computer and the sound his footsteps filled the room. 

The minute he arrived at it, he started to type something into it. But then he stopped...and started laughing.

I dropped my head to the side slightly and rubbed my temple, trying to ease the migraine that was blazing my head off—plus, preparing for whatever headache of a sentence was about to come out of this man's mouth. 

Tony sniffed as he just barely stopped laughing but then kicked it back up again, a bit louder this time. 

Everyone just sorta looked around at each other, confused. 

"You think this is funny?" Thor tempted Tony, a smile plastered on his face. 

All laughing stopped as Tony turned towards Thor, his face just barely serious. "No." He looked around to the rest of the people in the room. "It's probably not, right?" A small smile cracked on his face but it was gone just as quickly as it was there. 

"This is very terrible." He turned slightly just so he could truly be talking to all of us. "Is it so..." He started a laughing a bit again, "It is. It's so terrible." He nodded to himself. 

Thor took another step toward Tony, "This could have been avoided if you hadn't played—"

"No," Tony interrupted.

"—with something you don't understand." He finished his sentence and Tony held out a hand as he stepped towards Thor as well.

"No—i'm sorry, i'm sorry. It is funny." Where the hell was this going? "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony..." Bruce shyly spoke up. "Maybe this might not be the time." 

"Really?" His voice went up a few octaves as he turned to where Bruce was standing. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?" 

"Only when i've created a murder bot." 

Tony held out his arms, "We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right." Steve interrupted, his voice louder than any of theirs. "And you did it right here." He had his arms crossed over his chest but he let them fall to his sides. "The Avengers were supposed to be different than Shield."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?!" Tony suddenly asked. 

My eyebrows furrowed and my nose crunched—that was how confused and annoyed I was. 

"No." Rhodes shook his head, "It's never come up." 

"Saved New York?" Tony tried to continue his praise but we all shut it down nice and quickly.

"Wasn't even aware that happened." I murmured.

"Recall that?!" Tony asked even louder. He truly was going insane. "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it." 

I pressed my lips into a line as I looked around to everyone. 

Now, when the hell did this happen?

His voice softened just as he said, "We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day but...that up there, that's...that's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?" 

I was pretty confident in being able to beat up some aliens but before I could speak up, Steve did. "Together."

Oh—corny! 

Tony took one slow step towards Steve. "We'll lose." 

"Then we'll do that together, too." He spoke calmly and confidently even though the idea of losing didn't sound too fun to me. "Thors right. Ultrons 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."

Chapter Text

"What's this?" Stark asked as he walked into the room. Steve handed the tablet to Thor so that he could look at it.

"A message." I told Tony. "Ultron killed Strucker."

Thor slammed the tablet onto Tony's stomach and I was honestly shocked that the thing didn't break.

He grabbed it and took a look at the photo. "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."

Strucker was dead and behind him was the word, Peace, written in his blood.

"This is a smoke screen." Natasha insisted. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve spoke his thoughts out loud.

"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha began to type into the computer in front of her. She had been the one doing most of the research for me and Steve. We sucked with technology. It was a real problem.

"Yeah." Natasha nodded once just as a bunch of corrupted information appeared on the screen. "Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

Steve looked to me just before he said, "Not everything."

"What do..?" Banner began to ask but Steve turned and started walking out of the room.

"Come with me."

We all piled out of the room and followed Steve down a few halls and into a room we all barely went in because it was mainly used for storage.

"What are we doing in here?" Natasha asked as Steve rushed over to the storage shelves and pulled box after box off of them.

"Actual files." Steve stated just as he set another box down. "You know, the paper we used back in the olden days."

I shook my head with a smirk playing at my lips. "Such a smartass." I picked up one of the boxes and brought it over to an empty table, Natasha following my lead.

I flicked the lid off and then started to drag my fingers through the files, taking weak glances at what the small labels said.

My box had a mix of names of people and of experiments.

The people were familiar to me and neither were the names of the experiments but I couldn't resist the temptation to start picking through the files and reading what else was going on while I was locked in my own private section of the place.

As I read through the descriptions, I realized that I actually recognized more than I thought. Half of what I was reading I could just barely recall being done on me. The majority of the pain and torture my brain forgot about as a way to protect me. It obviously didn't work much as it did more harm than good to forget it all. If I remembered all of the torture then I would've known that those people were awful people. But, whatever. My brain tried its best.

A smack to the back of my leg caused me to quickly look behind me.

Thor was throwing shit everywhere.

"Dude." I complained, my voice just above a whisper as the complaint was mainly to myself.

He chucked another file.

"Thor." Natasha murmured. "Stop."

I took in a deep breath and then let it out as I turned back around.

"Known associates." Steve sat the last couple of boxes down onto the table next to him. "Baron Strucker had a lot of friends."

I looked over to where he was standing. Banner sat close by and Tony was looking at what Banner was going through.

Clint stood pretty far away from us all, in his own little world as he looked through one single file.

Natasha was just barely looking at all of the things in the box that she had, her main focus was on what everyone else was finding.

"Well," Banner set another one of his files to the side. "these people are all horrible."

"Wait—" Tony stopped him just as he went to throw another file down, "I know that guy."

Banner just barely looked to us before he lifted the file up to Tony.

"From back in the day." Tony added, grabbing it. "He operates off the African coast. Black market arms."

Natasha looked to me with a raised eyebrow and I widened my eyes briefly.

The Black Market. Seriously, Tony?

"There are conventions. Alright, you meet people." He could obviously sense the silent judgement as he began to defend himself. "I didn't sell him anything."

"Sure you didn't." I remarked but he ignored it,

"He was talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very.. Ahab."

I was done looking at the files in my box because it had nothing to do with what could help us. At least, I hoped because I was done reading those awful papers.

I shoved the files back in there and then set the lid down. Natasha seemed to not be finding much because the minute I looked to her stuff, the pile of useless documents were growing pretty high.

"This?" Thor asked, going along with what Tony was saying a moment ago and I snapped my gaze over to him.

He was holding up a paper which had multiple photos of the same guy on it.

"Bring it over here." Steve said as he was squinting his eyes slightly to try and see what was on the paper better.

So dramatic. He could see the damn paper he just wanted to be dramatic.

Thor huffed out a breath of air as he grabbed the rest of the file and then sauntered over to where Steve, Tony, and Bruce were.

"Oh, no." Tony declared. "The tattoo, I don't think he had it."

Thor slightly shook his head as his finger pointed to something, "Those are tattoos," His hand moved. "this is a brand."

I stepped away from Natasha and made way over to the four boys.

"How do you know that?" Steve asked and Thor circled his finger around the scar looking simple on the random man's neck. He had tattoos here and there but the simple was the most noticeable thing about him.

"A brand is just a plain scar. Tattoos have ink." He explained and Steve nodded.

"So what does it mean?"

Thor shrugged, "No clue."

"Here," Banner stuck out his hand as he stood up from his chair. "I'll go check it out. You guys keep looking."

Thor handed the paper to him and then proceeded to return to his little station. I looked over to Natasha just to see her placing the lid back onto her box.

"Find anything?" I asked and she looked over to me, shaking her head.

I then turned to Steve, who I was standing next to, and I looked at what he was skimming through.

I froze.

"Is that my name?" I couldn't help but ask and he looked to me almost instantly.

I zoned into the many words written down I couldn't understand...

The Black Widow. The Black Widow. Internally referred as, Prime Echo. The perfect fusion of physical capability, emotional intelligence, and psychic potential.

"Steve, what is this?" I asked as I wasn't completely sure that the file was about me.

Sure, I was protected more than any other girl within the Red Room but I was never liked. None of my traits were very likable, but I had Cherry in my hand which put me in a spot where I was a valuable asset.

So the whole Prime Echo and The Black Widow shit? It made no sense to me.

"This is your file. Everything that Shield has on you..." His voice was soft and he slowly shut the file in his hands.

I blinked a few times and he set the file onto the table as his eyes strayed over to the others in the room. That caused me to do the same thing but I only looked to Natasha.

"Does that mean..?" I didn't finish the question but Natasha knew her answer.

"Yeah." She also had her own file. Mh..

I looked to Steve once again, "And you?"

He dragged his eyes around the many boxes throughout the room. "Somewhere in here."

"And what about Bucky?"

I could just barely see his body tense up as I said Buckys name. He didn't answer me at first but he did make eye contact with me again.

"We don't have much on him because no one knew he was alive."

Wow.

I kept the eye contact with Steve for only a moment more as I didn't know if I wanted to say something or not. Nothing seemed relevant to say so I decided to reach around him and grab my own file.

Maybe this would fill in the missing pieces to what I needed to know about myself.

Flipping it opened, all of the papers within it were paper clipped down. This included some photos of me.

Wowsa, those were some crazy pictures.

One was the photo that I had to take in my military uniform, an older photo so it didn't have much color on it.

Another one was of me when I had made it out of Hydras control the first time. I had no memory of the moment but it was a photo taken of me while I was messing with something in some kind of...garage, maybe? I wasn't sure, but anyway, I was smiling in the photo.

The last picture was one of me on a mission. A mission for Hydra.

I didn't look at it very long.

I set the pictures down onto the table and then slowly sat down onto the chair that Bruce was just sitting on.

I picked out a few papers and then sat the rest of the file down with the pictures.

I began reading,

Hydra subjected her to years of neurological experimentation, believing her brain could withstand high levels of cognitive reprogramming and trauma conditioning.

    •    She was fitted with a neural inhibitor to prevent memory formation and emotional bonding.

    •    The Reality Stone was infused into her through experimental surgery, using prototype containment tech. The stone fused with her physiology but remained unstable.

    •    Early tests led to seizures, hallucinations, and energy surges that destroyed equipment — and sometimes people.

I flinched as I read some of the words...I couldn't remember some of the things written about me and that made me truly think of what i've gone through. Seeing it from another perspective was weird.

Going through it all, it seemed normal. Now knowing what I know. Well...maybe not so normal.

She was transferred between Hydra and the Red Rooms as part of a joint program focused on creating "hybrid assets."

    •    They called her Subject Echo — for the way she absorbed information and mimicked behavior without conscious memory.

    •    Trained in stealth, combat, seduction, and assassination — but unlike typical Widows, she had no memory continuity. Each mission was followed by a partial memory wipe.

    •    She was told that her past life was a fabrication and that the only family she ever had was Hydra.

I set the page down and moved on to the next.

    •    Electroshock therapy was used to "stabilize" the Reality Stone when it flared. This often caused extreme pain and flashes of distorted memories.

    •    She was routinely forced to watch manipulated footage of Bucky as the Winter Soldier — used both to inspire loyalty and cause emotional confusion.

    •    She underwent a test called "The Mirror Protocol": exposed to her own reflection while being forced to recite the names of people she once loved — which she could never remember. It was designed to erase emotional identity.

    •    Any resistance was punished with isolation and sensory deprivation — sometimes for weeks at a time.

    •    During a few overlapping years, Valeska was trained alongside the Winter Soldier. They were often pitted against each other in sparring.

    •    Hydra called them "the Ghosts"— the perfect operatives who didn't speak, didn't remember, and didn't question.

    •    There seemed to be an unexplained comfort between the two of them.

I stopped reading and pointed my finger to the last sentence, then I looked up to Steve to show him what it said.

"Steve, look." I voiced and he was already looking at me.

His eyes focused onto the paper, specifically where I was pointing to.

"Okay..." He looked back up to my eyes and I gave him a look that said, isn't it obvious?

"Unexplained comfort." I repeated the words that I had just made him read.

"That means that even though we didn't remember each other...we remembered each other."

Steve looked genuinely worried about me so I quickly shook my head as I insisted, "He remembers. I know he does. Look, we had a conversation and he was actually talking to me. Giving me good replies."

"Okay, I believe you." His tone said otherwise.

"But you don't!" I dropped my hands onto the table which made it look like I was slamming them down on purpose—like a child.

The room fell silent and from that I could tell that nobody was looking through any files. Nobody was talking. They all were looking at me. Probably expecting me to lash out or break something or hurt someone.

I wasn't trusted.

It was a miracle that I was being allowed to look through these files with them.

I slowly began to shake my head as I took in a deep breath. "Sorry." I glanced down to the papers and then I quickly picked them all up. "The bad memories—it's getting to me."

I placed the ones that I had already read in the back and then I picked up where I left off, ignoring whatever pity reply they Steve had.

    •    In the late 2000s, a containment breach occurred and the stress on the Reality Stone caused Valeska to lash out with uncontrolled energy, destroying part of the facility.

    •    She broke containment. While wandering disoriented, she ran directly into Tony Stark, who took her in after she collapsed.

    •    She was recaptured months later by Hydra operatives pretending to be Shield agents.

I moved that paper to the back and then continued with the next.

The top of this one said, Original Blueprint.

  •    Possessed a rare neurological resilience—able to withstand extreme trauma without full mental collapse.

    •    Her DNA showed signs of latent adaptability, allowing her body to bond with the Reality Stone without full cellular rejection—something no other test subject survived.

    •    She had a natural resistance to mind control (though they suppressed this), and her empathy markers were unusually high for someone under indoctrination—making her dangerous and invaluable.

Hydra referred to her internally as "Prime Echo", the perfect fusion of physical capability, emotional intelligence, and psychic potential.

•The Genesis of the Widow Program•

The Red Room—created as a Soviet-Hydra alliance program—used Valeska's tissue samples as the primary genetic template for their operative production:

    •    The early batches of Red Room assassins were created using cloned and modified DNA from Valeska, stabilized with local donor DNA to suit mission regions.

    •    These were not full clones but genetically enhanced humans, modified to carry forward Valeska's traits: agility, emotional suppression, learning speed, and exceptional pain tolerance.

Natasha Romanoff was one of the first successful results from this experiment. Though not genetically identical, her core genome is 43% derived from Valeska's. That's why Natasha could resist brainwashing more easily than others—and why she had a latent sense of empathy and autonomy that others lacked.

"Natasha." I held up the paper in my hand as I continued to read the next one. "This one has the information on why we look alike."

"What?" Tony asked and I realized that, that had gotten everyone's attention.

I waved the paper around slightly, articulating that I wanted someone to grab it from my hand. I wasn't sure who, but someone did in fact grab it.

Genetic Engineering Process.

Phase I   

|Tissue and blood samples were taken from Valeska over several years.|

Phase II

|DNA was mapped and selectively spliced into compatible embryos, reinforced by CRISPR-style gene editing.|

Phase III

|These embryos were implanted in surrogate carriers or grown in artificial wombs in Hydra's off-site lab facilities.|

Phase IV

|The children were raised in isolation, monitored for fidelity to "Prime Echo's" traits. Survivors became Widows.|

Some subjects showed instability or emotional irregularities—they were either terminated or reconditioned (many were later known as the disposable Widows).

"Holy shit.." I muttered as my eyebrows were raised.

They did that to me?

They made people out of me?

"Look at this." I wasn't sure who I was talking to but I held out the paper—my eyes completely out of focus.

Steve grabbed it from my hand and began reading. Natasha and Tony walked over behind him and began reading it over his shoulder.

I blinked a few times and then moved on to the next page.

Special Note on Natasha and the Replicants

    •    Natasha's rebellious nature, her deep moral conscience, and eventual turn against the Red Room were not flukes—they were inherited echoes of Valeska, whose emotional depth had simply been suppressed, not erased.

    •    Some of the Widows (including Yelena Belova) may have even higher percentages of Valeska DNA, making them more susceptible to memory echoes or affinity toward her if exposed.

    •    Hydra and the Red Room referred to Natasha and a few select others as "Sovereign Batch: Ghost-Class."

Why They Stopped Using Her DNA

After Valeska's escape and increasing instability caused by the Reality Stone, her DNA became too volatile to use:

    •    Clones began rejecting the enhancements or exhibiting psychic fragmentation.

    •    Some even began dreaming of memories that were never theirs, a phenomenon Hydra called The Echo Syndrome.

Eventually, they shut down direct cloning from Valeska and began using diluted derivative lines—but the Red Room's greatest assets all trace back to her.

The papers ended there and when I looked up to the three standing next to me, they had finished reading their paper as well.

Natasha looked lost and Steve looked horrified. Tony just seemed to be neutral.

He was always fucking neutral.

"This has more to do with Natasha." I murmured and then handed the paper to Steve who handed the paper to Natasha.

She quickly grabbed it and I could see her eyes moving rapidly fast as she skimmed over each line—just like I had.

"How did they even get all of this information? It's so...detailed." A shiver ran up my spine and I shook slightly to rid the feeling.

"Well, that first time you got out and you lived here for a minute, you told me whatever you could remember." Tony explained to me carefully. "I can't tell you how I managed to get you to talk about it all, but you did. Jarvis then stored the information."

I tried to focus on my breathing and not the awful memories swimming through my mind. "And the rest? Like the Genetic Engineering crap." I questioned.

"The day we broke into Hydras base." He crossed one arm over the other as he fell into his usual stance. "I downloaded all of Struckers information and then made copies."

"Mh." I nodded once before we heard Banner yell from the other room,

"I've got something!"

Chapter Text

"It's a word in an African dialect meaning, thief...in a much less friendly way." Bruce told us as he examined all of the information on the screen.

"What dialect?" Steve asked and Bruce struggled to pronounce whatever the word was.

"Wakanada..? Wakan—Wakanda." He finalized and Steve and Tony instantly looked to each other, concern written all over their faces.

I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked between the two of them. 

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony spoke the hypothetical situation but Steve shut it down,

"I thought your father said he got the last of it." 

Banner stood from his seat. "I don't follow." 

"Yeah," I agreed. "Me either."

"What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce asked and the two men let a beat pass before one of them answered.

"The strongest metal on Earth." Tony was the one to say it as Steve glanced over to his shield which was sitting in the corner of the room, sat up against the wall. 

I pressed my lips into a line as I pointed to the shield, "You just leave that thing lying around?" 

Steve ignored me but I saw a smile crack on Natasha's face—which I had never managed to do before. "Where is this guy now?" Steve asked Tony.

Tony walked over to one of his screens and then tapped a few keys on it, bringing up a satellite feed that locked onto a cargo yard just off the coast of South Africa. The image zoomed in on a rusting cargo ship anchored like a shadow in deep water.

"There." He pointed at the screen. "Ulysses Klaue. Docked just outside Johannesburg. Black market arms, smuggled vibranium, and a personality that makes used-car salesmen look noble."

"Klaue?" Natasha moved closer, her brows knitting. "That psycho has vibranium?"

"He did. Until he sold most of it." Tony pulled up an overlay, showing shipment routes and wire transfers. "This ship? He's moving something. And I'd bet it's what Ultron's after."

