Faint Heart [Steve Rogers]

Betrayal

Prologue

Betrayal. The worst type of pain one can endure. It never just feels like a physical temporary pain. A lasting, gashing, emotional wound. One that never seems to fully heal, not even with time. Any small thing can trigger the seemingly throbbing pain that engulfs your heart as though that's the only way it manages to beat for that time being.

Her yells of his name seem to be coming in unison with the unbearable pain that rushes through her chest. Her hands pulling harshly against the steel restraints. The soft olive skin of her wrists begins to turn a burning shade of red, only serving as an irritating reminder of the betrayal that had just crossed her path. The dark laugh that emits from Ultron's metallic body echoes through her mind. After what seemed like years of screaming for him to return, her head finally falls back down on the uncomfortable metallic headrest of the chair she was bound to. Her chest heaving up and down, trying to regain a steady pace. Her dark brown hair sticks to her sweaty forehead, vision blurry from the fresh batch of tears that began to form in the corners of her caramel colored eyes.

"Did you really believe he was going to choose you over her?" His booming voice asked, the sound bouncing off the walls, echoing, teasing in her head. Ultron's metallic footsteps ring through her mind. A small gust of wind hits her in the face when he bends down to her ear level and brings her out of her daze. "Oh, how naive you are. I told you he wouldn't, not when she is in the play, whether real or not. You see now? This is exactly what I need to get rid of. Humanity needs to be corrected of their flaws! Because of that, Reigna," he says, standing back up, and lifting a dull silver colored finger to bring his point about. "That is a danger to this planet."

Her voice is small and breaks when finishing her sentence, her eyes looking up at him but yet, they seem distant. "That wasn't him.. He... He wasn't thinking straight, you know he wasn't it." Yet, Reigna didn't know if she was saying that to counter him, or to convince herself to try and ease the still fresh wound her heart had taken.

"She," her index finger points to one of the twins that stand in the corner. Her name she did not know and didn't want to know. "She tricked his mind."

The maniacal laugh that tumbles from Ultron's robotic chest snaps her attention back to him. The sound sickens her, but she is too tired both physically and mentally to even snarl at him.

"That was the whole point, my dear," A speck of sunlight shines through the barred window and hits Ultron's face. His red 'eyes' accentuated by it and Reigna's stomach twists in fear and disgust. "Don't you think the man who professes to be in love with you should have chosen you whether or not in a trance?" His head tilts in an almost taunting manner, shoulders shrugging. "I strongly believe if places were reversed and Wanda were to have played with your mind that you would still choose Rogers without a moment's hesitation."

She hates that her chest is once again flooded with a shudder of emotional pain, yet very much physical, because deep down, even if she doesn't want to admit it, he was right. She knew she would have chosen him without a doubt. So why didn't he? Was she not enough? Was she no match to Peggy? Or was it simply that despite them being in an eight-month relationship so far, he hadn't fallen for her the way she did for him? Reigna squeezes her eyes shut and lets out a frustrated whimper, trying to desperately push away the negative thoughts. Her hands once again tug at the restraints with every ounce of strength she had left in her, and after only a few attempts she lets her hands fall back in defeat, gasping for what little air she could get. Her skin feels hot and sticky with sweat and tears. She is strong, the strongest in the team, actually, but with the constant high doses of what she can only assume is a tranquilizer she had grown weak, hardly any fight left in her.

"They'll come for me.." She whispers.

"I don't doubt they will," he says. "Which only gives me a few hours to begin the conversion."

Her eyes dart over to where he stood at that. "Conversion? What..? What the hell do you mean by conversion?" Her mind rushes to positive answers, none of which were correct. Maybe he wants you to convert from regular mayo to the light kind, you know? Or maybe go vegan? But they were easily crushed illusions when he once again laughs and she wants to physically shed her skin and die in a hole.

"Oh, have I not told you about that? My sincere apologies." Though she knew he didn't mean that. "Well, I did want you to see that he would not pick you in hopes that you would become angry enough to willingly join me in the project that I really brought you here for."

Reigna huffs out a laugh. "I would never join you. No matter what happens."

Ultron gives a 'tsk' at her response and walks closer to her. Her eyes flicker from where the two young twins stand near the heavy concrete door to Ultron, who's only about three feet away from her.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that because, well, you don't have any other option." His red eyes seem to pierce into her soul. He once again shrugs and it annoys her to no end how smug this artificial intelligence robot demon thing is. He was meant to be good according to Stark, yet here he was, ready to end humanity in the false name of cleansing.

"You were meant to be the good..." Reigna whispers, but he still hears it. His head perks up at the sound of that.

"I am. I'm ridding humanity of their stupidity." His hands gesturing to the surroundings as though he were reciting something poetic. "The first step will be getting rid of the Avengers, the self-righteous, so-called superheroes."

"What are you talking about?" She's afraid of the information, but she needs to know.

"You're the perfect weapon." He says.

"Like I said, I will never be on your side." She growls, voice strong with hate.

"And like I said. You don't have a choice." His voice briefly tones down to a threatening one. "For the past few days, I've been working on a serum that can help me control someone. Erase and recreate their memories, bend them to my will. They'll become my perfect soldier. I brought you here because you are the strongest of the Avengers and with the right control, you can be that soldier, you will be my perfect weapon against them. Driven by anger and sadness of this betrayal that I know you've experienced."

"Basically," He seems to stand even more straight up than possible and this sends fear through her body.

"You will help me kill the Avengers."

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A/N: Hello! Okay, so this is, like, my third time posting this because I always forget to update but not this time! hopefully, oof. But if you liked it, then don't forget to give it a vote and any feedback would be great! And this will be updated every Tuesday! Thank you!