All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
Savannah kept her promise to Wanda.
After she had finished all her missions for the week, she took a jet to New York.
Wanda had taken her to her favorite clothing and jewelry stores with Tony's credit card in hand. Savannah knew there was no way in hell that she could take all the clothes Wanda wanted her to get. Back at Hydra, the other champions would get way too suspicious since Savannah wasn't one to usually go shopping on her days off. They came to the agreement that Savannah would leave the clothes they got her at the tower, and every time Savannah came to the tower, she'd have something nice to wear.
The only problem was, that now Savannah was walking into the tower with ten shopping bags, each filled to the top with shirts, pants, jackets, dresses, shoes, etc. Savannah knew for a fact that she was never going to wear half of this stuff in her life but Wanda had insisted that she should at least have it.
Wanda also had at least fifteen bags of clothes for herself and Peter (since Peter never shopped for himself). The poor guard of the Avengers tower was carrying all of the bags up to their rooms. Savannah plopped down on the couch, who knew shopping could be so exhausting?!
"Did you guys have fun?" Asked Peter as he sat down next to her.
"Yeah it was alright," said Savannah.
"Vannah!"
Savannah internally groaned at that stupid nickname but put a smile on her face as Morgan ran into the room. She hadn't seen Morgan in more than two months and she had to admit, having Morgan latch onto her leg and hug it tightly was one of those things that she wouldn't forget.
"Savannah, can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Bucky who had followed Morgan into the room.
Savannah, already knowing what he wanted to talk about, stood up and followed him out of the room. The second they walked into the empty kitchen, just as she expected-
"What were you doing on the mission we saw you on?"
"I can't tell you that" she would've guessed that being with Hydra for so many years, he would've known that she couldn't speak to anyone outside Hydra about her missions.
"We just need to know what you took from that man," he explained.
Savannah crossed her arms, she couldn't tell them, she wouldn't.
Savannah was a lot of things but she sure as hell wasn't a traitor. She wasn't about to give away all of Hydra's secrets.
"Was it for Hydra?" he guessed, Savannah pretended not to notice the way he looked uncomfortable even saying the name.
Savannah didn't have to respond, his silence was enough of an answer for him. He wasn't mad, wasn't disappointed either, he just wished this wasn't the way things had turned out. But there was nothing to do about that now.
"Why are you still with them Savannah? You could be here, with us-"
Savannah was saved from the trouble of having to respond by her phone ringing. It was the phone she had stolen from Stark but apparently, he hadn't even noticed that she was carrying his phone around.
She looked down at the caller, it was Rumlow.
Savannah sighed and pressed decline.
She turned back to Bucky after placing the phone back in her pocket.
"I can't just leave-"
Her phone started ringing again before she could even finish her sentence. She took it back out of her pocket and declined Rumlow's call, again.
"Somebody trying to reach you?" Asked Bucky, interested.
He didn't think that she was the type to go around making friends outside of the Avengers and obviously the Avengers wouldn't call her when she was already in the tower so it must be Hydra.
"Nothing important" Savannah shrugged, placing the phone back into her pocket only for it to start ringing again.
And again-
And again-
And again-
Every time she tried hanging up, Rumlow's name would pop back up on the screen.
Savannah huffed and accepted the call. She walked away from Bucky and into the living room, forgetting that the rest of the Avengers were all sitting there.
They all stopped their conversations when they saw that she was on a call. Savannah wasn't sure if they were being nice or if they wanted to eavesdrop but she rolled her eyes and brought her phone to her ear.
"What the hell do you want-"
"Evening Princess"
It wasn't Rumlow's voice on the other end, it was Pierce. Savannah instantly straightened her posture and calmed her voice down. She wasn't supposed to be yelling at her boss.
"Sir?" Savannah moved to the corner of the room, away from the eyes of the Avengers. Although they had looked away and were talking amongst themselves, Savannah could tell some were still listening in.
"I've been trying to reach you for a while Savannah"
"Right well, I thought you were Rumlow" Savannah defended.
She couldn't think of a reason for Pierce to call her in the middle of her weekend. It made no sense, he had never done something like this.
"You should learn to trust him as well"
Savannah rolled her eyes, "With all due respect sir, you're the one who told me never to trust anyone"
She heard Pierce chuckle from the other side, "good to know you actually listened."