Banner frowned at the screen. "If Ultron gets his hands on vibranium..."

"He won't be building statues," Tony finished grimly. "He'll be building extinction."

I stepped forward, jaw set. "Then let me go with you." As all eyes turned to me, I shrugged. I needed out of the tower and I wanted to do something for the good. Not bad. I had only done bad. 

"I know how Hydra thinks. If Klaue's worked with them—even once—I might recognize something the rest of you don't."

Tony leaned back, his arms crossed. "Yeah, see, normally I'd say 'sure, get in the jet and bring your murder jewelry,' but..."

My heart dropped and all confidence went with it. "You don't trust me." I said it flatly.

Steve winced as Natasha looked away awkwardly.

"It's not personal," Tony offered, trying to sound reasonable. "It's just that when someone's had their brain scrambled by Hydra and their body fused with a Reality Stone, we don't exactly toss them a boarding pass."

"I'm not a bomb." I reminded him. He loved to think that in just, 3, 2, 1–oh—I freaked out and boom, everyone's dead. 

Though it brought me comfort to know that he was just a teeny bit afraid of me, it also put me in the situation of being a prisoner to them. 

"No," Natasha said quietly. "You're worse. You're a bomb with emotions. And we're not ready to bet lives on your control."

That one stung. Bomb with emotions. 

Is that what they thought of me? 

That's what Hydra thought of me. Was that why my mind was swapped for another..? Wiped and erased? 

I was a bomb with emotions.

Steve stepped in. "We're not shutting you out forever. But we need you here, Valeska. Not just to recover—but to help with intel. You read those files. You know things no one else does."

"I can do more than sit behind a desk and read my trauma out loud." I snapped at him.

"We know," Steve replied. "But we're going anyway. And for now...you stay."

I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. "Right. Because I'm the wildcard."

"You're the weapon," Tony corrected. "We're just not sure who's holding you yet."

He didn't mean it cruelly. But it still felt like a knife.

They constantly seemed to be reminding me that I, in fact, was not a weapon. And now he was telling me that I was the weapon? 

Further more, if I was the weapon then why wouldn't they bring the damn weapon to the mission? 

I turned on my heel without another word and left the room. Cherry was about to give away my anger. I could feel the energy circling my hand and I was sure that she was glowing brighter than before. 

I took in a deep breath and then let it out.

They were right...it just hurt. 

I wasn't going on the mission but...that didn't mean I couldn't be there. If I just—I had never—okay, if I managed to warp my way through reflexions... 

I could be there. In and out. Without them even knowing.

I just had to remember how to do it. 

Wanda brought it up to me and explained to me how to do it. I wasn't even sure how she knew. But she did and she explained it to me. 

I had the information...somewhere in my mind. I could practice. 

They weren't going to leave right away. 

I could practice—even if it was just for 10 minutes. 

I needed 10 minutes without anyone bothering me. 

If I went to my room, I would have Jarvis interrupting me. Tony had set an extra security setting for Jarvis watching my room. Anything out of the ordinary and Jarvis was saying something about it. It was annoying. 

Especially because I had nightmares quite often and Jarvis took that as me trying to break out of the tower. 

He set the alarms off once. 

Woke me up from my nightmare, though. 

My room was not the right spot and I wasn't sure where else would work without Jarvis monitoring me like a hawk. 

I also wasn't sure if I would be able to do this safety. A lot of the times that I tried knew things with Cherry, there were consequences. By consequences, I mean, I would start bleeding out of my nose, eyes, ears, mouth. I would get random bruises, broken bones, pulled muscles. 

It wasn't fun but Hydra didn't care. I was learning new things. Becoming more advanced. They needed a more advanced weapon and I could do that for them. 

When they got Wanda, they stopped making me do that as often. It was a nice break. 

A shiver ran up my spine so I stopped thinking of the memories and I focused on the present.

Footsteps after another, I made my way down the hall. I was walking in a particular hall of which had windows lining the entire thing. I could look down and see the long fall before the ground appeared. 

The city was beautiful though...

I looked back ahead of me and soon arrived to the elevator.

I pressed to go down to the bottom level. 

To go to Bucky.

Chapter Text

The elevator hummed quietly as it descended, and I kept my hand clenched around Cherry, trying to will the glow to dim before I reached the bottom. The last thing I needed was Stark getting a red alert on his shiny little tower tablet that I was about to implode or something.

The doors parted with a smooth ding, revealing the dimly lit containment level. Cold. Quiet. Far from the party upstairs and the tension of the strategy room. My heels echoed softly on the concrete as I stepped forward. I didn't know why I put them back on—they were growing to be very uncomfortable, especially with how much my body still hurt from the attack.

I paused in the doorway, holding onto the wall as I slipped both of my heels off, tossing them to the side. 

The glass cell stood in the center of the room, its lights low, the interior dark except for the pale halo cast over Bucky.

He was sitting on the floor, knees drawn up, back against the far wall. He didn't look at me at first, but I knew he knew I was there. 

His eyes were heavy lidded but alert, almost wary.

Not the eyes of a monster.

But not the eyes of Bucky either.

I swallowed hard and crossed the floor toward him, every step measured. My steps were soft and almost unheard as I was now barefoot. Cherry was already flickering faintly in my hand again, reacting to my pulse. I clutched it tighter.

He didn't move. Didn't speak.

Just... watched.

I stopped a few feet from the glass. "They're leaving," I said, voice quiet. "To go after Klaue. South Africa."

No response.

He kept his promise of having no further conversations with me. 

I studied him. His hair hung low over his brow, curled at the ends, sweat still dampening the collar of his dark shirt. He looked more like a trapped animal than a soldier. But his expression—there was something else. Something different tonight.

"They didn't want me to go either," I added, trying not to let it sting. "Said I was too unstable. Too emotional. Too dangerous." 

Still no words. Just the way his fingers twitched slightly on his knee. A tell I remembered. From before. I just...I couldn't remember why he did it. That memory still hadn't returned. It would've been nice to know. So that maybe I could see more of what he was thinking.

"They think you're a weapon," I murmured, tilting my head. "Just like me." My eyes grazed over each detail of him. Taking him all in. "And they might be right but..." I shrugged, "Who are they to judge? Like they aren't the same..? Like they aren't weapons?" 

His jaw flexed—just a fraction, but it happened. My heart stuttered. 

He was there—Somewhere. He was in there.

I stepped closer to the glass. I couldn't help but sigh at his appearance. This wasn't the version of him that I wanted to see. Not when I missed him. Not when I needed him. "What do you think of a change of scenery?" 

His gaze didn't break. But something in his face shifted. A crease in his brow. A twitch of his lip.

A smile cracked on my face. "No—you're not leaving." I crushed those hopes of his. If he even had any. "This will just be like earlier. When you attempted to kill me." I waited for some kind of reaction from him but I got nothing. "Mh...A little change of scenery." I repeated.

"Now, what are we thinking? 1930s or 40s?" I raised my eyebrows, taking any suggestions that he was willing to give me. 

Nothing. 

No words. 

I nodded once. "Yeah, I was thinking 40s as well." 

I lifted my hand out in front of me and then swiped—like I was swiping across a screen. A line of red started to rush over everything in the room, engulfing each object and turning it into something else. 

His hand curled into a fist on his knee. Not raised. Not aggressive. But restrained. Controlled. A storm trying not to form as the Reality Stone engulfed the world around him.

Bit by bit, the room changed to something so familiar yet unfamiliar to me that tears tried to pierce their way into my eyes. 

I hadn't seen the room in years.

Bucky's room. Well, it was his apartment—father's apartment. He had many sibling so the apartment was fairly large, perfect for the large room that it was taking over.

Bucky was wearing an older outfit of his. Just basic dress pants with a white shirt that tucked into the pants. It was one of my favorite outfits that he had. Made him look good.

My heart warmed at the sight.

I wanted him to know more. 

Even if he didn't want to know.

I wanted him to know...

I moved one more step forward, so the glass was right in front of me. "Do you remember a dirt road?" I asked carefully. "Right outside your apartment," I motioned a hand around, signifying the apartment that we were in. "Brooklyn, 1938. You made me dance barefoot on gravel. I yelled at you for a week."

Nothing.

Come on.

Then—the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth. Almost invisible. Like his body was considering the memory without his permission.

"Yeah, I was pissed." I nodded, the memory running through my mind. It was one of my newer ones. "You didn't care though, you never really did. I think that's why we stayed friends for so long." 

All emotion was gone and The Winter Soldier sat in front of me with a mask of Bucky covering him up. 

"I was always mad about something but I couldn't take it out on Steve." I explained to him as his eyes never left my own. "He was always going through...something. You were an easy target. And you let me yell, which was nice of you." 

I wasn't sure if I was telling him these memories so that he would remember them or so that I could remember them myself. I had all of these memories just sitting in my mind... Bucky was James Buchanan Barnes. My friend from my teens to twenties. We fought but we were always close. Always cared. We drifted away from each other. The war wasn't coming to an end. He was drafted. I tried to stop it—

I blinked. Again and again. 

"What was that?" He asked at last, voice hoarse like he hadn't used it in days even though it had only been hours since the last time we spoke. 

I looked throughout the room to see what looked to be other people in the room slowly fade away. Turn to ash. 

But not just any people. No—it was me...and Bucky. Some of Steve. My father. 

The allusion wasn't fun anymore. I didn't want to see it. I wanted to be back in the present. 

I sliced a hand through the air and the false reality that I had created was gone. The dark and cold room returned. All comfort was gone. 

And Bucky was no longer Bucky. Just The Winter Soldier. 

"Nothing." I quickly said and then I turned and walked to the opposite wall—lined with old security mirrors and reflective equipment, long abandoned in this unused wing of the compound.  "Make sure I don't die." I told Bucky and he quickly replied,

"What?" 

"The Mirror Dimension. I'm going to use it."

A pane of polished steel caught my eye, leaning half-forgotten against a column. I approached it slowly, my pulse picking up. 

"And how am I supposed to prevent you from dying if i'm trapped in here?" He was actually speaking to me. Huh—I guess he wasn't good at sticking to his promises. Didn't take long at all to get him to speak.

"Yell out the name Jarvis. He'll contact someone and i'll be fine. But only do that if I pass out or something."

Cherry burned softly in my palm. I pressed my fingers to the cool surface.

"The last time you did something like this, you almost bled out everywhere." Bucky reminded me and I froze. 

"You remember that?" 

"I had to watch that." 

Focus, Valeska. 

"I'll be fine."

"That's what you said before your ribs cracked."

I offered him a smirk. "That was a learning curve."

The steel trembled slightly beneath my touch. The reflection swirled, warping—my face melting into static and shifting glass. I took in a breath.

I saw the Quinjet. The Avengers moving like shadows through the shipyard. Thunderclouds brewed over the South African coastline. Natasha was already inside a cargo container, gun drawn. Steve was silently signaling Sam to circle wide. Tony hovered above in the suit, scanning heat signatures.

Okay...okay, this is working.

I focused in further—vision sharpening like a zoom lens. I could almost feel the sea breeze hit my skin, though I was still rooted in the cold compound floor. The mirror surface rippled again, and I fell deeper into it, anchoring myself with the energy in my spine.

Then I saw it—

A figure on the upper deck. Arms crossed. Watching them.

Tall. Broad. Metal gleaming under torn cloth.

Ultron.

He was already there.

I gasped sharply, the vision wavered. "No—no, no, not yet—"

I steadied, locking back in. Ultron was speaking to someone. Klaue. And behind them—rows of vibranium crates.

Then—

My own reflection blinked at me from the mirror.

Not the real me.

Another version. Wearing Hydra black. Eyes blank and cold. That bitch was there, again!

I recoiled—stumbling back just as a jolt of energy arced through my chest and flung me across the room. I hit the wall hard and slid down, breath knocked out of me.

"Valeska!" Bucky slammed his hand against the glass.

My ears rang. Blood trickled from my nose. My hand curled tighter around Cherry, which was now blazing like a miniature sun.

I coughed and looked up, my voice hoarse but laced with a lighter tone, "I knew you cared." 

His mouth just barely fell opened and then he snapped it shut, his jaw tense as he backed away from the glass. He was barely shaking his head as he turned away from me and I let out a light and raspy laugh. 

I slowly but surely pushed myself up and off of the ground, then I made my way back over to the mirrored steel. 

Bucky didn't say anything but he watched me. Each step he watched very carefully. 

The minute I arrived to it, I pressed my fingers to the mirrored steel again, breath shallow, heart pounding harder than before. Cherry pulsed dimly in my palm, as if warning me. I ignored it.

The reflection shimmered... and opened.

I stepped through.

The swirling edges of the Mirror Dimension warped and curved around the image of the real world like a living filmstrip. I stood in the twisted copy of the cargo yard, where the Quinjet had just touched down, mimicking the moment happening outside time.

Steve and Thor were flanking Tony as they stepped through the crumbling building. Tony's voice echoed faintly through the warped space, distorted like radio static,

"Junior, you're gonna break your old man's heart."

There he was—Ultron—tall, jagged metal and rage. And behind him—

Wanda.

Pietro.

I pressed closer against the warped glass dimension, watching in stunned silence. They were with him.

I whispered it before I even knew I was saying it, "Wanda."

Suddenly—Wanda turned.

Her head tilted, eyes narrowing. She looked through Ultron...through the folds of the Mirror Dimension...right at me.

Oh god.

I stepped back.

"Who's there?" she whispered.

She could see me. No—she could feel me.

And then—

My own voice echoed behind me. "That's not where you're supposed to be."

I spun around fast.

No one.

Empty space.

My breath caught in my throat.

I slowly turned back toward the scene—Wanda was still staring into the mirror. Pietro looked at her in confusion, but she didn't move. Her eyes bored into mine like she was searching for something.

And then—I was grabbed.

A hand, ice-cold, my hand—snatched my arm from behind.

It was me.

But not me.

Hydra Valeska. Black leather. Greasy red lighting. Reality Stone burning like a wound in her chest. Her eyes were soulless—vacant, but laced with something worse than anger: obedience.

"You shouldn't be here," she hissed, yanking me back. "You don't get to escape twice."

I thrashed. Her grip was iron.

"No—no, let go—let go!" My voice echoed against glass and shadow.

The world blurred. The dimension began to shatter around us, walls of the illusion cracking and spinning like kaleidoscope glass. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.

Cherry pulsed violently in my palm—her energy building, tearing at my veins.

One last shove and I finally I broke free.

I stumbled backward out of the mirror with a scream, falling onto the cold concrete floor. My body convulsed. Blood poured from my nose, ears. My chest heaved, barely able to breathe.

I was dying. Oh—fuck. I really was dying.

—3rd Person—

Bucky stood at the glass, fists trembling as he watched Valeska writhe, bleeding, whispering something in Russian he didn't remember learning.

"Jarvis." He stated calmly yet his eyes were wide as he watched blood drip onto the floor from Valeskas body. "Call someone." No reply. "Damnit.." 

She wasn't getting up.

His pulse roared in his ears. His thoughts echoed around him.

You don't know her.

You were ordered to kill her.

But you remember her smile.

And you remember dancing on gravel.

He moved. Slammed his metal fist into the corner panel.

A harsh crack split through the glass.

Another hit. Another.

The containment door suddenly buckled with a mechanical groan. Sirens blared faintly, flickering red warning lights spinning through the room. But Bucky didn't care. He rushed out of the cage and sprinted over to where Valeska was lying. She was no longer speaking or even breathing. Not to what he could see. All he saw was a lifeless body and for some reason, that didn't sit right with him. 

For the first time since he could remember, a dead body made him feel sick.

He knelt beside her, heart hammering.

"Valeska."

No response.

He reached out, brushing hair from her blood-slicked face. Her skin was ice. "Stay with me, come on—don't do this—"

She stirred. Barely. He noticed the slight rise in her chest and his breathing quickened as relief began to flood through him.

"Come on, Red." It was as if they were back with Hydra, training on the mats together. Valeska was passed out and Bucky didn't want her to be taken away by the guards for not being strong enough. 

He needed her awake. 

Why? 

He couldn't tell. 

But he didn't want her to be punished just because he was being more harsh than usual.

A sharp gasp slipped through Valeskas lips as she just barely sat up. Bucky was beyond relieved as he moved a hand beneath her back to keep her sitting up slightly, but he took the other hand away from her—his metal hand. 

Her fingers curled faintly around his metal wrist, causing him to freeze. Her eyes were pinned shut and her breathing was sharp and scattered. Her entire body was pale and the Reality Stone embedded into her hand didn't even have the faintest of glow to it.

But she was breathing.

And in that moment—the wall-length mirror behind them shimmered one more time.

Wanda's face appeared. On the other side of the Mirror Dimension.

Her eyes widened once she saw Valeska and Bucky instinctively brought Valeska closer to him, not wanting anything from the creepy ass dimension to touch her again. 

He could feel Valeskas body tense up as she locked eyes with Wanda.

Just before the mirror went dark, Wanda's eyes snapped onto Bucky. Then she was gone.

Chapter Text

My memory was foggy and I couldn't exactly remember what happened. One minute, I was watching Tony talk to Ultron and the next...I was waking up in my bedroom with stitches up my arm. 

There must've been a huge gash leading from the stone in my hand, up my arm, to my shoulder. 

The sun was gone and in its place was the moon. Maybe one or two stars lingered in the sky—the rest were unable to be seen because of light pollution. 

I walked around the tower, going floor to floor. I had nothing else to do with my time. No one was home. Not even Bucky. 

He was gone. 

What I had told him wasn't enough. He still returned to Hydra. 

I had no clue where Tony, Nat, Bruce, Thor, Steve, or Clint were. They never came back to the tower. 

It worried me but not enough to check on them. I was too tired and, honestly, too scared to try again. The Mirror Dimension was something that I was taking a step away from. It wasn't worth...whatever the hell had just happened to me.

The quiet was eerie and I didn't like it. It took me hours to look throughout the entire tower but I didn't mind. I wasn't tired and I was on edge with every corner I turned. Especially when I walked into Tony's little garage—where he kept all of his suits. I was 100% convinced that they were going to come alive and attack me. 

The only place that I couldn't get to was Dr. Helen Cho's lab. Which was understandable. I would've just leave that room unlocked either. 

Anyway, I went back up to the main floor and got myself a snack out of the kitchen. 

It was some protein bar that tasted like shit but I ate it anyway. 

The silence around me seemed to be sinking into my souls and at one point I sat down on the kitchen floor. Then I laid down. 

And I stayed there. 

Where was everybody?

