Between Entrance and Exit: An Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 8: Incantations

"Sit down, Siri," Steve said.

"I can't! She sounded like...like she was going to kill herself or something."

"That would make things easy," Tony Stark said glibly from the pilot's seat at the front of the quinjet.

I stared at Tony in horror. I couldn't have heard him correctly. Natasha punched his arm hard.

"Ow!" Tony winced. "Someone's got to tell her."

"Tell me what?" I could feel my heart in my throat. My head pounded the same rhythm. "Tell me what." I said much louder.

"Sit down, Siri," Steve said wrapping an arm around my body and pulling.

"Tell me what!" I actually yelled at Tony. I glared in turn at Banner, Clint, and Natasha, then Steve. This was beginning to feel familiar. This was just like when S.H.I.E.L.D. had first kept me prisoner on the helicarrier. My throat tightened. This could not be happening. Didn't they trust me? I was practically one of them. Why wasn't Steve on my side? I couldn't believe he would take S.H.I.E.L.D.'s side over mine.

"Siri, please. Sit down. I will explain." Steve's eyes mirrored my own pain.

I knew. I knew what he was going to say, and I was already reacting to it, panicking. Despite my demands, I did not want him to say it. To make it true. I wanted him to tell me something different. Tell me that this flight, these armed and dangerous people weren't assembled to hurt my mother.

"Please," I said. "Just take me to her."

"We're headed to Aspen," Tony said.

I closed my eyes, collapsing into the seat. They were going to kill my mother. Loki was right. S.H.E.I.L.D. was the enemy.

Steve knelt in front of me. "It's going to be alright."

"She's my mom," I said. "Please. You can't do this. I love her."

"She has taken Aspen," Steve said. "She has Walter hostage; we don't know if he is alive. At least fifteen people are dead."

I did not understand what he was saying.

"We can't let her go on killing innocent people," Steve said.

"Please." My voice was a whisper. "There's been some kind of misunderstanding. She couldn't have...she is my mother. I don't care what she's done. I love her."

"Siri," Steve said, "Listen to what you're saying. You don't care that she's killing people?"

"I need her," I begged.

"No, you don't." He shot right back in a tone that didn't leave room for argument. "You don't. Amora has made you think that you need her all your life. That's why it feels like this to lose her. She has made you completely dependant on her, like a drug. Why do you think you ran right back to her, even after learning that she put a knife in your heart? Try to think Siri. She has enchanted you. You're trapped under her spell."

I pressed my back into the metal behind me, wanting to slip between the molecules and fall through the air.

"She is all I have. If you take her away...If you kill her, I have nobody. If I am just a game piece, then that's all I'm worth."

"That's exactly what she wants you to think," Steve said. "And you are not alone. Not even close."

"Five minutes out," Tony said. "What's our plan, Cap?"

Natasha folded her arms. "We need you on our side, Siri."

Now everyone was looking at me, waiting for my answer, waiting for me to choose between my mother and Steve. Between her safety and the safety of strangers. Everything in me screamed that there was nothing more important than keeping her safe and alive. It was irrational, I could see that. But I couldn't change how I felt about her.