Savannah could see some of the eyes of the Avengers on her, she turned her back to them and she talked in a quieter tone, fully aware that a few members of the team had enhanced hearing.
"Is there something you need sir?"
Pierce sighed, "actually yes Princess, there's something I need to tell you, that I haven't told the other champions because you know I trust you more than anyone"
Savannah furrowed her brow, Pierce was sounding as if somebody died... did somebody die?
"I don't want to tell you over the phone, I'm in Germany, how fast can you get here?"
Savannah glanced back at the Avengers, "give me two hours"
"I'll give you one"
Pierce hung up the phone, Savannah stuffed it back in her pocket before turning back to the Avengers who dropped everything they were doing and looked at her, giving Savannah the impression they were listening into her side of the conversation the whole time.
"Somewhere to be?" Asked Steve with his arms crossed
"Germany" Savannah grabbed her jacket from the couch and walked toward the stairs.
"Savannah wait"
Savannah waited for Natasha to catch up to her, to her surprise Natasha walked into the elevator and held it open for her.
Savannah raised an eyebrow at her. Natasha waited for her to enter, Savannah held in her eye roll and cringed at herself before walking to the awful big metal container.
"Did you need something?" asked Savannah, not liking the awkward silence that was created.
"I'm not going to ask you what you're doing, I know that you won't tell me" Started Natasha. "I just want you to know that whatever you have to do, you have a way out Savannah. I'm not forcing you to do anything, just know that we're here for you for whatever you need."
Savannah glanced at her, she couldn't stop herself from hitting back with "You wouldn't be saying that if I wasn't your blood."
If she had expected Natasha to look angry or guilty, she was clearly mistaken.
"Well you're more than just that," Natasha turned to look Savannah fully in the face, "You're family Savannah, I know you don't want to believe that yet, but it's true"
Savannah didn't know how to respond to that.
Yeah, it was true that she didn't believe in the whole being a family thing. These people barely knew her, if it weren't for the fact that she was Bucky and Natasha's daughter, she wouldn't even be alive.
She hadn't done anything for them, Pierce had actually made some of the champions sleep outside when they had messed up a mission. And here were the Avengers, completely ignoring the fact that she was Hydra and offering to help her anyways.
Maybe it was a trick?
Maybe she needed something from her?
Maybe Wanda, Peter, Bucky, Morgan, Natasha, maybe they didn't actually care about her?
But Savannah knew that wasn't true.
She was always alert, always watching their every movement, their body language, the way each of them looked at her, she knew that wasn't true.
Part of her wanted it to be true, maybe this wouldn't be so hard for her if it was.
The elevator doors opened and Savannah stepped out before Natasha could say anything else.
She wasn't quite ready to have the whole "family" talk yet. Apparently, Pierce had something important to say, she needed to mentally brace herself for whatever she would have to do.
-------------------------
One hour was not a lot of time to get from New York to Germany.
A normal flight would've taken at least eight hours.
But Savannah was far from a normal pilot, and her jet was far from a normal jet
Even with the Jet going at full speed, she barely made it in time. She had to kill her way through the crowd of Guards since they kept asking for ID.
Stupid idiots.
Savannah was finally able to walk into Pierce's office at their base in Germany.
Just as she was walking in, Kitkat, the champion for Germany's base, walked out, almost bumping into her.
"Hey Princess, are you staying for training?"
"Not sure, boss wanted to talk"
Kitkat gave her a hopeful look, "I'll be praying for you"
Savannah rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her as she walked into the office.
"Ah Princess, right on time" Pierce motioned for her to sit in the seat across from her. Savannah obliged and waited for him to say whatever was so important that she had to fly across the world to know.
"I've got some good news, and some bad news" he started.
Savannah listened intently, she had tried but failed to think of every possible outcome to this conversation on the way here, let's just say there were a lot.
"I'm getting old Princess, I won't be able to lead properly in a few years," he said.
Savannah knew this of course, but why would that have anything to do with her?
"I want to hold a deadly confrontation of the champions, to choose who will lead after I'm done"
Savannah's eyes widened, that was... not what she had been expecting, that's for sure.