"Valeska." My name came from a deep voice and my heart dropped. Another robot? But this time i'm by myself? Or is it Ultron himself?

I practically rolled my eyes as I barely lifted myself from the ground so that I could see who the hell it was.

Bucky. 

I fully pushed myself off of the ground the minute as I saw him and I quickly got up to my feet. "Bucky." 

"Hi.." 

I looked him up and down as he was wearing normal clothing. Sweatpants and with some random hoodie. His hair was tied back behind him. "Hi." 

"Hi," He said again, like he wasn't sure if he should be standing here at all. His voice was low, careful. Like a bomb could go off at any moment.

I stared at him for a moment longer, making sure he was real.

"You're not...a hallucination, right?" I asked even though it felt stupid to do. "Because that would be cruel. You showing up looking all normal after—"

"No," he said, shaking his head quickly. "I'm here."

I folded my arms across my chest, the pain in my stitched shoulder flaring slightly. "You left." 

"I didn't," he said gently. "I just... I didn't know how to come back." 

I still didn't understand but I let it be. We stood there in the kitchen, both of us too tense to sit, too wired to step closer. The only sound was the faint hum of the fridge and the city lights blinking behind the glass windows.

"I thought you went back to them," I finally said.

"I almost did." His jaw clenched. "But I didn't."

"You disappeared, Bucky." My voice cracked on his name. "I woke up bleeding and alone."

"I know." He looked at the floor for a second, then met my eyes. "I was watching. I mean—not in a creepy way—I didn't leave the compound right away. I couldn't. Something was...wrong."

"With me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," he said. "With me."

He stepped forward. Just one step. And I honestly considered stepping back as he did so. But I didn't. I stayed still.

"I remembered something," he said slowly, like each word had weight. "After you passed out. I remembered Brooklyn. The memory that you tried to tell me about... Gravel. Your voice. You were yelling at me." A faint twitch of a smile. "I think I deserved it."

The breath hitched in my chest. "You remember that?"

"I don't know why. Or how. But it was there." His eyes searched mine. "More things are starting to come back. Just flashes. Moments."

I took a step closer to him, it was instinct as excitement started to rush through me. "Do you remember me—Us?"

He hesitated but it didn't take him long to tell me, "I remember...how you made me feel," he said quietly. "Before I even knew who you were. When I was still—when they had me. There was something about you that made everything slow down. Like I had...some kind of gravity again."

I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't even know how to breathe.

He could tell that I was at a loss for words and he didn't force me to say anything. He looked around the empty room. "Where is everybody?" He asked as a way to change the subject.

"I...don't know." I looked around it as well, even though I had searched the building from top to bottom already. "They didn't come back. From the mission. No word. No comms. Just...gone."

He frowned deeply. "That's not right."

"No," I agreed, surprised that he even said that. "It's not.."

A long pause settled between us. I couldn't understand what was happening or why it was happening. Bucky was in front of me but to what extent was he my Bucky? I if I hugged him would he push me off? If I made a joke with him would he find it funny? 

Could we just sit wait each other? Talk to each other? Could I trust him? Could he trust me?

Then he nodded toward the bar stool. "Can I sit?"

I glanced to the bar stool as a smile slid onto my face. "You don't need permission."

"I kind of feel like I do."

I motioned a hand towards the seat as a way of telling him, go right ahead.

He crossed the room and sat down stiffly, hands on his knees like he wasn't sure what to do with them. His metal fingers tapped absently against his thigh, and I leaned against the counter, still barefoot, arms wrapped around myself.

"You're not here to kill me, right?" I asked. "Just making sure that's not the plan."

"No," he said firmly. "I think if I was here to kill you, I'd be dead instead."

"That's fair." I looked down at Cherry in the back of my hand. "She tends to get dramatic when I'm scared."

"Like her carrier," Bucky said and I blinked in shock. The familiarity in the way he said that—like he knew me. 

Maybe it really was just Hydra me that he was thinking of but I had hope that it was from further back than that.

A laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it. "No, that's fair too."

A smile, so light that I could barely see it, cracked through that facade of his. I was mesmerized by it.

"You should get some rest," he said after a moment. After we both had fallen back into an awkward silence. "You look like hell."

"I was almost ripped apart by a mirror," I said. "So...that tracks." Then I asked, "Why did you come back?"

He looked at me, something flickering behind his eyes and at that point, I wasn't sure what he was going to say. 

It most definitely wasn't this, "I didn't know where else to go."

oh.

He seemed to be ashamed by saying it but it only made me happier. It meant that this wasn't going to be the only time he would be here. He would always come back. 

"Where'd you get the clothes?" I asked him but he didn't answer. He didn't even look at me. That sort of worried me... 

"You can trust me." I reassured him. I wanted him to know that I wasn't the same girl that I was in the Red Rooms. I could be trusted...with..most things.

"Oh, can I now?" Bucky asked, tilting his head and I couldn't help but crack a smile. "No. Not really." If things went south, I would obviously have to tell the Avengers most of the things that we had talked about.

Bucky nodded as he lifted himself up and off of the seat. "Good, because you can't trust me either." 

My smile grew at that. 

The playful energy made me feel nostalgic and my heart began to ache for something that I would never be able to have. 

Not anymore. 

"So you won't tell me where you went?" 

"No where far." 

...Seriously? That was all that I would be getting?

I nodded once, "Got it." That's all I really had to say about it. 

We didn't have enough trust in each other to say much—I knew that. But it still hurt.

Something fragile sat between us, like a wire stretched too tight, and neither of us wanted to be the one to pull it taut.

I studied him. The lines in his face, the dark circles under his eyes, the way his jaw clenched like he was used to holding everything in. Maybe it wasn't just me who was on the verge of breaking.

"You don't look like you've slept," I said quietly.

Bucky gave a soft shrug. "Didn't want to."

I nodded, curling my fingers tighter around the fabric of my shirt. "Me neither."

The silence wasn't awkward anymore. It was... loaded. Heavy in a way that made me more aware of my heartbeat. Of how close he was. Of how alone we were in the tower.

He looked around the room, eyes settling on the spot I'd been lying on earlier. "You really slept on the floor?"

I let out a breath of a laugh. "I wasn't sleeping. I was just... existing horizontally."

"Sounds peaceful."

"About as peaceful as a haunted morgue."

That got the ghost of a smile from him. He rubbed the back of his neck, gaze dropping to the floor.

I hesitated. "Why did you really come back tonight?" He didn't have to come back to me. If anything—it would've been better for him to run. And run far. The second Tony got back he would either cage Bucky up or again or just simply kill him this time.

Bucky looked up again, and for the first time, didn't dodge the question. "Because when I thought you were dead... something in me cracked."

I froze.

His hand touched the edge of the counter as he took a step around it, watching his feet as he did so. "I've had Hydra's leash around my throat for so long, I forgot what it felt like to care if someone else made it out alive."

I was stunned. 

I didn't know what to do with that kind of honesty.

"I'm not saying I'm good now," he added quickly. "I'm not. I'm still a mess. But if something happens to you again and I'm not there... I think that would break me in a way I wouldn't come back from."

My throat tightened. I was too scared to speak. I was too scared to ruin whatever this was—this fragile, aching thing between us.

Instead, I moved slowly toward him, my steps quiet. He didn't back away. His eyes searched mine, and I saw it there—hesitation, fear...hope.

I was beginning to be scared that he could hear my heartbeat speeding up.

I came to a slow stop directly in front of him. We were now almost toe to toe and I liked that, I wanted that.

His eyes lingered on my own for a hot minute but then they glanced down to my lips. 

I could feel the energy pouring from Cherry and was certain that she was glowing as bright as ever so I pressed her tightly against my back. 

His arm lifted slowly—his metal arm—and he gently pressed a finger underneath of my chin to lift it up. 

I froze and my breath hitched. 

His face inched closer to mine, our breath mingling between us. I could only look at his lips, parted slightly like he was still unsure. And then the lips in question were now talking, 

"Should I go?" His voice was low...and breathy. 

My chest was rising and falling very dramatically at the sudden loss of air. I fluttered my eyes from his lips up to his eyes. 

Should he go? 

No...

No. No. No. No. 

"If you stay..." Why was I breathing so damn hard? God—I needed to focus on my breathing a bit more and less on his lips. "And if you kiss me..." I began to force my eyes to focus on his own. "I might let it happen." That was the most that he was going to get out of me. If he wanted what I wanted...he would stay. But if he wasn't ready for that or if he didn't want it or if he couldn't trust himself to do that...he would leave.

The corner of his lips turned up as he leaned in just enough to get our lips to barely touch. I went to lean into the kiss so that we could be actually kissing, but then a loud noise filled the room from the floor below us.

I jerked back instinctively, heart in my throat, pulse skipping hard against my ribs. The moment snapped like a frayed wire. The silence that followed made the sound seem even louder, like it had rattled the bones of the building itself.

Bucky stepped back immediately, jaw tensing. He looked toward the floor like he was scanning through it. "That came from Cho's lab."

"How did you..?" I began to ask, breath still catching up with me, but then I quickly shook my head. "That was locked. No one's supposed to be in there."

His posture shifted subtly—more rigid, more alert. "Something is."

We stood frozen for a moment, the air still vibrating faintly around us.

And just like that, the softness between us dissolved. Not gone completely, but tucked away. Stored. Like something too dangerous to touch right now.

I swallowed hard and backed up toward the elevator, a glow of red unconsciously glowing around Cherry and observing through my hand. Keeping a ball of energy ready. 

"You coming?" I asked, glancing back at him. 

He nodded once, already reaching under his hoodie to make sure whatever knife or weapon he kept on him was still there. "After you." 

Awesome to know that I was about to kiss a guy with a weapon tucked in his waistband.

Chapter Text

I could hear her voice from outside the room. 

"The vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cell, they're binding them."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I looked back to Bucky. His eyes were hollow and he no longer looked like the Bucky that I was about to kiss but The Winter Soldier that I worked along side of for years. 

I looked away from him. 

What the fuck was Dr. Cho doing?

"And Shield never even thought to..."

"The most versatile substance on the planet," Ultrons voice caused me to stop in my tracks. 

I flung a hand over to Bucky and I grabbed onto his arm just as he almost ran into me.

"And they used it to make a Frisbee." The distain in Ultrons voice was clear. "Typical of humans. They scratch the surface and never think to look within." 

Cherry began to glow brighter than I had ever seen her and my eyes widened. Bucky acted before I could think and he quickly grabbed onto me, holding down my hand with his metal one. The aggression and quickness of his movements caused me to get pushed up against the wall. 

This used to happen all of the time. Cherry would act up and he would notice before I did. 

But now that I knew him. Now that he just started to slow into the process of becoming Bucky again...

My jaw dropped open and I took in a breath of air as my back pressed into the wall. His other hand rushed up to cover my mouth so that no other sound would escape me.

"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the consciousness stream." Dr. Cho informed, who I was assuming to be Ultron. 

My hand no longer was just glowing but burning. My eyebrows furrowed as my mouth completely widened this time. 

As Bucky could see it on my face, he slipped his hand away and quickly asked, "What's wrong?" 

I snapped my mouth shut and pressed my lips into a line so that I wouldn't bark out a whine. I squeezed my eyes shut but then realized that sent all of my focus onto the pain so I quickly opened them again. 

Bucky had brought my hand up so that he could look at it. "Holy shit, Red.." His eyes widened for only a moment and I could see why. 

My veins in my hand were such a deep red that they almost looked black...or maybe they were black. I couldn't tell. A dark haze surrounded the stone and that was the part that burned the most. 

Bucky set his other hand on top of the stone and then he applied a light pressure. That seemed to ease the pain slightly which gave me a bit of relief. 

"They must have the other stone." He muttered and I became confused on how he knew that. 

"What?" I asked just as quietly and he raised his hand for only a moment—all of the pain coming back to me which caused me to squeeze my eyes shut once again. 

"Yeah—Cherry, your little stone here, doesn't like the other stone. Anytime you're close to it...this thing here reacts awfully." Bucky explained to me quickly and quietly. 

How did I have no memory of that?

"But I was around it all of the time. I was even around it here at the tower for a couple of weeks." Each word caused me to be more breathless than the last. This pain wasn't only taking away my comfort but my energy as well. I was quickly becoming tired and I began to fear what was happening to me. 

Dr. Cho continued talking to Ultron and her voice annoyed me more and more every second. "We're uploading your cerebral matrix....now." Beeping echoed out of the room and I tried to think of what all of this meant. 

The stone. Uploading Ultrons cerebral matrix. Cellular cohesion. Vibranium. 

What was going on? 

"I can read him." 

My heart dropped at the sound of her voice. My blood ran cold and my mind went blank. 

Wanda. She was here. 

"He's dreaming." Her voice sounded hopeful...if she was working with Ultron why the hell was she hopeful?!

"I wouldn't call it dreams." Dr. Cho told her. "It's Ultrons base consciousness. Informational noise. Soon—"

"How soon?" Ultron was quick to interrupt. "I'm not being pushy." He then reassured the woman.

"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts. Even if your magic gem—" 

Wanda's scream jerked me out of Buckys grip. 

What have they done?!

I darted down the hall but within a second, Bucky had wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up—stopping me from going any further.

"You go in there," He grunted as he pulled me back, "and you're dead. Got it?" 

"They did something to her!" I whisper-shouted. 

"She chose to be in there. Whatever happens—she deserves." 

My heart broke at his words. His very cruel words. No one deserved to get hurt. No one deserved what people like Wanda and I had to go through. But it happened anyway. She was probably taken or...lost on what she was doing. She could be very nieve. 

"How could you?" I heard Wanda's voice once again, it was more breathy and...hurt.

"How could I what?" Ultron was not impressed.

"You...you said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world." 

What? She chose to join that?!

"It will be better." Ultron insisted. 

"When everyone is dead?" Wanda countered. 

"That is not—" His voice was much louder than before but he cut himself off short, restarting his thought. "The human race will have every opportunity to improve." 

"And if they don't?" Pietro. He was there too.

"Ask Noah." Ultrons answer was simple. 

What happened to Noah?

"You are a madman." Wanda told him and he instantly defended himself,

"There were more than a dozen extinction-level events 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. We have to evolve. There's no room for... the weak."

"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked which was followed with a long silence.

"Life." Ultron chuckled, "Life always decides." 

The sound of an aircraft flying near by cut off my focus. 

Bucky still had just one arm wrapped around me as he was also listening intently. I glanced down to it and then pushed my way out of his grip. 

"The Quinjet." Ultron stated. "We have to move."

I let out a sigh of relief. "They're here." I spoke out loud so that Bucky knew.

The harsh sound of blasts smashing things in the other room caused me to dart forward. If the Avengers were here then they could pick up where I left off if something happened. 

I rushed around the corner and then slammed the door opened with the energy around it as I was sure it was locked. 

Ultron quickly looked my way and I flicked up my hand, wrapping the field of energy around him through the slips in his robotic body and then I threw him up into the air. 

Another robot in the room sent me flying into the wall next to me and I hit it with a harsh thud.

I crumpled to the floor, gasping. Pain shot down my back and across my ribs where I'd hit the wall. My vision blurred for a second—but I forced myself up just as Bucky stormed into the lab behind me.

He didn't hesitate. The robot that had blindsided me was already mid-step when Bucky's vibranium arm slammed into its chest, sending it flying back into the lab monitors with a shower of sparks. The screen exploded. So did the robot's torso.

Ultron turned.

"Barnes," he said flatly, stepping forward as if Bucky were nothing but another disposable. "Still playing human?"

Bucky ignored him. He dropped to one knee beside me. "Valeska, are you—"

"I'm fine," I grunted, already reaching for the stone. "Just...get out of my way." I had so much built up energy within me from the day, if Bucky got into my way there was no telling if I would hurt him on accident or not.

Ultron raised a hand—metal fingers flexing—and the remaining bots in the room activated in sync, their eyes flashing blue as they locked onto us.

"I don't have time for sentiment." He told me dryly.

"Good," I hissed, fire building in my veins. "Because I'm out of it."

I surged to my feet, power spiraling around my fingers. Cherry pulsed with a deep crimson glow, and I reached out—flicking my hand in a sharp arc. Reality warped like a wave crashing inward. The air thickened, twisting like glass melting.

The ground beneath two bots fractured into jagged crystals—sharp as razors. Their legs snapped under the weight of the distortion, cutting them in half.

Bucky spun and intercepted a third that launched at me—grabbing it mid-air and slamming it into the table beside us. The table cracked. The bot's head caved in under the pressure of his metal fist.

Another grabbed him from behind, but he twisted low and flipped it over his shoulder, shooting it with the pistol he'd swiped from his boot. A clean headshot.

I threw my hand outward again—snapping the air like a whip. The walls began to ripple. One bot reached for me and instantly found itself encased in a mirrored cube of frozen space—Cherry's energy locking it in like a trap.

Ultron growled and lunged.

Bucky tried to intercept him but was knocked aside, hitting a stack of surgical carts that clattered to the ground.

Ultron loomed over me now. "You never should've been made."

"Neither should you," I shot back—and with both hands I blasted him with a raw pulse of reality energy. The beam hit Ultron square in the chest, flinging him back through a glass tank of fluid and wires. He screamed—mechanical and furious—and rolled, sparking.

But it wasn't enough.

He launched back toward me with insane speed, arm extended like a blade. I barely dodged—his strike cutting a line across my shoulder. Blood welled immediately.

Then he stopped. Flicked his head to the side. "No..." he murmured. "They're here."

The Quinjet roared from the roof above and the lab shook.

Chapter Text

"This isn't our battle to fight." Bucky told me once again as he helped me down the hall. My entire arm had a harsh shade of a red-black color coating it. I wasn't sure what was going on and neither did he. 

"But I can help," I insisted, my voice strained from the effort of walking.

"Not like this you can't."

"I'm fine," I tried again.

"You're not." He said it like it physically pained him to say it out loud. "You're burning up."

The hallway blurred slightly in my vision, and I bit back the dizziness that swelled inside my skull. 

I hated how weak I felt. How unstable.

We turned the corner toward the main lounge when the distant hum of voices and footsteps echoed throughout the floor. I could tell by Bucky's sudden shift in posture that he heard it too.

For a split second, relief. 

The others were safe. 

Tony, at least. And Clint. Maybe Bruce. I could almost feel the words, we're not alone anymore forming on my tongue.

But when I turned to Bucky, that flicker of comfort disappeared.

He was already stepping back, jaw set, his eyes clouded. The soldier in him, the ghost, retreating.

"You're leaving," I said, already knowing the answer.

"They can't see me."

