Draw Me Your Worries | S. Rogers x Reader

Ch. 18 - Where's the Fight

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"Steve Rogers, is that you?"

"Try not to crap yourself, yes it's me."

Sam came right up to him and clapped him on the back. "You're lookin' good, man. The beard suits you." Steve got a bit flustered, but Sam's eyes widened when he glanced behind his shoulder. "Is this y/n?!"

Steve turned to where y/n was looking at him for help just as Sam started to run towards her with open arms and a delighted look on his face.

"You are just as pretty as Steve described, oh my, look at you!"

She seemed uncomfortable at first to be approached so quickly but smiled and welcomed Sam regardless. "Oh um, thank you! And you must be... Sam? Sam Wilson?"

He threw her a wink. "That I am, beautiful."

Steve stepped forward and gently pushed Sam back. "Okay, Sam. Stop flirting with her."

Sam accepted that and started walking towards the quinjet with his hands thrown in the air, but not without giving another wink.

"Just get in the quinjet, Sam."

They flew to Edinburg, Scotland to find Wanda, who was supposedly hiding there with Vision. Like Steve and y/n, they were very fortunate to live a normal life together for a while.

When the group found them, they were being attacked by strange, very strong, aliens. He told y/n to wait in the quinjet while he, Natasha, and Sam helped take care of it. He didn't want her getting hurt.

The aliens did eventually disappear with a beam of light that reminded him of Thor's Bifrost. He wondered what Thor was doing during all of this, did he even know that Thanos was on the move?

After all of their recruits were picked up, they flew to upstate New York, to the Avengers Compound. Steve hadn't been there since the argument on the Sokovia Accords. Rhodey was on a call from Secretary Ross, who had been on the hunt for all of them when he led Nat, Sam, Wanda, Vision, and y/n into the room.

He took it upon himself to speak first, "Mr. Secretary."

Ross glared at all of them. "You got some nerve, I'll give you that."

Nat tilted her head up. "You could use some of that right now."

Ross clicked his tongue and moved to stand in front of Steve. "The world's on fire, and you think all is forgiven?" Steve's eyebrows furrowed. And Ross spoke of their nerve.

"I'm not looking for forgiveness. And I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight." He stepped down so he was close to face-to-face with the man. "And if you wanna stand in our way, we'll fight you too."

There was a pause where Ross just stared at him, then "Arrest them."

"All over it." Rhodey wiped away the hologram and a beep sounded. "That's a court martial. It's great to see you, Cap."

Steve smiled and shook his hand. "You too, Rhodey." Nat hugged him as well.

"Wow. You guys... really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple years."

"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five-star whenever the Secretary kept snooping around my sister's."

"Uh, I think you look great," a voice popped up from deeper inside the compound. "Yeah, I'm back."

Bruce Banner went missing after the fight with Ultron. He along with the rest of the Avengers gave up looking after so long of never being able to find him, but here he was.

"Hi, Bruce."

"...Nat."

"This is awkward," Sam muttered to, mostly, himself.

Banner glossed over where he was all these years and that he was fine. Steve introduced him to y/n and told him who she was and that she may be able to help, to which everyone was grateful for another mind and set of hands. After that, Bruce told them all what happened to himself, Tony, Spider-man, and this strange doctor in New York.

Rhodey spoke after they analyzed all of the information at the moment, "So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?"

"And they can clearly find us," Wanda said.

Bruce was pacing back and forth, fidgeting, and stuttering like his usual self. "We need all hands on deck, where's Clint?"

"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families, so they're on house arrest," Natasha elaborated.

"Who's Scott?"

"Antman," Steve answered, his hand on his hip.

"There's an Antman and a Spider-man?" Rhodey nodded in confirmation. "Okay, look. Thanos has the biggest army in the universe and he is not gonna stop until he gets... Vision's stone."

"Then we have to protect it."

"No, we have to destroy it," Vision voiced from the window. Everyone paused and looked over at the android. "I've been giving a great deal of thought to this entity in my head. About its... nature. But also its composition." He moved over to Wanda. "I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something very similar to its own signature, perhaps... its molecular integrity could fail."

"Yeah, and you with it. We're not having this conversation."

"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it."

"That's too high a price."

He held her face gently in his hands. "Only you have the power to pay it." Wanda stepped away to collect herself. "Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

Steve was looking between the couple as Vision asked Wanda to do the impossible. Steve understood her apprehension. He knew what it felt like to not want to let go of the one you love. He couldn't let that happen to her.

"But it should. We don't trade lives, Vision."

"Captain, 70 years ago you laid down your life to save how many millions of people?" Vision asked rhetorically, stepping forward to argue with him. "Tell me, why is this any different?"

Banner interrupted. "Because you might have a choice. Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays; Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the stone. All of them mixed together, all of them learning from one another."

"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda questioned hopefully.

"I'm saying that if we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Per-Perhaps the best parts."

"Can we do that?" Natasha asked.

"Not me, not here."

"If I may say, I studied under Helen Cho for a year in Stark Industries' collaboration with a genetics-engineering project," y/n said. "I think if I had the right equipment I could help extract the stone because we were incredibly close to an interface with the body. But Dr. Banner is right, we can't do it here."

"Well, we better find somewhere fast." Rhodey shook his head. "Ross isn't just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back."

Steve thought for a moment. They needed a technologically advanced lab and remarkable people to help with this. "I know somewhere."