ATLAS • W. MAXIMOFF

42 - *Are You A Hero?*

"You- why would you think that Pépé?! You're my family, how could you ever think that you're a burden to me?" Ophelia cried out, sitting up from her curled-up position to look at the shadows of Lucien in turmoil.

"What else could I think when my petite-fille (granddaughter) doesn't visit or call for months? Or when the first time she does visit, she leaves an hour later to Russia," He calmly replied.

Ophelia was stricken to silence as she found herself unable to explain. The sickening realisation that she had abandoned the only family still on Earth. That she had lost herself in being an Avenger and ended up forgetting to be a Delacour.

"I never meant to hurt you, Pépé. So much has happened this last year and I don't know how to manage it properly, University and Avenging and family and Cli-" Ophelia caught herself before saying his name, it had only been a few weeks and the wound was still fresh in her mind. "I love you, and I'm sorry I made you think I didn't,"

"You're going away again in the morning, aren't you?" He questioned knowingly as Ophelia squirmed, avoiding his gaze out of guilt.

"Save the day and come back to me. And this time stay longer than an episode of that police show you like," Lucien raised his eyebrow with a slight glint to his eyes, and with a gentle kiss to his forehead and a pat to her cheek, the ageing man left his grandchild to her own devices.

"Why is everyone in my family so good at guilt-tripping?" The brawler muttered as she collapsed back onto her bed, just waiting for the sun to rise and the day to begin before her very eyes.

"Just come back to me," Lucien sighed, a deep crinkled between his eyes as he sent her off on the quinjet, his salt and pepper hair whipping in the air as the aircraft took off to Vienna.

"You have that look on your face," Thor grunted under his breath to Ophelia as he plopped himself down, right next to her.

"What look?" She questioned, leaning back on her seat.

"That guilty look when you think you're the worst person in the world when you're actually not," 

"Bullshit, I don't have a look,"

"Uh yes, you do,"

"No, I don't,"

"Yes, you d-"

"Guys we're going to a foreign country to stop a terrorist plot, can you argue about this another time?" Bruce asked from the cockpit.

"No," Thor and Ophelia simultaneously answered.

"Can we at least go over the plan one last time? I'm still confused on how we're supposed to stop Crossbones," Pietro drawled from his seat next to Wanda.

"The blueprints I stole for his exoskeleton suit showed its mechanical composition," Natasha answered, spinning out of the pilot's seat to lean on the wall next to Steve. "It's built to support explosives so it has a high heat threshold, but it's so dense that brute force on its joints can make it collapse."

"We're splitting up into three groups, Wanda, Pietro and Ophelia have evacuating civilians as their priority, Natasha, Tony and I are tracking down Crossbones himself and Bruce, Vision and Thor are locating Crossbones' associates." Steve continued.

"We still don't know what type of weapon they're going to use so be prepared for anything," Natasha finished.

"When you say anything, do you truly mean anything? Or is that another casual exaggeration humans like to use? Because anything is a rather large scope to be prepared for." Vision questioned in confusion.