"What would that mean for us?" asked Savannah.
"A fight to the death Princess, between all of the champions, to determine who the next leader will be."
Savannah's throat went dry and her eyes widened.
"But sir, if there's a fight to the death, then there will be no champions"
"The next leader will be in charge of picking their champions to raise and train." said Pierce casually, as if he hadn't just told her that her options were to die or kill the people she had spent her whole life with.
"Why aren't you telling the others?" asked Savannah, realizing that he had specifically told her that he needed to tell her something that the others didn't know about.
Pierce sighed, "If I could, I'd make you my second in command right now"
"Then why don't you?" Asked Savannah. If Peirce just made her the leader right now, she wouldn't have to fight against the rest of them.
"The other bases won't like it. You wouldn't be accepted as a leader. Each base wants their own champion to win, of course, imagine what they would think if their champions didn't even get a chance."
"So you're telling me all this before you tell the others because..."
"Because I want you to win Princess."
Savannah shook her head, "There's got to be another way, something else you can do" she said, unable to hide the uncertainty in her voice.
This was not the way she was supposed to be crowned as the leader.
Pierce looked at her disapprovingly, "this is your legacy Princess, you don't have a choice"
He stood up and took a pile of files into his hand.
"These are the strengths and weaknesses of the other champions. There is a meeting in Russia in two weeks where we will tell the other champions about the arrangement. Until then you are dismissed from missions, I want you training Princess." he handed her the files.
Savannah was still too shocked to speak, she took the files and looked down at them, a blank expression on her face.
"And Princess?"
Savannah looked up at him,
"I know you won't let me down"
It sounded more like a threat, a warning telling that she better freakin win or else.
Savannah nodded and stood up.
She wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh, cry, scream, or lock herself in her room at the Avengers tower and never leave.
They all seemed pretty good choices at the moment.
But Savannah just walked out of the office, her face expressionless. She didn't even notice that she walked right into an agent.
"Hey watch it you-" Savannah grabbed his collar and lifted him right off the ground with one hand.
She wasn't sure why she was doing it, but it was making her feel better so she didn't really care. She threw the man at the wall, he slid to the ground unconscious. The other agents in the hallway watched her fearfully as she walked away.
She was walking toward the training room, maybe punching something would help her think.
She walked in but froze at the sight in front of her.
Gold and Gypsie were already in there, "training."
She would've never guessed that two of the champions would get together but here they were, in front of the punching bags, making out.
Savannah cleared her throat and they jumped apart.
"Oh Princess, I thought you said you were going to America for the weekend" Said Gypsie awkwardly as he turned back to his punching bag.
"I did, Pierce wanted me back here"
Any other time of her life, Savannah would've been happy for the two. But now as she watched them glance at each other every few minutes, she couldn't help but feel her heart sink knowing what was to come. They'd have to fight each other, one of them wouldn't survive.
Then the realization hit her, to win this fight like Pierce wanted her to-
She'd have to kill them.
All of them.
She had to kill Moonlight, who had always checked up on her when a mission went badly.
She'd have to murder Rebel, who always made her laugh.
Even Rogue, they'd never been particularly nice to each other but Savannah still cared for him.
They were the people who knew her, they knew her at her best, at her worst, they knew her strengths, her weaknesses, the things she likes to do, the things she hates, her favorite song, her least favorite food.
They knew everything.
Savannah would have to kill them.
She'd have to watch the life leave their eyes, knowing it was her who had caused it.
Honestly with Savannah's bad luck, she should've known something like this was bound to happen.
Gold made a bad punch, Gypsie moved to help her. He placed one hand on her shoulder and the other directing her fist to where it was supposed to be. Gold looked disappointed in herself until Gypsie made a funny joke and she started laughing.
Savannah couldn't watch this.
She unwrapped her hands and walked right out of the room. The other two were so focused on each other they didn't even realize she left.
Savannah hated knowing when they didn't. It would be better if they knew if they had time to prepare. But Savannah couldn't tell them, she couldn't disobey Pierce.
Where could she go where she wouldn't have to look them right in the eyes and lie to their face?
Oh right...
A/N: School sucks.
Hey, are you an avenger? Because I think we should assemble. My place, tomorrow maybe?