The Black Winter

Chapter 6

Joan's pov
  "Rose? Rose are you ok?" Steve asks, about to place a hand on her.

  I can see a flicker in her eyes, she wasn't her. I dart towards Steve and tackle him away from Rose. Right as we moved, a flame flies pass us. Bucky grabs Wanda and the two dart away.

  "What the hell happened?" Tony asks, taking Steve side.

  "We need to move!" I command as more balls of fire fly past us. We quickly hide behind a pillar. I take a quick peak to see where she is. She was looking towards where James and Wanda were hiding. I look to the wall on my left and see a verity of swords. I quickly get up and sprint towards them. I grab one and slide behind another pillar. I poke my head out and see that Rose is walking towards me.

  I sprint at her and throw a smoke bomb, giving me coverage. I hop onto her neck and swing my body, taking her to the ground. We end up separating and are both on our knees, looking at each other. She was agile, I'll give her that. I slide the sword out of it's sheath and stand up, ready to place it through her heart.

  "Joan! Don't kill her!" James shouts.

  I look to him and sigh. I throw the drown away from me. We both just stare at each other. Her eyes aren't her's, that was clear. "It's just you and me," I say as calmly as I can.

  "Your going home," she says.

  This confuses me. "What?" I ask.

  Out of no where she sends me flying through one of the pillars and into a wall. I stumble up and somehow, she is right next to me. She grabs me by the neck and forces me up. She was stronger now, but how? Not to mention how much weaker I had felt.

  It was almost like my life was getting drained from me. Running out of options, I go for the best thing I could think of. I use my feet and push her off of me. As she runs at me, I see both James and Natasha run at me. Roses eyes turn to them, and she sends a ball of fire at them. I sprint towards them and cover them with my metal arm. I look up and see that she had burned off the clothing that hid my metal arm. The once concealed metal, now shined bright against the light. Rose darts at us, and once she gets close enough, I say "Sputnik." And then it goes black.

Steves pov
  Today was sparing day. Everything has been weird since Rose came. There was a tension between her and Joan. And to be honest, it's been getting me thinking about her. We don't really know anything about her. We don't know her age, where she was born. She wears gloves that cover her hands, she said that it was just because she had a skin contrition due to Hydra, but I get the sense that that's a lie. But then that got me thinking even more. How long was she with Hydra?

  I walk into the training room with Tony and Natasha. When we walk in, we see that everyone is here. Everyone except Rose. I had a feeling that she would come though. She felt so sweet and innocent, if I'm being completely honest.

  I step up onto the mats with Tony to my right. "Alright guys," I start, but then the door opens. Sure enough, Rose is the one to walk in.
"Welcome Rose, glad you could join us," I say with a smile. I can even see her crack a smile.

"So, we'll start off with just some sparing. Rose, if you want to just watch you can," Tony says with a smile.

"First up is Nat and Steve," Tony says.

  Tony gets off the mat and is replaced with Natasha. I knew I wasn't going to win this fight. It was like a rock paper scissors thing. I get in my ready stance and she gets into her's.

  "Ready? Go!" Tony yells.

  Instantly, Natasha runs at me and goes to kick my legs out from under me. I jump up and barrel roll away from her, creating distance. Se runs up to me and I lay a few hits, but it doesn't take long for her take me out. Once we're done our match, it's Natasha and Bucky. As I'm standing there, observing the two fight, it really does look more like a dance.

I guess that's just the way that the two were trained. But it was funny, because Joan fights in a similar way when she fights one of the two. Once their done I call up the next two. "Ok, next will be Joan and Wanda," I announce.

The two girls step up onto the mat. Wanda had her brown hair up in a ponytail, while Joan had her pitch black hair tied into a fancy braid. That was another thing, she never wore her hair down. It was always up and neat. Then Rose speaks up.

"Could I take this fight?" She asks me.

I think for a moment. With the tension and all the chemistry that the two have, this might not be the best idea. But then again, we could see what she can do.

"Ok, uhh Wanda, you'll fight next. We'll let Rose take this one," I tell Wanda,

Joan gives me a look. I couldn't really tell what the look was saying, but I could tell it wasn't good. I watch as the two get into their fighting stance.

"Are powers allowed?" Rose asks.

Tony and I look at each other. "Sure," Tony says simply. "Go!" Tony shouts.

Rose sends a ball of fire right past Joans head. She dodges it and then darts towards Rose and slides under her legs. Joan kicks Roses back, sending her to the ground. Then, Joan gets on top of her and puts her in a choke hold. Rose starts tapping Joans arm repeatedly. Thankfully though, Joan lets go. Once she lets go, she stands up and gives Rose her hand. But quickly, it becomes clear that the fight is not over.

Rose takes her hand and flips her onto her back. Rose goes to take a deadly blow to where Joans face was, but she rolls away. Joan quickly goes to her feet and faces Rose. Then Rose says something that I couldn't understand.

Tony and I give a glance at each other. Both of us give each other looks about Rose's powers. What else was she capable of? We turn our attention back to the two girls fighting against each other. Then suddenly, Joan is pinned up against the wall. This was getting out of control.

Once more, Rose says something that I can't understand. Bucky is now by my side.

"You need to stop this Steve," he demands.

"Do they know what you did? What you did to me?!" She yells. What does that mean? It didn't matter.

"Rose, enough. You need to let her go," Steve says.

Once she lets go of Joan, she drops to the ground. I take her side and take her into my arms. I stroke her hair and try to calm her down. She was crying hysterically.

"What happened Rose?" I ask calmly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I lost control," she says in a shaky voice.

"It's ok, just tell us what happened," I tell her.

"I can help," Wanda says stepping up to us.

She grabs onto Rose's head and red whisks fly around her. I step back and watch as Wanda tries to handle the situation. Out of no where, Rose lets out a shriek. Then, Wanda's eyes dart open and she let's go of Rose. Everyone takes a step back, not too sure on what the two minds had seen. Rose's eyes shoot open and she stays in her hunched over position. Something was wrong though.