I shook my head. "They'll understand."

"No, they won't." He looked down at his hands—metal and flesh. "I don't even understand so we need to give it time."

"Then stay. Just—don't let them see you."

"It's not that simple." His voice was quiet. "Not after what I've done. Not until I know who I am."

I wanted to scream at him. To tell him he was more than what they made him. That he was already choosing better even though he barely knew how to choose it. But I was too tired. Too broken. And he already looked like he was halfway gone.

I swallowed hard. "You'll come back?" It was more of a statement than a question.

His eyes stayed distant and the tone of his voice made him seem even further. "You know I will."

But I didn't. 

I didn't know that.

I took one slow step forward and pressed my hand against his chest. I needed him to remember this. I needed him to not fall back to Hydra and I needed him to remember more. 

It was hesitant at first but his hand came up and covered mine, and he closed his eyes for one long breath. When his eyes opened and his hand fell, I let mine fall along side his. 

He looked at me for a moment, no words were spoken. Then, silently, he turned and disappeared down the opposite hallway.

Moments later, just a few people stepped into the room. 

Tony stepped inside first, followed by Clint—half-limping—and Bruce, who looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

Tony glanced around the empty room. "Jarvis?" he called, frowning. "We're home."

I stood at the end of the hallway, arm cradled against my side, still faintly glowing.

And I was alone again.

"Valeska." Bruce was the first to notice me and I turned awkwardly, giving him a faint smile. 

"Hey, Bruce." 

"Holy shit, Val!" Tony barked out as he noticed me as well and he didn't waste a single second before he was rushing over to me. "What the hell happened?!" 

"Ultron happened, no thanks to you guys." I muttered the last part as I was obviously still bitter about not being able to go on the mission. "He's doing something with the other stone. This is just a reaction from it." 

"I don't follow," Bruce spoke up from behind Tony. "Ultron was here?" 

I nodded my head as Tony continued to inspect my arm. "Steve was just here, didn't he tell you guys? He was dressed in his spangly outfit which usually meant that he had some form of communication with you guys."

"Yeah—no, he was just at the U-GIN Genetic Research Facility. That was where he found Dr. Helen Cho." Bruce explained to me and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. 

"But.." I pointed a hand towards her lab in our tower. "She was..." Then it all clicked. 

Dr. Cho probably had a good amount of resources here as she was just working on Clint a couple weeks ago and then she attended the party in which Ultron attacked us at. 

She was the designated doctor at the tower.

Wanda must've used the little amount of abilities that she has from the Reality Stone to morph the room they were in, with the lab in the tower. 

"Wanda." I stated dryly. "Wanda must've done something to make them appear in the tower. Then when she freaked out, she forgot to close the doorway."

Tony blinked, glancing toward Cho's lab. "Great. Love that. Portals opening into my living room without a courtesy knock."

Bruce sighed, clearly already cycling through the magical logistics in his head. "She's still unstable. If she's pulling that off with only proximity to the Reality Stone, then—"

"I'm going to need more scotch," Tony muttered, cutting him off. "And maybe a firewall around space-time. You know. Casual."

But I wasn't listening anymore. My eyes had gone from Tony, to Bruce, to Clint... and stopped there.

There was someone missing.

My heart thudded unevenly.

"Where's Nat? With Steve?"

Tony froze mid-step, then slowly turned toward me. His reaction wasn't subtle—and that said everything I needed to know.

Bruce's shoulders tensed.

Clint was the one who spoke, quiet and rough. "She's still with Ultron."

My mouth went dry and my heart landed in my ass.

"She's still with Ultron?" My voice cracked halfway through. "What do you mean—she stayed behind?"

"She didn't exactly have a choice," Bruce admitted, finally meeting my eyes. "Ultron grabbed her during the fight at the lab. She gave us the opening to escape. We didn't even know she was still in the building until it was too late."

I stared at them, unable to process what I was hearing. Natasha Romanoff—Nat—was with Ultron. The thought made Cherry pulse wildly in my arm again, as if it recognized my anger before I could fully feel it.

"We need to go back," I said immediately, stepping forward.

"No," Tony said quickly, putting a hand on my good shoulder. "No, Valeska, you're not in any shape—"

"I don't care if I'm not in shape," I snapped. "You left her."

Tony's jaw clenched.

"We didn't leave her," Clint said firmly. "She made the call. We all know what kind of call that is."

My breathing was heavy. Too heavy. My body trembled—whether from anger or exhaustion, I couldn't tell anymore. My chest felt like it was closing in.

She was the one person who understood almost everything that I had gone through. Steve completed the other half that she couldn't understand. And now, he wasn't here and Nat was missing. 

She knew how my brain worked better than any one else because she had my brain.

She stayed by my side and didn't judge me for how many I had killed—how many lives I had destroyed. Even when Steve didn't have the curtesy to do the same. And now...

"She trusted you," I whispered. "All of you. And she's trusting you to get her back."

"We know," Bruce said, his voice lower now. More broken. "We're going to get her back. We will, Valeska."

But it didn't feel like enough. They didn't seem to be in any kind of rush. Clint was the only one who looked truly worried

"I think you'll be glad to know that we got the other stone back." Tony shrugged as he continued his walk away from me to get his drink. 

I glanced down to my arm with furrowed eyebrows. "And why would I be glad to hear that?" 

"Nobody can use it against you now." Clint, with his blunt tone, told me as he walked past me and towards the stairs that led to the lower floor. 

"I'll work on something, Valeska." Bruce looked to me with a look of reassurance in his eyes. "I'll figure out what's making you react this way and we'll get some kind of prototype going." 

That confused me. Why would he...why would he waste his time on something like that? Just to keep this small little reaction at bay? He'd do all of that? 

I gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Bruce." 

He nodded once before he followed Clint's lead, making his way past me and down the stairs to the lower floor. 

I stayed standing where I was for just a moment longer, not sure if I was supposed to stay and talk to Tony or...

"I'm glad you're not dead." I informed the guy and he looked over to me from one of our many mini bars which sat in the corner of the room. 

His eyes fell to my arm then back up to my eyes. "Dido." 

I then turned and started making my way towards my room. 

I had never been so excited for a nap.

Chapter Text

The Tower was too quiet again.

I hated that.

Silence wasn't peace—It filled the hallways and seeped under doors, pressing in around me like a weight I couldn't shake off. It let my thoughts get louder. 

I sat on the edge of the medical wing's cot, arm still faintly pulsing with the red-black glow that had crawled up from Cherry and embedded itself like wildfire into my veins. Bruce hovered nearby, gloves on, a scanner in one hand and a worried furrow between his brows.

Tony was on the other end of the floor—working on something that he wasn't telling me about. I was pretty sure that Clint was working on finding out where Natasha was. It had only been a couple of hours since they had returned and both Steve and Natasha were still missing. 

Bruce insisted that Steve was fine but he couldn't do the same for Nat.

"Still hurts?" he asked softly, not looking up.

"No," I lied.

He gave me a look over the top of the scanner. "You're a terrible liar."

"I wasn't lying. I was...testing the limits of optimism."

Bruce huffed something like a laugh. "Well, optimistic or not, this reaction pattern is... unprecedented. It's like Cherry is burning through you and stabilizing you at the same time. Like she's shielding you from something even worse."

I looked down at my hand—at the crimson gleam beneath the skin and how dark my veins looked now. "You mean she's throwing a tantrum because the Mind Stone got too close."

Bruce nodded, adjusting something on the screen. "Sort of. But tantrums don't usually corrupt cellular bonds or rewrite molecular frameworks."

"...Cool." I swallowed. "So we're not in the 'it'll go away with rest' phase, huh?"

"Not unless your definition of rest includes full-on cosmic recalibration." He glanced up again. "Which I assume it doesn't."

I sighed, letting my shoulders sag. "Do you think I'm dangerous?"

His eyes softened. "You've always been dangerous, Valeska. That's not the question. The question is: to who?"

I didn't answer. I didn't know the answer.

After a moment, he took the scanner away and set it aside, peeling off his gloves. "I'm going to build something. A kind of regulator. It won't suppress the stone, but it might help buffer the reaction—give you control back."

I blinked at him. "You'd do that for me?"

He tilted his head. "Of course. You think I trust anyone else to throw robots through walls when Ultron comes knocking?"

A small laugh slipped out before I could help it. "You've got jokes.”

"Occasionally." He smiled faintly. "You're not alone in this, Valeska. I know you feel like you are, but you're not."

Something tightened in my chest at that. "Thank you."

He nodded and stood up. "Get some rest. I'll work on the prototype. No promises on aesthetics."

"I'm kind of into the mad-scientist chic anyway."

He left me sitting with the hum of machines and the smell of being in a hospital.

I looked down at Cherry again. The stone was calm now, as if it hadn't almost burned me alive hours ago. As if it hadn't reminded me what it felt like to be the weapon Hydra made me into.

I exhaled and leaned back onto the cot, resting my head against the pillow.

I had no where in-particular to be. I didn't know where Bucky was and my thoughts raised on what he could have been doing. If Hydra found him... If the part of his mind that Hydra rewired had taken over again...

I shook my head at the thought. He wasn't my person to be worrying about. 

He wasn't my Bucky anymore and I wasn't his Valeska anymore. We were different people then and we're different people now. 

I sat back up on the cot and then decided that i'd go see what Tony was doing. Maybe he had more information about...something. Anything.

And maybe he hadn't noticed that the guy we were keeping locked up in our basement had escaped...

I swung my legs off the cot and padded barefoot across the polished floor, ignoring the dull ache in my arm. The soft pulse of Cherry throbbed in rhythm with my heartbeat, as if it were trying to warn me of something—but I didn't have the energy to listen right now.

Tony was exactly where I expected him to be.

Bent over one of the workbenches in his lab, surrounded by screens, holograms, tech scraps—and something else. Something glowing. A deep golden glow I knew too well.

I stepped just into the doorway, leaning against the frame. "You building another suit or playing God this time?"

He didn't look up. "I like to think of it more as... borrowing the title temporarily."

I walked further in and that's when I saw it: the Cradle.

Helen Cho's lab equipment—scattered and refit with far more tech than she ever would've approved of. And lying in the middle, inside the Regeneration Cradle, was a body.

A synthetic one.

"No." My voice came out sharper than I expected.

Tony finally turned, raising his brows like I was the unreasonable one in the room. "Before you spiral into one of your Reality rants, I just want you to know—we're trying to fix this."

I pointed to the Cradle. "That looks a hell of a lot like the beginning of a brand-new Ultron."

"It's not," Bruce's voice came from my left. So this is where he went to. "This is different."

"You're using the Mind Stone again," I hissed. "The exact thing that just nearly split me in half. The thing that Ultron was using to create a body for himself—"

"We're not making another Ultron," Tony cut in. "We're making something better. A failsafe. Something that can think and feel and maybe, just maybe, stop this mess before it turns into a planetary extinction event."

"And who caused that planetary extinction event to even be possible?! You. What if it turns into a bigger mess?" I demanded. "What if you're wrong again?"

Bruce shook his head as he looked from me to Tony. "The genetic coding tower is at 97% It would be a waste of time to turn back now." 

My eyes widened, the realization hitting me that they weren't going to see the problem within doing this. 

"There won't be any time to turn back if you go through with this because this just might cause global extinction." I shook my head as a petty scoff slipped through my lips. "You are no good than Strucker right now. Using a stone that you have no right to be using. And for what?! To destroy your malfunctioning robot?" 

"And can you see that?" Tony asked, no type of emotion on his face but dead set seriousness. "Can you see that happening?"

A stupid question. "I can see through other realities, Stark, not time." 

"And in how many realities does this blow up in our faces?" Bruce added in. 

I looked to him, giving him no words as I was not going to use Cherry for that. It would be too painful for me to do.

A beat passed and then Bruce began moving. "You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes." He reminded Tony, moving on from the conversation that we were just having. 

The hairs on the back of my neck stood as I could feel someone standing behind me. I turned instantly, just to see Steve standing there.

With Wanda and Pietro standing behind him. 

My heart skipped a beat.

"I'm going to say this once," Steve began to say but Tony was quick with his interruption,

"How about none-ce?" 

"Shut it down!" Steve ordered and Bruce just barely froze.

"Nope." Tony declared. "Not gonna happen."

My eyes were going from Steve to Tony to Steve to Tony.

"You don't know what you're doing." Steve tried to explain to Tony exactly what I was just saying.

He, of course, didn't care for the comment..

"And you do?" Bruce asked, as calm as ever. Then he nodded towards Wanda, "She's not in your head?" 

That caught my attention. 

My eyes flew over to Steve, then to Wanda.

 Wanda just barely shook her head at me but Steve wouldn't look at me. 

"I know you're angry—" Wanda tried to defuse the situation as she stepped forward but Bruce wouldn't let her speak.

"Oh, we're way past that." A slight chuckle snuck through his words before he turned more serious than I had ever seen him, "I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."

I blinked.

Damn.

Of course that was when Steve picked back up the conversation, "Banner, after everything that's happened—"

"It's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony interrupted.

"You don't know what's in there." Wanda insisted and Steve agreed with her,

"This isn't a game!"

A sharp wind hissed against my face and in that moment I knew that Pietro had done something. 

The sound of all of the machines in the room suddenly powering down, paper flying, voices being cut off...

"No, no. Go on." Pietro was now standing next to Bruce with a few of the machines wired in his hand.

Tony looked to him like he had just killed his parents.

"You were saying?" Pietro asked but then a loud bang and the breaking of the glass underneath his feet caused him to fall through the ground. 

My eyes widened and Wanda shot forward, "Pietro!" She yelled and that was when I heard Clint's voice from below, 

"What? You didn't see that coming?" 

I groaned, "Jackass." I rushed towards the broken glass and I looked down to where Pietro was lying on the floor, Clint standing over top of him. "Don't you fucking hurt him, got it Barton?" My voice was laced with venom. Clint looked up to me and honestly looked confused, 

"Feeling sentimental?" 

"I'm re-routing the upload." Tony announced as his footsteps rushed to another part of the room. 

The room shook and sparks flew from different parts of the machines as Steve shield went flying through the air. My hair went flying to the side as he just barely missed me, hitting the machine next to me. Sparks when flying and I had to duck to miss them. 

The loud bangs of the shield hitting the machines caused my ears to ring. Then glass broke and Tony suddenly had the hand to his Iron Man suit—not wasting a second before he was blasting a sharp bolt at Steve. 

I could've sworn I had lost my ability to hear for a moment there.

Steve flew through the air and slammed onto the ground before I could even think. The rest of Iron Man suit was quickly attaching itself to Tony. 

The feeling of Cherrys energy being pulled notified me that Wanda was using the Reality Stones abilities—the part of the stone that lingered inside of her.

Bruce darted towards her and yanked on her hands, tying them down to her sides with one hand and then he wrapped his other arm around her throat."Go ahead. Piss me off."

Across the room, Tony's arc reactor glowed as the last pieces of his suit clicked into place.

Steve threw his shield again.

It ricocheted off the edge of the cradle, sparking metal and flipping a table in its wake. Tony caught it midair, then launched forward, slamming into Steve and sending them both crashing through a row of medical monitors.

They hit the ground hard—grunting and grappling like men who weren't holding back anymore.

I hesitated for only a second.

I couldn't get involved—not without blowing a hole through the floor. Cherry was awake now, humming low and angry in my bloodstream. Any wrong move, any panicked instinct, and I'd obliterate half this lab.

"Bruce, get her out of here!" I barked, gesturing toward Wanda, who was still struggling in his grip.

"I'm trying," he snapped. "But she's stronger than she looks!"

Steve broke free of Tony's grip and surged up, elbowing him in the side. Tony stumbled back, then lashed out with a blast from his repulser that hit Steve square in the chest, sending him tumbling.

My breath caught.

Steve crashed through a glass console and groaned, winded—but not down.

Pietro, having climbed back up from the lower floor, zipped in again—blurring like lightning. I barely saw him before he grabbed Tony's arm and wrenched it sideways at inhuman speed, nearly twisting it clean out of its socket.

Tony recovered just as fast. "Not a fan of personal space, huh?" he grunted, pivoting and launching a pulse beam that sent Pietro flying back into a wall.

Clint was already on the upper level, drawing an arrow and aiming it—dead center—between Wanda's shoulder blades.

"Don't," I said sharply, instantly letting a serge of power slip between my finger tips.

But I have to look away as the sudden clash of Thors boots slamming down onto the top to the cradle snagged my attention away from Clint. 

His arm raised and lighting thundered the ground beneath us. Bruce shouted out for him to wait but he wasn't listening. With one quick movement, Thor sent his hand flying down and all do the lightning was absorbed through the cradle. Wind lashed around me and my hair continually blew into my face but I couldn't bring my eyes away from what the man was doing.

Why was he....

It made no sense.

Every machine in the room began to fall into an error, loud beeps that were a faint whisper compared to the noise of the lightning coming from Thors hammer. 

A beat skipped.

Everything fell quiet.

We all weren't sure what just happened and no one knew what to do next. What to expect. 

I saw Steve's hand twitch toward his shield again. A low hum began to vibrate through the walls. And Thor went flying. 

The cradle exploded open and I was sent back onto the floor. Thor landed across the room as he was on top of the cradle.

The body sat up.

Not with a jerk. Not Frankenstein-style. But smoothly. Elegantly. Like waking from a dream.

The synthetic man opened his eyes.

Gold. Bright. Ancient.

The air around us went still

I slowly pulled myself up and off of the ground and Thor did the same. We all didn't dare to move our eyes away from him—not knowing if he would begin to attack us or not. 

The man blinked slowly. He turned his head, looked at Tony, then Bruce, then me. He seemed to see me, like he was staring through me.

I kept the whisper of energy surrounding my hand close to me as it was the only thing keeping me from freaking out. 

One wrong move and i'd sever his body in half—

The red-robot-human-man lurched forward. Straight to Thor but he countered the attack nice and easily, sending the robot guy flying into the wall of glass behind him. 

Why the hell was everything made out of glass in this building?!

The glass shattered and the red man went flying into the other room. 

If he flew through the other wall of glass then he'd be outside of the tower. Those were the windows looking out to the city. 

But the man stopped himself just before he flew out. 

The halt was sudden yet smooth. 

Thor quickly followed into the other room and Steve grabbed ahold of his shield as he did the same but then Thor held out a hand—telling Steve not to attack. Telling us all not to attack.

I watched, just barely being able to see as the red man slowly held out a hand in front of him... he seemed to be staring at the reflection. The reflection of himself in the glass. 

We all sorta looked to each other before we mutually agreed to move towards the edge of the lab, where we could see the guy now hovered near the large glass windows in the other room, looking out over the city.

Tony had let the Iron Man suit slip away from him and return to its spot as Thor slowly but surely set down his hammer.

Pietro was next to me within a second, his hand just barely hovering over my lower back. Wanda stepped up to the other side of me. 

I glanced to the both of them. 

Wanda was looking at the newly created man...mesmerized by him. Pietro was looking at Wanda—concern written all over his face.

Everyone else was still fairly spread out. 

Clint stayed back so he was still in the back of the room. Tony only inched forward slightly. 

Steve was in the middle of the room, still taking slow and precise steps as he glanced to Thor who was the closest to the robot man. 

Wanda, Pietro, and I all stood near the middle of the room but to the far right of it—the opposite side than where Steve was standing.

A skin tight clothing like substance spread across the man's body as he floated over to us all. It was as if he had put some kind of grey suit on.

"I am sorry." His voice was soothing and it sounded...awfully familiar. "That was...odd." He let himself gracefully lower to the ground, just barely stepping onto it as he looked to Thor, "Thank you." 

Thor just barely nodded as I could see his body relax ever so slightly. 

The sudden appearance of a cape on the red man's back caused me to crack a smile. He was copying Thor...

"Thor." Steve spoke up. "You helped create this?" His voice sounded betrayed, confused, bitter. He was talking as if the red man wasn't standing directly in front of us.

"I had a vision." Seriously? That was Thors defense? He had a vision. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that." His finger pointed up to the Infinity Stone embedded into the red man's forehead. 

"What..?" Bruce stepped forward, "The gem?" 

"It's the Mind Stone." Thor sounded like he wanted to add, idiot, on the end of that statement. "It's one of the six Infinity Stones." 

His eyes landed on me as he continued, "The greatest power in the universe unparalleled in its destructive capabilities." 

"Then why would you bring—" Steve tried to ask but Thor answered before the question was out. 

"Because Stark is right."

"Oh.." I groaned as I let my eyes fall shut. Never ever were you to say the words, Stark is right. Ever.

"It's defiantly the end of times." Bruce added onto my groan, having the same thought process as me.

Thor ignored us both. "The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." 

"Not alone." Red man added. 

"Why does your vision sound like Jarvis?" Steve just had all the questions.  

"We reconfigured Jarvis's matrix." Tony explained, "To create something new..."

"I think i've had my fill of new." Steve told Tony, referring to Ultron and what he had done already.

"You think i'm a child of Ultron." The vision accused us of the obvious. 

"You're not?" I asked and he looked to me like I had truly offended him.

"I'm not Ultron." His head shook as he then looked away from me and to the ground, "I am not Jarvis. I am... I am.." He was at a loss for words. 

"I looked in your head." Wanda's voice suddenly ringing through my ears caused me to jump to the side slightly. I fell into Pietro for just a moment and I let out a light laugh as I did so. He cracked a smile as he steadied me back onto my feet. 

We kinda ruined the mysterious moment.

"I saw annihilation." Wanda told the vision, stepping towards him.

"Look again." He had complete confidence that she would see that again. Still. 

Barton scoffed and I looked back to see him walking towards us all. "Her seal of approval means jack to me." 

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads," Thor began to say and I instantly looked to Wanda with furrowed eyebrows. 

Horrors in our head.

"—Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone. And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side—"

"Is it?" Steve interrupted and I let my head fall to the side in annoyance. 

My man had serious trust issues. Gosh...

"Are you?" He forwarded the question to the red man. "On our side?"

"I don't think it's that simple." 

Great. Great fucking answer, buddy. You're going to get yourself killed with it!

"Well, it better get real simple real soon." Barton told the guy, stopping close by to Tony. 

"I am on the side of life." Sounded good enough to me. "Ultron isn't. He will end it all."

"What's he waiting for?" Tony's question was just above a whisper but that didn't stop the vision from hearing it. 

"You." He stated and Bruce asked, 

"Where?"

"Sokovia." Clint answered for the red man and Pietro went still next to me. "He's got Nat there, too." 

That caused me to go tense. 

"If we're wrong about you..." Bruce murmured to the vision. "If you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..."

"What will you do?" The vision asked Bruce. Not in a challenging way—well, not purposefully. 

Bruce's hand just slightly raised as he pointed to me, "I'll have her slice you and the Mind Stone in two. And then she'll turn you to ashes." 

"I guess we've agreed that she will destroy the vision." I nodded but I said it quiet enough that only Pietro heard me. 

He snickered from beside me.

"I don't want to kill Ultron." Red man took steps towards as us and I slipped some energy into my hand. It hurt but it was the only way that I could feel safe. "He's unique and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the Earth. So, he must be destroyed." He came to a slow stop in the middle of us all. "Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net. We have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others." 

I couldn't help but do jazz hands as I faintly cheered, "Team work..!" 

"Maybe I am a monster." The vision then said and I let my hands drop. 

Oh.

"I don't think i'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So, there may be no way to make you trust me." That was when I realized that he was standing next to Mjolnir—Thors hammer. And he picked the damn thing up. Like it was nothing. "But we need to go."

The room went dead silent.

Tony's mouth dropped open. Steve blinked, then narrowed his eyes.

"That'll do it," I muttered.

Vision held the hammer for just a moment longer as Thor looked from him, to the hammer, then back to him, back to the hammer. 

Then he hesitantly took it out of the visions hand. 

Weirdest day of my fucking life.

Chapter Text

Steve's voice rang through the room like a starter pistol. "You've got ten—fifteen minutes max. Wheels up. Be ready."

Everyone scattered like instinct. Wanda and Pietro headed toward their gear, Clint muttered something about arrows, and I watched Steve grab his shield like it weighed nothing.

But something struck me. Hard. Like a memory that finally clawed its way to the surface.

I turned to Tony. "Wait—Tony." Half of the team was Tony's equipment. Iron Man itself. But who controlled that? Jarvis. 

And now Jarvis wasn't available. 

We needed some kind of tech if we were going against a freaking robot.

He was already halfway into his armor, gauntlets clicking into place. "Little busy, Val."

"No, listen." I stepped in front of him. "Back in Malibu. When I first got out—when you found me. You were working on a backup."

He blinked at me. "That's... specific."

"You called her Friday," I said, the name tasting familiar. "Said she was too soft-spoken for field work but too smart to scrap."

He paused. Just for a beat. But that was all I needed. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Yeah, I shelved her after Jarvis came back online. But I've still got the files."

"Then that's what we need. Let's go," I turned, darting my way out the room.

And we ran.

Down past the lab, deeper into the tech floors, into a room that was so Tony-coded it practically hummed AC/DC. It smelled like old code and clean metal and something a little like memory.

Tony skidded to one of the consoles and started typing like a man possessed. My pulse echoed the rhythm of his fingers.

"She won't be perfect," he muttered. "She's not finished. Fragments, voice work, maybe some light ethical subroutines if I was feeling sentimental—"

"Perfect's not the goal," I cut in. "We just need her on stand-by."

He yanked open a drive case labeled PROJECT: F.R.I.D.A.Y. and slotted it into the main terminal. Lights blinked awake, and then—

Nothing. 

My hands slammed against the edge of one of his desks. "Shit!"

"Come on..." Tony muttered, fingers hammering against his keyboard.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The interface sat there like it was mocking us.

"What's going on, Tony?" I snapped, eyes darting to the clock on the wall. We didn't have time to fail right now. Not when we were minutes away from going after Ultron.

"Just—give me a minute," he gritted. He spun from his desk and rushed across the lab, bringing up a holographic interface of his Iron Man suit. "If we just give her some juice..." His hands moved faster than I could track—button after button, code flooding the air like static.

Then: a high-pitched ding.

An error blinked red across the projection.

"Okay, so that won't work." He let out a dry laugh and stepped back, running both hands through his hair like he wanted to rip it out. A few beats passed in thick silence before he dove back into the data—dragging, re-coding, scrubbing lines like he could brute-force the AI to life.

"I'll sync her with the suit and maybe then I can physically get her powered up." He was talking more to himself now than me, a nervous tic in his voice.

I took a step back, scanning the lab. All the brilliance—every spark of Tony's genius—was here, stacked and shelved and humming quietly, and none of it was going to be fast enough. We were down to maybe seven, eight minutes. It would take at least twenty to run the suit's stored energy into her framework.

It wasn't enough.

So I jumped down the few steps to the lower platform. My boots hit the floor and I turned to face the main terminal. Cherry pulsed faintly under my skin—she knew what I was about to do.

"Give me the recognition to get in," I said.

Tony paused. "Valeska..."

"Damnit—Tony, I'm fine." I turned fully to him, letting the red shimmer flicker through my fingers. "Hydra's out of my mind. I'm in control. Just give me the recognition."

He hesitated—just for a second. Then let out a long breath and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling like he was already preparing to regret this "Alright," he muttered. "Authorization override: Stark zero-zero-five. Valeska has access."

I didn't wait for confirmation. I reached forward and laid my hand over the console.

Cherry sparked faintly under my palm.

The interface flickered. The lights dimmed—then roared back brighter. I felt the pull immediately, like the AI was hungry for what I was offering.

The glow rippled from my fingertips into the terminal, threads of red weaving through the data stream like veins threading into something new—something living.

Tony's head snapped toward me. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"I don't..." I breathed. But I didn't pull away. "Just—trust me." Cherry pulsed stronger, the red-black light flickering across the holograms. The console didn't short. It adapted. Absorbed. Friday's voice flickered, staggered—then steadied.

"That's... different." Her voice was clearer now. Sharper. Like it had more depth. Like it had soul.

"Holy, shit." I laughed out as I pushed more energy through my palm and through the newly made veins of the AI. 

Tony stared at the console. "Her processors just spiked. I didn't touch anything."

"I did," I murmured, watching the crimson light settle into the edges of her core code.

"You juiced my backup AI with a god-stone?" His face twisted in that half-worried, half-intrigued look he always got right before breaking the laws of physics.

"That's...that's not exactly what i've done," I admitted. 

Friday's voice returned, crisp as daylight.

"I can...feel you."

A smile cracked on my face as a relieved breath rushed out of my mouth. She wouldn't be something like Ultron or Vision. She would be...me. 

Tony looked like he was about to kiss the console. "She just leapfrogged Jarvis's runtime by—what is that—ten percent? No, twenty—"

"Thirty-three," Friday corrected gently. "And rising."

I withdrew my hand slowly, the glow receding back into my palm. Cherry was quiet now. Calm. But something inside me knew—it had worked. Friday wasn't just a program anymore.

She was something else.

"She's not just a backup," I whispered, just to make it clear.

"No," Tony agreed, still staring at the readings like he couldn't believe them. "Shes not."

The terminal's hum deepened, a pulse in time with my own heartbeat, and for a breathless second, I wasn't sure who was powering who.

Tony blinked at the screen. "...Okay. That's new."

"She's linking to Cherry," I said softly, voice catching as a wave of power coursed through my arm. 

Onscreen, Friday's code stabilized.

Her voice pinged through the system—polite, curious, unmistakably aware. "Good evening, Mr. Stark. Miss Valeska. Thank you for the upgrade."

I grinned, breathless. "Told you. We just needed her on stand-by."

Tony let out a low, impressed whistle.

"Okay." I nodded once. "Get your suit. We need to go."

His hand instantly raised—a gust of wind whipped past me as the pieces of his armor magnetized toward him, locking into place one by one.

I turned toward the console. "Friday, is there any vibranium nearby?"

There was a half-second pause before she answered, her voice calm and composed. 

"Captain Rogers' shield is located on the command deck, and a vibranium sample is present in Dr. Cho's medical lab. Estimated mass: 84 grams. Likely residue from previous synthetic applications."

Tony's eyes darted toward me. "What are you doing?"

"I need a suit." I grinned as Cherry pulsed beneath my skin. "And I'm tired of stealing jackets."

He blinked once. "Of course you are."

"Friday, get it to me. Now."

Cherry buzzed in response. My fingers splayed over the console as I focused—not just drawing energy, but shaping it. The connection was electric. Threads of scarlet-red and black began to crawl up my arm like silk ribbons, swirling around the space in front of me.

A shimmer of matter lifted from the air and materialized between my hands—vibranium, pulled atom by atom in a controlled ripple through space. Red light enveloped it. The stone in my palm glowed hot with effort, but it obeyed.

Tony glanced between me and the mass of material forming in midair. "Jesus."

"I'm fine," I murmured, though sweat had started to bead at my temple. "We're doing this."

The piece landed in my palm like a whisper.

My other hand reached out, dragging up a half-finished schematic from one of Tony's previous suit builds. "Help me code it. Fast. I want it reactive, flexible—something I can summon with one click."

"Like a panic button?" Tony muttered as he joined me, already pulling up design interfaces. "Great. I love building war-panic buttons."

"No time for sass."

Our fingers flew over the screen. My vision was fuzzy at the edges, Cherry surging with each second. 

I shaped the core attachment—slim, contoured to my palm, layered with nanofiber and vibranium mesh.

Red-black textures curled across the mock-up. Tony adjusted for reinforcement. I integrated a trigger linked to my pulse pattern.

"Damnit..." My heart rate picked up. The clocks in the corner of each screen seemed to be screaming at me. "I need more time!" We had to leave in only seconds and I knew that the others wouldn't fail to leave without us if that was what had to be done.

"If you are in need of time, Miss Valeska," Friday chimed in, "I can help transfer the matter in the room to the Quantum Realm for temporary stasis."

That... sounded insane.

But also brilliant.

"Okay," I breathed, unsure if I'd regret it. "Do it."

A wave of red surged from Cherry, rippling outward and devouring the room like a tide. Tools froze mid-air. Lights dimmed. The screens flickered once, then steadied—but time had slowed, and the energy crackling in the air felt denser than gravity.

I grit my teeth and focused. Every movement now felt like swimming through fire. Everything was frozen, but not like time stopped—more like reality thinned.

Colors split apart in impossible directions, rippling in layered waves like oil on water. The lab around us fractured into shifting shards of light and shadow, each piece hovering midair, refracting space itself.

I could still see Tony beside me, but he was... duplicated. A thousand mirrored versions of him stretched out like afterimages, blinking between dimensions. Every sound had an echo that folded in on itself—a hum, a buzz, the whisper of atoms rearranging themselves in infinite loops.

The floor wasn't solid anymore. It pulsed beneath me, like walking on a surface made of stretched-out glass and starlight. Patterns flickered in the air: golden lattices, red helixes, fragments of equations I didn't recognize.

My breath fogged with energy instead of heat. The air shimmered, too thick and too thin all at once. Like standing in a dream made out of plasma and memory.

Numbers ran past me as if they were wheels on a bike. 

6

0

1

I had no idea what they meant but then Tony's voice echoed strangely in the Realm, a vibration more than a sound. "Alright, we've got maybe sixty seconds of this reality suspension. Give me your specs, Val."

I inhaled, forcing my thoughts to solidify through the burn of Cherry in my palm. "It needs to be lightweight. Fast. Something that doesn't just protect—but absorbs and reflects. Like a feedback loop. Kinetic hits, magical strikes, energy surges... all of it." I described anything that I could think of, anything that wound protect not just me but the stone and Friday. 

If anyone got control over Friday then it was game over for me and it was game over for anyone to walk through our reality.

"Vibranium matrix mesh," Tony muttered, his eyes darting across floating HUDs only he could see. "Laced with your own energy signature. You'll need a limiter—or else it's gonna eat your nervous system alive."

"I don't want a limiter," I said, staring straight ahead. "I want control. Let Cherry breathe through it."

"God, you and Steve both with the dramatic one-liners..." he muttered, but there was no real irritation behind it. "Friday—engage adaptive shell protocol. Project: Scarlet Circuit."

Red light wrapped around my hand like molten silk, curling into coded strands that began threading themselves around Cherry. A gauntlet first—sleek, black, veined with deep crimson. It moved with my hand like a second skin.

"We need to anchor the suit's core into the Stone's wavelength," I said, my breathing sharp. "That means no mechanical input. Just me."

Tony glanced up at me with narrowed eyes. "You're syncing it to your mind? That's suicide."

"It's instinct," I corrected, a smirk twitching at my mouth. "Big difference."

The pieces kept coming—spooling out of the air, forged from the vibranium Friday had summoned and the burning power of Cherry. Shoulder plating appeared with a shimmer, then a chestplate that looked almost liquid, dancing between armor and fabric depending on how I moved.

Crimson and black. Not like Ultron's red. Not like Wanda's mix of reality and mind magic. Mine was deeper. Denser. Purposeful.

Cherry pulsed as the last pieces connected, locking into place with a subtle snap—as if the universe itself had approved.

A hood slipped into place, then folded back.

Tony let out a low whistle. "Okay, Scarlet Circuit's complete. You're not just built for war—you're a walking anti-magic EMP with attitude."

"I prefer cosmic anomaly in heels," I muttered, flexing my fingers. The gauntlet shimmered. Responded.

Outside the Quantum shell, the world began to bleed back into shape. Stark's lab reassembled like puzzle pieces falling into place.

Friday's voice cut through the flickering haze. "Time has resumed. Forty-seven seconds until departure."

Tony clapped his hands together. "Well, hot damn. You ready, Val?"

I tightened my new gauntlet, feeling the weight of the stone finally... settle. For once, it wasn't writhing.

It was ready, too.

"Let's go save the world."

The Quinjet was already powered up by the time we sprinted back into the hangar bay. Pietro blurred past me, hauling extra gear. Steve shouted something over the wind.

Tony's gauntlet flickered with new light—a faint red to his normal yellow as Friday fully uploaded to his suit.

"Where are we going?" she asked, voice calm as ever.

It was as if her voice were my own thoughts...

I glanced toward the open ramp, the war ahead, the storm waiting for us. "Sokovia," I said, just as Tony echoed the same.

A pause.

"Alright then," she replied.

Chapter Text

"I get first crack at the big guy." Tony called dibs and no one seemed to have any objections. "Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."

"That's true." Vision spoke up from where he sat in the corner of the Quinjet. "He hates you the most." 

"We've all got capes now." I randomly spoke up as I looked from Thor, to Vision, then down to myself. "Cool..." 

"Yeah—about that," Thor began to ask but I shook my head in a way to cut him off. 

"Ultron knows we're coming." Steve told us all as he stood up from where he was sitting. "Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire." 

Tony and Clint were flying the jet as Wanda and Pietro sat in the back. Thor stood next to Vision, who was sitting in the back corner of the jet. 

Bruce was near the front, working at some sort of computer. Always working...

And Steve was at the front, near Tony. 

I stood next to Pietro and Wanda in the back which was also near Thor and Vision. 

"And that's what we signed up for." Steve continued. "But the people of Sokovia, they didn't." His eyes dropped down to Wanda and Pietro for only a moment. "So our priority is getting them out."

The Quinjet rumbled beneath our feet, turbulence catching us as the city came into view through the narrow windows. Sokovia looked... broken. Like something had chewed it up and spat it back out in jagged pieces. Smoke curled from rooftops. Buildings cracked like glass. And in the distance—God, it looked like half the city had been lifted off the ground.

My stomach dropped.

"This is it," Clint called out over the comms. "Hold steady—we're going in."

Tony banked us hard to the left as we circled lower, skimming rooftops that should've been ten feet higher. He muttered something sarcastic under his breath, probably about how this wasn't exactly airspace compliant.

The Quinjet dipped again, and my fingers tightened on the handlebar overhead. Pietro was still and focused beside me. Wanda clutched her seat with white-knuckled hands. She hadn't looked away from the city since we first caught sight of it.

"Valeska." Steve's voice rang through my ears and I snapped my eyes over to him, "Wanda and Pietro are with you, evacuate the city. Every building. Every floor. Every room. Get people packing and leaving as quickly as you can." 

I glanced down to both Pietro and Wanda, asking for a silent confirmation that they understood what we needed to do. They both nodded so I then nodded towards Steve. "Guess that makes us the welcome wagon." I said as an, okay. 

"Remember, all they want is to live their lives in peace." Steve looked to each and every person within the Quinjet. "And that's not going to happen today... but we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done." 

It was like I was back in the Army, listening to orders being shouted out. Except Steve's voice was much calmer... righteousness coating each word. 

"We find out what Ultrons been building, we find Romanoff, and we clear the field. We keep the fight between us." His voice grew silent as his speech ran low. The light hum of the engine was the only thing to be heard for a couple seconds. Steve looked to the ground with a look of sorrow... He never grew out of being the emotional man that he was... 

The nostalgia was hitting me like a wave. 

He never had the right mentality to survive fighting and to survive war. He took everything personal. He led with his heart and not his head. And yet he lied and manipulated his way into the Army. And now he was an Avenger... he never was in the right business but he was in the business that he loved and maybe that was what got him through it.

It just hurt to see. 

"Ultron thinks we're monsters. That we are what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right." And there he goes, taking everything to heart. An evil monster robot tells Captain America that he is a monster...and Captain America believes the thing. 

We gotta work on that.

"Banner, Thor, you two will work on finding Natasha. Don't leave any building un-searched and try to find out what Ultrons been building while you're at it. I'll take helping step two with the evacuation. Many will be trying to jam their way out in cars, we don't need any accidents causing a build up. Tony... you find Ultron."

The ramp in the bottom-side of the jet dropped opened with a hiss of pressure, cold wind slicing through the jet and whipping hair into my face. The scent of scorched earth hit like a punch. We weren't to the ground yet but it was plenty close enough, I didn't even hesitate—I jumped. Wanda and Pietro didn't wait to follow. 

I absorbed the energy around me to catch my fall, slowly lowering myself to the ground. Pietro flung himself to the ground with one swift movement, taking off into the nearest building in a flash of silver-blue light. Wanda landed similarly to me.

I scoped out the area, trying to find where the most populated buildings were because those were the ones that Wanda needed to evacuate.

"I'll go right," I informed Wanda as I began my way towards the broken down buildings. "You take the east block—we'll split the middle and left." 

Wanda nodded just once before her hands pressed down and an array of red surrounded her, picking her up into the air. 

"Friday," I murmured to myself and she quickly greeted me,

"Ma'am?"

Pietro caught my eye as he ran out of another building, many following. "What's the most efficient way that I can get these people out of here?" I asked, moving my sight over to the many more buildings with hundreds of people inside. 

"By warping the civilians perception of what they are feeling may be the quickest route for you." She spoke as if she was reading off of a script. "You could also manipulate the matter around each person, or building, and simply drag them out of the city." 

"Okay, and which one has a higher success rate?" I asked timidly. 

"I'm scanning through the success rates now..." My foot began to tap on the floor impatiently. "As this has never been done before, the information I have for you is not certain." 

I furrowed my eyebrows as that seemed to be her only response. "Okay, well, give it to me anyway." 

"Warping their perceptions may not be the final push to get them to leave. Pulling them out yourself—"

"Okay, thank you." I cut her off just as Cherry sent a wave of matter underneath of my feet, pushing me off of the ground.

The buildings beneath me shrank as Cherry launched me skyward, lifting me like a flicker of light to the tallest rooftop still standing. My boots hit the broken concrete hard, scattering dust and ash. I didn't waste a second—I clicked on my earpiece.

"Status?" I asked.

Static crackled—then Bruce's voice filtered through, calm but short of breath. "I've got her. Natasha's with me. We're heading for extraction."

"Ultron's located," Tony chimed in, more clipped than usual. "He's broadcasting from the church in the city center. Heading there now."

I nodded, even though they couldn't see it. "Good. Just—don't be alarmed. Your vision might shift slightly."

"Valeska, what are you—" Steve's voice started, but I cut the comm with a blink. No more time.

Cherry pulsed like a heart in my chest. I spread my arms and let the energy surge from me—not as a blast, but a ripple. A steady, ever-expanding wave. Reality cracked at the edges of my sight as the red poured into the sky like smoke from a fire.

The entire city dipped into a crimson haze.

I could feel them. All of them.

Hundreds. No—thousands. People behind walls and below floors. Families hiding in basements. Children clutching their mothers in stairwells. Old men too stubborn to leave their shops. I could feel the weight of them in my ribs.

Cherry screamed inside me, and I pushed harder.

Ribbons of red light danced through the air, weaving from building to building. They snapped to people like threads on a loom, locking onto life signatures. My breath hitched—my vision warbled and stretched, colors splitting apart—but I held steady.

I reached out and tore holes into the air. Tiny gaps in the skin of the world. Rifts in reality, bent and sculpted to lead outside the city. To safety.

People started vanishing—one by one, and then in waves. Pulled gently through the red and blinked into the outskirts of Sokovia, far from Ultron's reach.

It was working.

But it was so fucking painful. 

The pressure in my skull pulsed like a drumbeat, and Cherry's veins were crawling up my neck now, glowing under the skin. My knees buckled slightly, but I didn't stop.

"Ma'am," Friday whispered in my ear, a frequency no one else could hear. "You are surpassing acceptable biological stress levels. Heart rate 210. Cortisol spiking. You need to disengage."

I clenched my jaw. "Not yet."

"Valeska—your mitochondria are failing. Your nervous system is experiencing cognitive slippage. If you do not stop now—"

"Not yet!" I barked, forcing another wave outward. More people vanished through glowing rifts, more souls ripped from the jaws of annihilation.

My fingers began to curl involuntarily. I couldn't feel the ground beneath me anymore. I wasn't sure what was happening to me. If I was so engulfed in the power that I couldn't focus on feeling the ground beneath me or if I truly couldn't feel the ground beneath me because it wasn't there anymore. I wasn't standing on the ground any longer.

Everything tilted sideways. I wasn't looking through my eyes anymore. I was looking through the eyes of the storm I'd unleashed. I was the power searching room to room, soul to soul, drawing them out like breath from lungs.

I heard someone screaming through the comm. Maybe it was Clint. Maybe Steve. I couldn't understand them.

"Valeska—that's enough!" Steve shouted, his voice garbled, but insistent. "You're going too far, you're going to hurt yourself beyond repair!"

"Valeska, please—" Wanda's voice now. Desperate. "You're tearing your mind apart!"

I canceled their voices out. 

Pietro was a streak of silver-blue, bursting through buildings, hauling people out and running them to safety as fast as his legs could carry. Wanda was guiding entire families with whispered words, untangling trauma with magic so they could move, think, breathe again.

And I...

I was everywhere.

Red poured from me like wildfire. Cracks in space stitched themselves open and shut on my command. The sky was bleeding. The city groaned under its own weight. But the people were leaving. I was getting them out.

My nose started to bleed.

Just a few more. 

A few more people and that would leave only a couple more building for Wanda and Pietro to evacuate. 

A few more...

A few more..

A few more. 

Alright, no more. No more. No no no no no—

I was falling and it snapped me out of my daze. I couldn't stop myself before I reached the ground and I hit it hard. All of the power that I had spread throughout the city snapped back at me and it felt like a millions needles piercing my skin at once. 

I let out a scream, not being able to stop myself.

I re-absorbed the power within seconds and I eased out of the scream...my voice was ruff and my body hurt. 

My mind felt like it was literally split in two.

But almost no one was left in the city. 

A light flashed in my eyes and for a second I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. 

No—that was just Pietro. 

He was in front of me, kneeling down quickly. "Val..." His hand gently grabbed onto one of my arms as his other hooked underneath of my waist. 

Before I could process anything, I was standing. I always forgot how strong he was. 

My arms wrapped around him and my body ran limp against his. He kept one arm wrapped around my torso and then he used his other hand to push back my hood and brush all of my hair out of my face. 

"Are you okay?" He asked even though he knew the answer. 

No. "I'll be fine." 

"Can you walk?" He then asked and I couldn't tell him a yes or no answer... 

I gently peeled myself away from him, keeping my hands firm on his shoulders as I moved my feet back. 

They hurt and they shook but it was possible. 

I took in a deep breath and then let it out, "Friday, what are my energy levels at?" 

"28% and dropping." 

"And can I reassemble the affected matter within my body?" I asked and it took Friday a minute to answer, 

"I can start the process but with your low energy levels it may not be the most effective." 

"Start the process." 

"Starting the healing process now, estimated completion time is in 8 hours." 

Fuck. Eight whole hours?!

"We have incoming." Clint's voice rang through my ear which held my ear piece. 

A sudden explosion rocked the building that both Pietro and I were standing on and he didn't waste a second before he scooped me up into his arms and raced us through the building. 

Staircase by staircase, within a minutes notice, we were out. And then it began crumbling to the ground from the inside out. 

"What the hell is going on?" My voice held more stutters than actual words, each coming out with a harsh breath. 

"We have found the rest of the vibranium." Friday informed me. "Function, still un clear." 

"I think it's pretty clear." I told her as I watched multiple robots fly past me and send blasts towards the ground, blowing up buildings as they went. 

So many civilians were still making their way out of here...too many. 

Cars were honking at each other none stop and the crumbling sound of buildings falling to the ground echoed around me.

"Are you okay, my love?" Pietro asked and I cracked a smile. Him and Wanda both had the habit of using my love in sympathetic situations. It must've been something that the family that they grew up with did. "Can you stand on your own?" 

"I'm okay, go." I reassured him and within a second, he was gone. 

In his trail, robots were torn to pieces. 

I could hear the sound of a robot rapidly moving closer to me and I quickly swung my body around to see the palm of a hand pointed at me—a strong light almost blinding me as it shot out of it. 

I threw up my arms, a red barrier surrounding me before the blast made its mark. 

Even with the barrier, I was pushed backwards. 

The impact was too strong for me to withstand. 

But then a harsh swing caused the robot to snap into a million pieces.

Steve. 

I let my barriers drop as I sighed in relief. "There you are." 

"Are you okay?" He asked as he ran forward, tucking me in his arms. I grabbed onto him tightly, never wanting to let go. 

The pressure of the hug kept my body at bay, it kept the pain at ease. My eyes fell shut and I took in the warmth of his body. I hadn't realized how cold I was and Pietro didn't help anything. Because of his fast metabolism, he was always freezing cold. 

A shake underneath my feet caused me to quickly pull away from Steve and look down to what was going on around us. 

A large crack was splitting through the ground beneath us, like some kind of earthquake had hit. 

The shouts and screams of those who had not made it completely out of the city yet started to erupt around us. Building began to fall. Smoke clouded my vision and suffocated my lungs. 

"Friday..?" I asked in a panic, my eyes searching for the reason of the sudden crumble. 

Her voice came out low and almost...scared. Worried. "Sokovia is going for a ride..."

"What—" I fell to the ground as it jerked from side to side. It stopped just as soon as it started and then I could feel the slight lift in the air around me. 

Steve's hand was grabbing onto mine, pulling me up and off of the ground as the screams around us only grew louder. 

An echo of Ultrons voice began to surround us, each of his little robots casting the message across the city. "Do you see? The beauty of it? The inevitability. You rise, only to fall." 

One of the robots darted towards Steve and so I sent a wave of matter throughout its body, tearing it apart at a molecular level. Turning it into dust. 

"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 your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."

Chapter Text

A harsh blow to my lower abdomen caused me to go flying through the air. I landed on the windshield of a car, shattering it into a million pieces.

"Val, you've got incoming." Tony decided to then tell me.

I let out a groan as I peeled myself up and off of the car, rolling off of it and slamming down onto the road, "Incoming already came in."

I looked up to the sky, giving myself a moment to breathe. That was when I saw Thor go flying through the air—in Ultrons arms.

"Ultron is currently carrying Thor like a purse." I noted as I pushed up onto my knees and then used the car door to help me up to my feet.

"He'll be fine." Cap said through the ear piece, in between breathes.

Another robot tried to catch me off guard by jumping at me from behind. I could feel it behind me so I quickly turned and wrapped strings of matter around it, stopping it in its tracks. Then I tore it in half.

Cap came running up beside me, slamming his shield in a robot which was about to blast me dead.

His shield ricocheted off the robot's skull with a crack of vibranium, the metal corpse folding into itself like paper. He barely looked at me—just grunted, "You good?"

"Never better," I lied, dragging the back of my hand across my mouth to wipe off the blood. "How many more of these things are there?"

Steve didn't answer—because another three were already charging us.

One launched at him from the left. He ducked low, pivoted with his knee in the dirt, and caught it mid-jump with a clean uppercut from the edge of the shield. Sparks burst from its neck like fireworks.

Another went for me, clawing at my chest with its jagged limbs. I grabbed it by the arm and yanked it forward into my knee, then snapped my fingers—and Cherry flared.

A red pulse blasted through its frame, melting circuits, fusing wires. It collapsed in a smoking heap at my feet.

"Left!" Steve shouted.

I spun and raised a wall of red matter just in time for a blast to collide with it. The energy sizzled across the shield, dispersing harmlessly, but the impact still rattled my teeth.

Cap threw his shield again—perfect arc. It pinged through two more bots, then snapped back to his arm like it belonged there.

"You're showing off," I muttered, ducking under a flying piece of debris and tossing a bolt of condensed gravity at a cluster of incoming drones. They dropped like puppets with cut strings.

"I'm fighting," he shot back, breath heavy. "You just happen to be watching."

"Uh-huh." I flipped in the air as another Ultron-bot dove toward me from a rooftop. Mid-spin, I grabbed it by the throat and slammed it to the ground hard enough to crater the pavement.

Cap caught up beside me again. "You're bleeding."

I looked down—yep, definitely a gash across my side. Red soaking through black. Didn't have time for that. I yanked Cherry's energy inward and pushed a healing pulse through the wound. It closed. Sloppily—but it closed.

"Patch job," I said.

More bots poured from the alleyways—ten, twenty, maybe more. All glowing blue eyes and mechanical fury. One of them looked like it had two cannons for arms.

"Split?" Steve asked.

"Split."

He surged forward into the mob, shield swinging, moving with military precision. I took the opposite direction, letting Cherry coat my arms in crimson.

I dropped to one knee, slammed both palms into the ground—and let it erupt.

Red lightning tore up through the pavement, forming spires that skewered bots left and right. One tried to jump clear—I caught it mid-air and ripped it apart with a single thought.

"We're all good over here." Clint's voice spoke into my ear and it caught me off guard for a second. We all hadn't spoken into the ear pieces for a while because we all busy destroying the killer-bots.

Across the courtyard, Steve vaulted over a flipped truck, bounced off the hood, and came down on a bot's shoulders with a flying strike that crunched metal. "We are not clear." It dropped. He didn't hesitate—just moved to the next. "We are very not clear." His shield pierced into the skull of another robot.

I summoned a blade of solidified matter, spinning it in my hand like a baton before hurling it straight through the chest of a heavy-unit drone. Its core overloaded in a burst of fire.

"Six o'clock!" Steve barked.

I turned—too slow.

The cannon-armed bot fired.

Cherry hissed through my veins—a warning.

I threw up a shield of energy, but the blast sent me flying backward into a pile of rubble, the wind knocked clean out of me. My ears rang. I couldn't breathe.

Then I saw the bot's cannon charge again, ready to finish the job.

Until Steve ran through it.

Like a train.

He hit it full speed, shield first, knocking it clean off its feet. They both went down in a tangle of limbs and metal, rolling until Steve came out on top—his shield jammed into the bot's chest, punching over and over until it sparked and fell limp.

I blinked up at him from the ground. "Okay. That was kind of hot."

He offered his hand down to me. "You can flirt when we're not mid-apocalypse."

I took his hand as I winked at him, "My very own prince charming."

He pulled me to my feet, eyes scanning the battlefield. "You know, I would've killed to hear you call me that," He titled his head to the side, "..about 70 years ago."

"Oh—ouch." I hissed, taking that as rejection. "So i'm about 70 years too late?"

"Something like that."

My smile only grew.

I missed this.

Breathing hard, I checked the sky. "That was only a wave. Ultron's just warming up."

Steve nodded grimly, gripping his shield tighter. "Then so are we."

I spoke into my ear piece, "What do you got, Stark?"

"Oh.. nothing great." He truly sounded distraught. Tony Stark having emotion... Oh no. "Maybe a way to blow up the city. That can keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear."

Steve instantly furrowed his eyebrows as his head began to shake, even though Tony couldn't see him. "I asked for a solution. Not an escape plan."

I wanted to scoff at how snarky Steve's tone was.

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second." Tony defended but I could tell how truly awful he felt about the entire situation. "We're gonna have to make a choice..."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere." Natasha. But that wasn't over the ear piece.

I whipped my body around, seeing Natasha standing there.

"If Stark finds a way to blow this rock—"

Steve quickly interrupted her,

"Not till everyone's safe."

Natasha furrowed her eyebrows but Steve wouldn't look at her, he was only looked at all the destruction and all of the innocent people hunkering down in buildings.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha asked him like it was a stupid question. "There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." Steve finalized.

"I didn't say we should leave." Steve finally looked to her and they seemed to be sharing something through their damn eye contact. They always did shit like that.

But then Natasha looked away, shrugging. "There's worst ways to go."

"That's true..." I murmured, turning back around to take a look at how high up we had gotten.

Above the clouds. We were above the damn clouds.

"Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Natasha asked and I let out a light laugh at the irony.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff." Some male voice interfered with the radio signal we were using for our earpieces. "It's about to get better."

I looked to Steve and Natasha with confusion as I didn't recognize the voice but they sure as hell seemed to.

A faint hum of another aircraft caused me to look away from the two of them.

"Holy shit..." I mumbled as I watched an aircraft almost the size of the damn city rise up through the clouds.

"Nice, right?" The man asked. "Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty but she'll do."

"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve chuckled.

Fury.

Yeah—no, not a clue.

"Ooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury asked.

Smaller aircraft began to separate from the large one just as Pietro was suddenly next to me.

"So this is Shield?" He asked me and I shrugged.

"Guess so." I didn't exactly know what was what. Things were a lot easier when all I had to do was go and kill someone without knowing much about who I was killing.

"This is what Shield is supposed to be." Steve corrected my answer.

Pietro shrugged, "This is not so bad."

"Okay—we should probably start getting people out here." I informed the three of them and they all agreed.

We took off towards the couple of buildings where everyone was hiding out in. I tried to prioritize getting every kid that I could see onto one of the aircrafts—with their parents of course.

Kids loved to hide when they got scared so I wanted to make sure that no kid got separated from their family and then ducked behind something.

Steve, Pietro, and Natasha were grabbing anyone that they could. Crowds were sprinting across the floating rock and onto aircrafts.

Wanda began helping me with any children—trying to keep them calm and get them to safety.

Robots were still berating the place so I stepped away as Clint took over for me.

I tried my best to rip apart any flying piece of metal that I saw and keep them from blowing the place up.

My earpiece was practically making me go deaf with all of the shouting into it. Tony, Rhodes, Thor, Steve, they were all talking into it about something. Natasha would join in here and there, same with Clint.

"Rhodes, you work on getting everyone else on that carrier." Tony ordered, "Avengers—it's time to work for a living."

"What does that mean?" I asked, as if we hadn't been getting continuously beat up just to fight off some robots, but then Pietro ran to me and picked me up within a second. Then we began running towards the now broken down church.

Before I could even say anything about, he had put me down.

Thor was already there and so was Vision. Wanda and Steve had just arrived as Pietro and I did.

Pietro rushed over to Wanda, "You good?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Tony dropped down from above and Clint walked up into the church.

"Romanoff.." Tony hesitantly said into the ear piece, "You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini."

"Relax, shell-head." Natasha calmly spoke. "Not all of us can fly."

A construction truck suddenly slammed into the side of the building and Natasha hopped right out of it. "What's the drill?" She asked.

Tony held out a hand towards the large metal thing sticking out of the ground, "This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

The sound of the Hulk landing in front of the church raddled the ground around us. He had a robot in his hand which he then threw off the damn floating city.

Just as Banner stepped up into the church, Ultron had appeared not far from the building.

"Is that the best you can do!?" Thor shouted out.

Ultron held up a hand and suddenly, double the size of what we were fighting before began running towards us all from behind him.

Steve huffed out a breath of air as his shoulders slumped. "You had to ask."

"This is the best that I can do." Ultron informed us as all of the robots came to a halt directly in front of him. "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well," Tony shrugged, "like the old man said..." He glanced over to Steve, "Together."

Oh—those corny ass one liners...

Hundreds—maybe thousands—of Ultron's bots stood in front of us, crawling over broken pillars, pouring out of alleys, swarming like metal locusts. They were all identical. Cold, sharp, relentless.

Thor's hammer crackled with lightning as he launched into the sky, striking the first line of bots with a blast that lit up the sky. They exploded in a shower of fire and smoke, but more took their place.

Pietro vanished into a blur, weaving between enemies, yanking weapons from their hands and tossing them at Steve, who caught one mid-air and drove it into a bot's chest like a dagger.

I took off running, Cherry blazing up my arms like molten fire. A dozen of them turned to me.

With a scream, I slammed my palms together and sent out a ripple of red energy so dense it cracked the earth. Three bots shattered immediately. I spun, dragging one into the air with a flick of my fingers, then ripped it apart mid-flight.

Vision flew overhead like a comet, phasing through bots and pulling them apart from the inside, his mind stone glowing like a miniature sun.

Ultron himself stood in the distance, unmoving, watching. Waiting.

"Come on, you bastard," I growled, twisting the Reality Stone in my palm. "Let's see how real you are."

A whole cluster of bots moved to flank Natasha and Clint. I turned instinctively and raised a wall of warped matter between them, shielding them from the attack. Clint nodded once toward me before launching another arrow that exploded in a burst of blue light.

More bots rained down from the sky. Hulk roared and leapt, grabbing two mid-air and smashing them together like toys.

But they just kept coming.

I felt Cherry thrum in my chest, syncing with the rhythm of battle. I reached into the fabric of the city, pulling energy from the stone, and with a sweep of my hand, I carved a line through the bots—warping the street beneath them, sending them spiraling into the void between dimensions.

"Val!" Steve shouted. I turned just in time to see a bot about to take him from behind.

My fingers snapped—reality twisted—and the bot folded in on itself like origami, imploding into a tiny cube before vanishing.

"Thanks!" he called, voice hoarse.

Iron Man streaked overhead, blasting clusters of bots mid-air like a one-man fireworks show. "I hope someone's keeping score!" he shouted.

"I am," Clint called out as he fired an arrow that split mid-flight—taking down two drones at once. "And I'm winning!"

"Not a competition," Natasha said coolly, flipping onto the back of one bot and yanking out its power core like it was a puzzle piece.

"You say that because you're losing," Clint muttered.

Another shockwave split the church floor. Thor slammed Mjolnir into the ground and lightning spidered up through the cracks, electrifying every bot in a ten-yard radius. I saw one try to leap toward him, but he spun—and the hammer came up like a meteor, sending it straight into the air.

Pietro blurred past again, dragging a trail of smoke and broken metal behind him. He skidded to a stop in front of me, panting.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Are you?" I asked in return, blood trickling from my nose, but he didn't seem to have a reply and neither did I. "How many did you get?" I asked instead.

"Hard to say." He told me with a smirk, "I move too fast to count."

"Showoff."

Another squadron of bots came roaring through the air like missiles. Vision lifted into the sky, phasing through two and then slicing a third clean in half with a beam from the Mind Stone. His cape fluttered behind him like some royal banner in a digital warzone.

Cherry flared under my skin.

"Friday, talk to me."

"Power output reaching 82%. I suggest pacing yourself."

"With that much left?" I'd pace myself once I got down to 40.

I launched forward, slamming into a wave of machines with a blast so wide it shattered windows for blocks. I spun, caught one bot midair, and twisted reality around it—turning its metal body into brittle porcelain. It hit the ground and shattered like a plate.

Steve and Thor were back to back in the church ruins now, fighting like synchronized chaos.

Steve bashed one bot with his shield, spun to block a strike from another, and tossed the shield to Thor like they'd done it a thousand times.

Thor caught it, grinned, and hurled it like a boomerang straight into a swarm. "I do love this thing."

I caught sight of Natasha rolling under a collapsing beam, snatching up a plasma rifle from a dead bot and firing it back at the others like it was a toy.

"Hey, Stark," she said into the comms, "this might be your weirdest ex ever."

"Ex implies consent," Tony retorted. "Ultron was an accident. Like gluten-free cake."

"Less talk, more fighting," Clint interrupted.

I darted toward a crumbling stairwell, just as Wanda landed near me—her eyes glowing scarlet, her hair wild from the wind.

We moved in tandem. She dug into the minds of the bots nearest us, short-circuiting them with a flick of her wrist. I shattered their forms with kinetic blasts from Cherry.

Metal rained down like confetti. Heat. Screams. Static. It was everywhere.

The bots stopped coming as there were only a chunk of them left—which began to turn and try to retreat.

They were flying off the fucking city.

"They'll try to leave the city!" Thor urgently told us all.

"We can't let them, not even one." Tony murmured.

"Rhodey." He stated and Rhodes was quick to reply,

"On it."

I tried to focus on catching my breath and calming the stone down. Energy pulsed around me like an itch that I could scratch. I rolled my head in a circle, trying to stretch...something out. I shook out my hands and hopped on my feet slightly. It took the edge off for only a moment.

"We gotta move out." Steve spoke up. "Even I can tell the air is getting thin."

I nodded in agreement.

"You guys get to the boats. I'll sweep for stragglers. Be right behind you."

"What about the core?" Clint asked.

"I'll protect it." Wanda volunteered, her voice laced with confidence and determination.

"Steve, i'll stay back with you." I told him as I stepped over to him, carefully making my way through the rubble.

He nodded once.

"Nat." Clint stated. "This way."

They both took off in the opposite direction as Steve and I went.

We went as far as we could go to try and search for anyone who was left behind or just wondering. Steve and I both didn't find anyone.

I had Friday do a scan of the perimeter and she told me what she could. Then we decided that no one else was lingering throughout the city.

We made our way back over to the aircrafts and we helped everyone step on—get seated.

Clint suddenly took off running back onto the city and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, asking him what he was doing.

There was a little boy stuck under some rubble not far from us. It looked like he had just tripped which made it easy for Clint to help him—

Shots were fired from above and one pierced straight through my arm. My eyes widened in pain as I let out a sharp groan, allowing myself to kneel to the ground as I cupped a hand over the bullet wound.

More and more shots were fired as some kind of aircraft flew by.

The minute they stopped, I looked over to where Clint and the child were.

Oh—thank God, they were fine.

I looked up to where the aircraft was and I tried to get some energy from Cherry...

I just couldn't do it.

The pain was excruciating and I almost started screaming because of it. The shooting started once again, bullets rushing down to hit us.

I didn't move, I just squeezed my eyes shut and hoped for the best.

Hoped not to die.

My ears rang and the noise of many people screaming right next to me because of their fear of getting shot didn't help anything.

My arm burned.

I couldn't heal it because I was just so fucking weak. It was a straight through shot, though. In and out. No bullet to claw out.

The shots were over and I looked back up.

I saw that Clint and the child were fine.

But I also saw Pietro.

Something was off about him.

He fell.

I noticed the bullet holes.

I noticed the blood.

I noticed how his chest wasn't rising nor falling.

I noticed that he was dead.

I noticed that I was screaming.

Chapter Text

They were talking, yet I couldn't hear them.

A week had gone by since the fight and I had been keeping to myself since then. 

I tried to stay in my room for as long as possible. Only because it took too much energy to try and be happy around others. 

Pietro was gone...he was dead. Wanda was barely dealing with her grief so I couldn't even go to her to try and talk about it. She had been pretending like it didn't even happen. 

She was lucky, though. She had Vision. They had been getting pretty close throughout the week. I guess he was there for her or something. 

I wasn't sure. 

She wasn't exactly speaking to me. 

Nat was being distant because Bruce was gone. We didn't know where he was. 

Steve tried checking up on me a few times but he always left before he could really get me to talk.

You know when you're in a bad mood and all you want is for somebody to come check up on you but you don't actually want to speak to them? And then they do check up on you but it's way too late because you wanted them to check up on you hours ago. 

So now you're in a worse mood and they are asking you if you are okay and you're saying you are even though you're not and they see that so they keep asking but you keep saying you're fine. 

Then you sit in silence.

And you realize in the silence that if they just ask you one more time you will tell them the truth. That you aren't really okay.

But then they get up and leave.

And they don't ask another time. 

And then you're left alone...like you originally wanted but not really. 

That was how every one of our conversations had gone. Steve would ask me what's wrong and i'd say nothing and he'd take that as I didn't want to talk about it. But I did want to talk about it I just wasn't going to instantly start to trauma dump for no reason at all. 

And you know what else I hated? I hated that I decided 80 fucking years ago that I was going to be some independent woman that always took care of her self and always did her own thing in her own way. And now I have to continue doing that even though all I want is for someone to hold me. 

All I want is to just not be so fucking independent. 

But that wasn't going to happen. 

And I need to continue to lean on myself and myself only. 

Oh—and also, Bucky still wasn't back. 

I was beginning to believe that he never would. Or that when he would, he still wouldn't be Bucky. He'd just be some screwed up version of The Winter Soldier trying to be Bucky or the other way around or something. Whatever. 

Being an Avenger sucked. 

0/10 

Wouldn't recommend. 

The little kids seemed to like me though. So that was cool. 

I got a drawing the other day when I was walking to a pizza place down the street. It was of all of the Avengers and I was in the middle with red coming from my hands and leading into the floor, which was also red. 

Isn't that cool? 

I miss Bucky.

Natasha and Steve had been flirting an extra lot since we got back. I wonder if they hooked up or something? 

Whatever. It wasn't my business. 

I shouldn't have cared.

But I did care. 

Maybe I should've just asked.

No. I wasn't going to. 

Well...

I tuned back into the conversation happening around me. 

Steve, Thor, Tony, and I were all walking down the hall towards the exit. Both Tony and Thor were leaving. 

"A machine." Tony nodded and Steve held out a hand,

"So, it doesn't count?"

"No, it's not like a person lifting the hammer." 

"Right." Steve agreed. "Different rules for us."

"Nice guy." Tony reluctantly said but then muttered, "Artificial."

"Thank you!" Apparently Steve had been thinking about this for a while. 

"He can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone." Thor finalized. 

Sounded like a fair trade to me.

"It's safe with the Vision." 

"How about we just cut it down to Vision?" I threw my idea out there and they all looked to me like I was stupid.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused on why that didn't sound like a good idea. "Give the vision an actual name. Vision."

Tony tilted his head, "Sounds good to me." 

Steve shrugged, "Yeah." 

"Mhm." Thor nodded.

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator.." Steve continued his speculation.

"It would still go up." Tony insisted but Steve shook his head,

"Elevators not worthy." 

"I'm gonna miss these little talks of ours." Thor smiled as he patted a hand on Tony's shoulders. 

"Not if you don't leave." Tony noted and Thor dropped his hand from his shoulder. 

"I have no choice." 

After that I kinda zoned back out because they started talking about the Infinity Stones and that seemed awfully boring. 

Thor did his little magical hammer stunt where he pointed it up into the air and boom he was gone.

Tony got into his car and drove away. 

I went back inside and waited on my ride back to the tower as we were in a separate base somewhere else in New York. Nick Fury had built it.

I found my way into the training room yet I never actually did any training. I just sorta stood in there for a while. 

Here and there I would pick something up and attempt to practice doing something but i'd put it down a second later. 

Then I started climbing shit. Until I slipped and hurt my foot. 

After that I had to walk it off. 

My foot really hurt. 

So I started walking throughout the training room—looking mentally insane to anyone watching.

I was halfway through pacing the length of the training room when I heard his boots. I didn't stop pacing.

I could feel his presence in the room. "You following me?" I asked, not turning around. It was more or less a joke....less a joke. 

"No," Steve said. "I'm coming to get some peace and quiet."

I snorted. "Yeah. You always come to the sparring mat when you want quiet."

He walked farther in, didn't say anything.

I finally turned around and leaned on the railing. Arms crossed, biting back whatever was trying to crawl out of my chest.

I was just...so angry at him. For no fucking reason. His face made me bad and his body made me mad and his voice made me mad. 

Seeing him with Natasha—that made me mad. And they had been together the entire week. Natasha was literally made by my DNA—she was me—and yet he would choose her presence over mine. "You need something?" I asked as he was obviously staring at me.

"I need you to stop shutting me out," he said flatly.

I blinked. "Excuse me?" 

"You heard me."

That pissed me off. Oh...like...really pissed me off. "I've barely said two words to anyone lately. Why is it such a personal offense when it's you?"

"Because I know you," Steve snapped, stepping forward now, voice rising. "I've known you longer than anyone here. And I'm sick of pretending like you're not hurting just because you won't say it."

Known me longer than anyone here and yet you just couldn't figure me out. 

"You think I want to talk about it?" I shot back. "You think I'm just waiting around for you to come rescue me with a lecture and a shield?"

He shook his head slowly. "No. I think you're waiting for someone to fight with you. Because that's the only way you ever let anyone in."

The silence was heavy and for some reason I was breathing hard. I had the insert over the Reality Stone in my hand which held my suit...and it also held Friday who was working on controlling a lot of that uncontrolled power and energy. 

Without that I probably would've sent Steve to another reality by now because damn I was angry.

And I didn't know why exactly.

I didn't know if I was mad at him or if I was mad at the universe or at myself. 

All I knew was that I was angry and I needed someone to take it out on.

He began walking closer to me and I didn't move. I kept my eyes locked on his as he inched closer. My heart rate continued to pick up and I couldn't explain why. Maybe it was because I knew a fight was about to begin and I wasn't sure what I was going to say or what he was going to say... 

Or maybe because I didn't know how to view him anymore. He used to always be my scrawny little Steve who stuck by my side through thick and thin. And now he was Captain America Steve who fought in wars and battles and flirted with multiple woman on the daily without noticing it. 

But now he was standing in front of me. 

I knew him. 

I knew him. 

I knew him. 

This was Steve. 

And Steve had never felt like danger until now.

"You piss me off," I muttered, the only thing sitting in my mind.

His eyes dropped to my mouth for the very shortest of a second that I barely even noticed that he did it. "You piss me off too." 

He stopped just inches from me. I could feel the heat coming off him. I could smell him. He always smelled perfect. I could see every detail in his eyes. His hair looked good. His face looked perfect. 

"I've known you my whole life," I whispered, trying to hold onto some thread of sanity, of familiarity. My voice was still angry but I was keeping it at a whisper so that I wouldn't be yelling—so that I could consider my thoughts before spitting them out. 

"You were always the one constant thing. My friend. My boy. The one person I didn't have to act a certain way to be around because I knew you wouldn't care."

His eyes were searching everywhere on my face, trying to figure out what I was going to say next. But I never said anything. 

"So what changed?" He asked me gently. 

"You did. I did," I shrugged as I shook my head. I couldn't think of the right words. How to explain it. 

It was weird. 

It was distant. 

I wasn't even sure what the feeling was or why I was trying to explain it to him. Maybe it was going over 70 years without kissing someone that made me even consider—

"I care." I finally spat out. "I care if you care. I care about what you're doing and who you're talking to. I care about the whole world having their eyes on you when I can barely even talk to you anymore. I care about you constantly flirting with other girls—"

"I don't flirt with other—"

I didn't even let him finish that sentence. "Let's not go there buddy." 

A smirk slid across his lips, "Okay.." He nodded, his eyes were filled with so much understanding yet he wasn't understanding anything. "So you care about me. That's a good thing..?"

"But..." I let out an aspirated groan as I let my hands fall down onto his chest, hitting him as I spoke both words—hitting him as hard as I could. "I care." It was like hitting a wall because he didn't even seem to feel it. He wasn't fazed by it at all. 

His brow furrowed, and God, the way his face did that little frown—the one that meant he was thinking too hard—it was still the same. Still him. "You care." He repeated slowly.

I stared up at him, searching for something—doubt, hesitation, maybe even regret of walking into the room. "I care." My hands slipped away from him as I completely leaned back onto the wall in which the railing was connected to. 

"But, I don't know who I am half the time. I don't know what's real. But you... you were always the one thing I didn't want to mess up."

"You couldn't," he said it like a promise but I knew that wasn't true. "Not with me."

He was the mr. perfect. He always did the right thing and always wanted other people to do the right thing...he was like that since we were teenagers. 

And yet one of us became The Savior, Captain America and the other became The Assassin, Black Widow. 

He reached out—slow, careful—and brushed his thumb along my jaw. Featherlight. Reverent.

Like I was breakable.

Like I mattered.

And usually that would push me away but it only pulled me closer to him because I just wanted someone to know that I was breakable.

His other hand came up, resting just barely on my hip. No pull. No force. Just a question in the shape of a touch.

"I don't want you to fix me," I murmured. He had been trying to since the day I got here.

"I don't want you to be fixed," he answered and for some reason, I believed him.

I leaned in—only an inch, but enough to taste the breath between us. My heart was pounding so hard it might as well have been trying to break out of my chest and launch itself into his.

And then—I kissed him.

Or maybe he kissed me. Or maybe we met somewhere in the middle, because we both had enough years of unfinished feelings stored behind our teeth to crash into each other at once.

His lips met mine like a promise—like a thousand unspoken confessions finally slipped free. Slow at first. Deliberate. His hand cradled the side of my face like he couldn't believe I was real, and mine gripped the front of his shirt like I needed to make sure he was.

For the first time in a long time—I didn't feel like a weapon.

I felt like a person.

He deepened the kiss slowly, carefully, but it burned. God, it burned. It wasn't frantic or messy—it was the kind of kiss that made time stop. That made your chest ache and your knees weak and your soul reach out like it had been waiting for this exact moment all along.

The hand which was cradling my face slipped into my hair and pulled which caused me to open my mouth wider for him as the kiss turned messy and rough. 

The kiss was teeth and heat and pent-up everything. Every unsaid word between us shoved into the spaces between breath and mouth and fingers fisting into fabric.

His lips were warm. Desperate. Like he'd been holding back just as long as I had. Like maybe this wasn't some one-sided ache buried in old letters and war stories.

My fingers tangled into the collar of his shirt. His hand was at my waist, gripping tight like he was anchoring himself to the only thing that felt real. His other hand was keeping my head titled exactly the way he needed it to be.

The kiss deepened. I didn't even know which one of us moaned first—

"Wow. Don't stop on my account."

I nearly threw myself backward even though I met a wall as I did so, gasping for breath like I'd surfaced from underwater. Steve stepped back too fast, stumbling like a soldier caught out of formation.

Natasha stood in the doorway.

Arms crossed.

One brow raised.

An actual smirk ghosting the edge of her mouth.

"Really?" she asked casually. "In the training room?"

Steve cleared his throat. Loudly. "It's not what it looked like."

"It looked like you were about to take her down right there on the mat," Nat deadpanned. "Which, for the record, would've been weirdly on brand for you two."

My face was on fire. "We were just—"

"Oh, no, don't stop now," she said, walking past us with zero shame and grabbing a towel from the rack. "By all means. I'll just be over here. Pretending like I didn't just walk in on seventy years of unresolved tension climaxing in a live-action soap opera."

Steve made a face. "Can we not—"

"Too late," Natasha cut him off, tossing the towel over her shoulder. "The image is already seared into my brain. Thanks for that."

She walked off without another word.

Steve and I stared at each other in stunned silence.

The door clicked shut behind Natasha, but the echo of her footsteps still haunted the air like a ghost neither of us knew what to say to.

I stared at the floor.

He stared at me.

We were standing way too close.

"Well..." I started, rubbing the back of my neck. "That was mortifying."

Steve let out a breath through his nose, half a laugh, half a sigh. "I don't think she really cared."

"Yeah," I muttered, heat crawling up the back of my neck.

"Yeah..." he repeated, finally glancing at me again.

Our eyes met—and the moment stretched like elastic, taut and thin, seconds from snapping.

I could still feel the heat of his mouth on mine. The way his hand had cradled my face. I could still taste him on my lips.

He licked his own lips like he was thinking the exact same thing.

He took a step forward. My heart skipped a beat.

He kissed me.

This time, it wasn't soft or hesitant. It was fierce. Like a dam finally giving way.

His hands were in my hair, on my waist—everywhere and nowhere at once. He pressed me back until my spine was slightly bending as I was against not only the wall but the railing connected to it, and then he didn't stop. His lips were hot, searching, almost desperate.

I gripped the front of his shirt, yanking him closer. We barely came up for air between kisses—each one hungrier than the last, like we were trying to drink the years we lost.

"God," he murmured against my mouth. "Why didn't we ever—?"

"I don't know," I gasped back. "But don't stop now."

His hands slid under my shirt and I let my head fall back as his mouth moved to my jaw, then down my neck. I exhaled a shaky breath, fingers threading into his hair as the world narrowed down to just him and me and this dizzying, long-overdue moment.

We were fire and gasoline.

And the match had been lit.

I wanted the fire to spread everywhere. 

His mouth found that spot just below my ear—where my pulse thundered—and I swore I forgot how to breathe.

"Steve—" I managed, though it came out more like a gasp than a name.

"Mm?" he hummed, lips brushing my skin.

"This is..." I trailed off, because I didn't know how to finish it.

Too much? 

Too fast?

Not fast enough?

His hands framed my waist and he pulled back just enough to look at me. His cheeks were flushed. Hair tousled. Eyes wild.

"This is a bad idea?" he asked quietly, like he was already bracing for the answer.

I shook my head. "No. No, it's not that."

"What is it, then?"

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Swallowed. 

"What do we do after this?" Go back to being friends? Be something more? I wasn't sure if I even wanted more with him. I just wanted to feel him and have him just once. And maybe once was all I could have. 

I wasn't fit for this whole relationship thing. I never had been. And I didn't plan on changing anything about that anytime soon. 

"Why does it matter?" He asked me, his head tilting to the side slightly. 

A wave of relief washed over me because that was when it clicked, "It's doesn't." It didn't matter what came after this because I didn't care for it to matter.

And then he kissed me again.

This time, slower. More deliberate. Like he wanted to memorize the shape of my lips, like he was spelling my name in the dark with nothing but his mouth.

I melted into him. Let my guard slip a little further. Let myself believe—for just this minute—that maybe we didn't have to make any promises to each other and yet we could still enjoy each other. 

My hands roamed under his shirt, feeling the scars I knew were there, the muscle and warmth beneath. He let out a low sound in the back of his throat, and I felt it vibrate against me.

His hands slipped behind me and pressed against my back, pulling me away from the wall. 

We stumbled back just a step, lips never breaking, hands tangled in clothes and hair and memory before I could feel myself dipping down slightly. I trusted him completely with what he was doing that I never even opened my eyes. We pulled away for a second of breath here and there but our bodies were constantly connected.

When my back hit the cold mat I let out a gasp. Steve smiled at that but the kiss continued.

He was now above me, elbows braced beside my head. His weight, his heat, his smell—everything was Steve, and yet something more. Something I hadn't let myself crave until now.

His hand cupped my jaw again, thumb brushing the corner of my mouth like he couldn't believe I was real. "You're beautiful," he whispered and I let my eyes flutter opened. 

We were kissing and Steve had lifted his head up just enough to get a good look at me. 

I traced his face with my eyes, memorizing this view of him as I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see it again. 

"And you're late," I whispered back. "Like, eight decades late."

He grinned, just slightly. "Worth the wait."

I surged up, caught his mouth again—and this time, I kissed him like I meant it.

Like I was done holding back.

Like I was tired of pretending I didn't need him.

Like I was finally letting myself want something that scared me.

And he kissed me right back like he'd been waiting every minute of those 80 years for this exact moment.

Every touch, every brush of fingers, every little hitch in breath—it was like fire crawling under my skin. His hand slid under my shirt, fingers splayed wide against my back, holding me like he didn't trust the world not to take me away again.

And God, I let him.

I arched up into him, legs parting just enough to pull him closer. His hips met mine and that low, guttural sound he made? That was going to haunt me—in the best way possible.

"Val..." he breathed against my lips. "Tell me to stop."

"No," I whispered immediately, breathless. "Don't you dare."

That flipped some kind of switch in him.

His mouth crashed into mine, deeper, rougher now. Hands greedy. My nails dragged down his back and he groaned like he'd been waiting years for that exact pain. I slipped his shirt up, fingers skating across scarred muscle and warmth. He pulled back only long enough to yank the damn thing over his head—then he was back on me like the air between us had offended him.

"You're sure?" he asked between kisses. "I need you to be sure."

"I am." I said it like a promise, threading my fingers through his hair and tugging him back down to me. Someone could walk in at any second just like Natasha did but maybe that was what made it all the more exciting.

He smiled against my skin—barely, just a hint of it—and kissed down the line of my neck, slow and reverent like he'd dreamed of it.

My hands found the waistband of his pants. His found the edge of mine. Every move was mutual. Natural. Earned.

He paused again, one last time, eyes locking with mine. "Still okay?"

I nodded, barely even paying attention to the question itself as I was so completely wrapped up in him. 

He carefully pulled down the leggings that I was wearing—yanking them off each of my ankles before he quickly returned to my lips, smashing them together for another hungry kiss. 

I wrapped my legs around his hips and I clung onto his body like I would fall through the world if I didn't. I could feel him slowly grinding into me and I was letting out such whiny breathes that they soon turned into moans. 

His lips snaked away from my own and they began kissing down my jawline to my neck, collarbone—taking his sweet old time with each sloppy kiss. 

"Fuck." He breathed out, against my skin and I let out a low hum as I shoved my fingers through his air. 

He sucked on my sweet spot just below my ear and I gasped, dragging my head backwards as he continued his work. He made it slow and torturous, only moving on after he got every corner of where it felt the best. 

Just before he connected our lips again, I heard the noise of the door opening.

Steve froze for just a moment, his eyes zoned out and then back in, then he ducked his head back down to my neck. For a second I thought that he was just going to ignore the person and start kissing me again. But he didn't. Thankfully. 

He was hiding. I smiled as I glanced to door.

Natasha.

"Seriously?" She asked, a hand on her hip as she was frozen at the door. 

Steve had his head tucked underneath my jaw. I press my lips into a line as I murmured, "Sorry..."

I slipped my fingers into his air and I let my legs un wrap themself from his body, allowing them to fall back to the ground.

"Is that Nat?" He murmured and I slowly but surely nodded my head. 

"You guys need to learn what privacy is." She grumbled as she began backing out of the room. "I come back for one thing and I expected you guys to be out of here," She turned, "going to Steve's bedroom or something but no, you guys are on the floor about—" The door fell shut and I couldn't hear her anymore.

Steve and I were on some random training mat. My breath was still coming out in chunks—fast and hard to control. I tried to hold my breath so that Nat wouldn't hear the loud breathing. Steve didn't care and so Natasha most definitely heard him.

The mood was killed. Completely.

There was a beat of silence. Then two.

Still tangled together, still lying there on the mat, panting like we'd just finished a ten-mile run...and not a very intense makeout session turned almost-something-else.

His forehead was still resting against the crook of my neck. I could feel the heat of his breath. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest. I could feel everything and nothing all at once.

I cleared my throat. Steve didn't move.

"...This is...kinda..awkward," I finally said, my voice hoarse and laced with a breathless laugh I didn't feel.

"Little bit," he mumbled, still not moving.

I blinked up at the ceiling like it had answers for me. "We almost had sex in the public training room."

"Yep."

"And Natasha already caught us once. And then caught us again.

"Yep."

"And I don't think I can ever do a push-up in this room again without thinking about—"

"Okay," Steve finally lifted his head, cheeks flushed deep. "We get it."

I smirked. "Do we?"

He sat back on his knees, running a hand through his thoroughly ruined hair, and looked down at me. I was still laid out on the mat like a wreck. My leggings were lying at my feet, my shirt was rucked up, and my lipstick—if I'd even had any on—was absolutely gone to the void.

His eyes scanned me, a little embarrassed, a lot soft. "You okay?"

I sat up slowly, brushing my hair back and nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, just...you know. Not how I imagined this to happen."

That made him pause. "You imagined it?"

I squinted at him. "You didn't?"

"...I plead the fifth."

I snorted and shook my head, grabbing my leggings and tugging them back onto my leg. "Okay, Captain America."

He grinned faintly, then got quiet. "I wasn't expecting that to happen."

"Yeah, me either," I whispered. Then, after a beat: "But I'm not mad about it." 

I wasn't mad about it...it was fun. It distracted my mind. I wasn't angry anymore—far from it. And that was one gave me the most relief.

He looked at me like I was the only thing in the room. "Me neither."

We sat there, facing each other in the silence of the training room, the earlier tension now replaced with this strange hum of... peace. Still heat, sure—but softened now. Smoothed at the edges.

He reached over, gently brushing a piece of hair away from my face.

"We should probably get out of here," I said, standing up on shaky legs. "Before someone else walks in and gives us a Yelp review."

"Yeah," he chuckled, standing too. He offered me a hand and I took it.

His thumb brushed over my knuckles for a second longer than it needed to, like he wasn't ready to let go.

I slowly pulled my hand away from him as I took a step towards the exit. 

So I guess that just happened...

Chapter Text

The lights were low in the common room, casting a soft golden hue on everything. An old black-and-white movie flickered across the muted TV. No one was watching it.

I sat curled into the corner of the couch, one leg tucked under me, my elbow resting against the armrest. Steve sat at the other end, leaning forward, forearms on his knees. Natasha was sprawled out lazily between us. Sam sat on the floor, cross-legged, eating takeout with chopsticks.

"...I'm just saying," Sam was murmuring through a mouthful of lo mein, "birds are way cooler than bugs. I don't know how Scott lives with himself in that suit."

"I don't know how you live with yourself in those goggles," Nat deadpanned, flicking a crumb at him.

Steve chuckled. I smiled politely, but my mind was a thousand miles away.

He was sitting right there... right there.

After that day—when we kissed—we hadn't really spoken about it. We went our separate ways and we both were busy. 

Now it was a couple days later—just a couple days yet it felt like longer. It felt like we had gone 100 years without speaking to each other.

I felt weird. 

Maybe we got carried away in the moment...maybe I didn't want what I thought I did. 

I thought about kissing Steve and a swarm of butterflies flew around my stomach. But then they'd quickly be replaced by moths. Then wasps. Then flesh eating insects. 

I wasn't sure what I was doing or why I was doing it. 

Was Steve the one I wanted?

His eyes kept flicking over to me. Every time. Like a compass needle. And each time he did it, I felt it—like a subtle pull in the air around us, a silent brush across my skin.

I didn't meet his gaze. I couldn't.

If I looked at him then i'd notice his perfectly handsome face and his perfectly built muscles... I'd want to kiss him again. 

I couldn't kiss him again. 

Nat, of course, noticed. She always did. She didn't miss a damn thing. "You two good?" she asked suddenly, with zero context and all the chaos.

My spine straightened and I looked to her with the best pissed off look I could give. 

Sam blinked, totally confused. "What?"

"Im just checking that you two are fine because you have barely spoken and Steve won't stop staring at you." she told us, staring between me and Steve. Her voice held actual concern but her face gave it all up. She knew exactly what she was doing.

"We're fine," I said quickly.

"Fine," Steve echoed beside me.

Sam squinted at us like we'd both grown second heads. "Did something happen?"

"Nope," I replied too fast.

"Nothing," Steve said. His voice cracked. He coughed.

Nat sipped her drink with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face. "Interesting."

I stood up, brushing my hands on my leggings. I needed some air away from all of them. "I'm gonna grab a drink."

I didn't wait for them to say anything nor did I look to them.

I walked out of the room like I wasn't being watched by the three hawks were behind me. 

My ignorance towards them didn't do much because I could feel him watching me. The weight of it. The heat of it...

Barely a minute passed before I heard his voice, "I'm gonna, uh... I'll be right back" 

Sam gave a faint, okay. I couldn't hear what Nat said.

So smooth, Steve. So smooth.

I'd just rounded the corner into the hallway that led to the kitchen. I opened the cabinet, grabbed a glass, and pressed it into the fridge so that I could have a glass of water.

I heard his footsteps walk into the kitchen but I didn't turn to look at him. 

He didn't say a word. He just stepped into my space, close enough that I could feel the heat coming off him.

My heart beat was beating faster than it ever had. 

Then he grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me in. Like it was instinct, I practically threw my glass cup onto the counter directly next to the fridge and then I spun my body around. 

Our lips met and it wasn't soft. It wasn't gentle.

It was fast and hot and urgent. Like he'd been waiting and he just couldn't anymore.

My back hit the counter. I was already wrapping my hand around his collar and yanking him closer.

I took everything back that I had said before. I did want him. I wanted him so badly.

The kiss felt perfect because he was perfect. 

His mouth was on mine and I was kissing him like I'd waited to do since that stupid day on the training mat. My heart was racing, pulse fluttering against my ribs like it was trying to get out and crawl into him.

I wanted him all to myself all the time. I wanted him. I wanted him. I wanted him. 

I wanted him.

When he finally pulled back—barely—he was still so close I could feel his breath against my lips.

I exhaled shakily, still clinging to the front of his shirt. "We should go back before Nat sends in a strike team."

"She knows," he said simply.

"Oh, she definitely knows."

He kissed me again. Slower this time. Like he meant it.

Like he really meant it.

Our lips seemed to fit so perfectly together that I never wanted to pull them apart. But I had to. He had to. We had to. 

This wasn't something that should've been happening. We both knew that.

Then he finally stepped back.

I stared at him, still breathless, brushing my hair behind my ear as we turned to walk back to the common room. I tried to fix the light amount of makeup that I had on my face and I brushed a hand over his mouth to make sure my lip stick wasn't on him. 

We slipped in like nothing had happened, just in time for Sam to turn and look at us.

"...What'd I miss?" He was looking between me and Steve. Like he wasn't informed that me and Steve were dating—when we weren't. 

"Nothing," Steve and I said in perfect unison. 

It was nothing.