∆ {5⁷} {LIVES} ∆
"YOU HUGGED RHODEY," Roxi commented as she and Natasha walked to the room that they were meeting the others in, neither of the women feeling quite secure enough yet to let go of the other's hand, "That's progress."
"Yeah, I don't really know why. It just felt.. Right," Natasha replied, a small smile on her lips. It was getting easier for her to be closer to people, to be more comfortable around them. Even if it was only because she forced herself to be, it still helped. Roxi didn't say anything further, and instead just interlocked her fingers with Natasha's, smiling gently at the now-blonde with as much comfort as she could manage with this newfound threat dragging her mood - and hope - down. She wanted to forget the dread that she'd whispered to Natasha about, too afraid that if she raised her voice much louder that there would be no way of avoiding it. But simultaneously, maybe the threat she'd imposed on herself of such a dark future would inspire her to fight harder.
The wicked part of her that caused those pains in her head seemed to have sensed the divisions of her mind, because as they quietly slipped into the briefing room where the rest of the team - were they really the Avengers anymore? - had moved, a splitting ache pounded against her skull.
Rhodey noticed their appearance a few seconds later, clearly having been focused on the hologram that had been projected into the air before him - the blue-haired feminine alien from the train station and her counterpart, who was stood over Vision's injured form on the ground - and murmured a few jumbled words before clearing his throat and starting again.
"So, we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Roxi dared to let her fingers detach from Natasha's for a few seconds to pour herself some water that Tony had had put in all over the compound once he'd realised quite how frequent that her headache were, and that it wasn't practical to have to walk from the training room to the other end of the Compound - the kitchen - for a drink. The cold drink cleared her mind a little, but she quickly took Natasha's hand again, searching for a certain kind of warmth that only the blonde could cause.
"And they can clearly find us," Wanda added swiftly, clearly committed to the cause, though her eyes were solely trained on Roxi. After all these years, she knew when something was wrong with the woman who'd become her mentor - even like an older sister. Roxi rarely drank water - she normally drank cranberry juice, for some odd reason-, and in fact, the only times that Wanda had seen her drinking it was when she'd never seemed fully focused on anything. Her eyes had always been clouded, or her movements stiff, her words slightly clipped or faster than normal. And Wanda could always feel that pain that she'd had a taste of at the shipyard three years ago, she could always sense that it was there, and she loathed that she could do nothing about it.
"We need all hands on deck," Bruce followed up, not leaving a moment where the air was still and silent, "Where's Clint?" It was Natasha who replied, sitting on the edge of a table next to Roxi, who was still quietly taking small sips of her water, her voice stiff but not without care. She missed her friend, and almost everyone in the room would be able to tell you that.
"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families, they're on house arrest."
"Who's Scott? And while we're at it, when did she become Roxi?" Bruce had no malintent with his words, but when Natasha shot a quick glance at the woman next to her, whose hand had stilled where it was lifting it to her mouth. She had written that letter for a reason, and that was to display that she was ready to progress, to show trust, to leave her past behind. And now here was a fragment of her past, a man who she had not seen in three years, and was never close with, using her name, the one thing she'd guarded so fiercely almost all of her life. She'd been too caught up in her own head to really notice it earlier, but now it felt exploitative and as though Bruce was trying to kick her while she was down.
Some part of her knew that that wasn't true, and that it was just the dread that was twisting the scene in front of her, but that part of her mind was drowning beneath the ache, beneath the waves of memory and pure emotion she kept locked up inside her skull. Fortunately, the pain had become so blanketing that she merely paused for a few seconds, emotions splashing through her face minutely, before she disregarded it and let it drop to a place even further towards the seabed where it would only ferment and grow stronger. Maybe she would be able to use it later, where her numb thoughts as voices entered her mind, their words leaving no impression that would lead to realisation. Someone would have to explain what was happening later, but at that moment, she couldn't bring herself to care.
"Ant-man."
"There's an Ant-man and a Spider-man? Okay look, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe, and he is not gonna stop until he gets-." In that moment, the only thing Roxi cared for was having the people she wanted to be safe, safe. There was Wanda, Natasha, but
"Where's Tony?" Roxi spoke fairly quietly, but the whole room turned to look at her as she frowned at her cup of water. Suddenly finding herself the victim of several sympathetic looks, she turned her gaze to Rhodey, who would likely just tell her what she wanted to know. He sighed and pressed a button on the hologram, presumably to change the input to whatever he'd been looking at before they'd reconvened.
It was a news clip, muted, but it still had the white, bold headlines stamped onto a red banner that she only skimmed once before her frown was taken over by a mask and she watched the video clip as impassively as she could. An alien ship in New York. Just like all those years ago, except bigger. The last time this had happened, Tony had almost died, and this battle was going to be far worse than that one had been. She watched in silence as Tony's suit shot upwards, following the ship, as Peter Parker, the kid she'd met before the incident in Germany who wouldn't stop asking her questions, went up with it.
Rhodey turned the clip off fairly quickly, scanning the room, trying to gauge the reactions. Once again, Roxi felt eyes focused on her - Wanda and Natasha.
"Stark's in space?" That was Wanda, her voice tainted slightly with alarm, but Roxi just found herself nodding - accepting this fact - and looking back to her drink. Again, the conversation faded around her, and her head started to spin.
"Yeah, so we're all we got, I guess."
"As I was saying, he's not gonna stop until he gets Vision's stone."
"Well then, we have to protect it." Natasha stood up, though not daring to come out of contact with Roxi, her fingers brushing the woman's leg gently.
"No, we have to destroy it." A moment of silence. Roxi finished her water and set down the cup, deciding to wait a few minutes and see if it got any better.
"I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature, but also its composition. I think if it were exposed to a significantly 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." It was Wanda's voice that allowed Roxi to fully comprehend words in the conversation again, hearing the pain at the proposed idea, and Roxi found herself standing too, her pain seeming slightly more insignificant now that she was focused on the potential of someone she loved feeling vaguely similar to the way that she did.
"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it." Roxi was too far away to have heard enough of that statement to understand it, but within the next few hours she'd be finding herself wishing she'd stepped closer. To warn them before it was too late, or at least to let them know of the hypothetical consequences.
"That's too high a price." Wanda spoke louder than Vision, and Roxi found herself becoming more alert. Prices in this business were a thing that she wanted nothing to do with, nor any of the people that she'd grown close to over the years.
"Only you have the power to pay it." Roxi exchanged a glance with Steve, and seeing that he seemed to agree with her settled her newfound worry, if only a little, "Thanos threatens half the universe, one life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."
Roxi was vaguely confused regarding why this had come up as the ache began to ebb away, but if there was one thing that she was certain of, it was that she didn't want to lose anyone in this room, no matter how well she knew them, or how much she trusted them.
"But it should," Steve intervened, looking down at the floor, looking down at the floor, seeming as daunted as all of them by what was to come, "We don't trade lives, Vision."
"Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people? Tell me, why is this any different?" The synthezoid inquired.
"Steve was ending a war," Roxi pointed out, speaking for the second time since she'd been in the room, and if anything it was a helpless protest. Wanda didn't deserve to lose another person.
"And I would be preventing one from beginning."
"Because you might have a choice," Bruce cut in, distracting Vision from Roxi's low-effort argument, "Your mind is made up of a complex constrict 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?" Everyone was talking about the stone, and Roxi didn't really know why; it was her fault really, for not paying enough attention, but as her eyes landed on the thing, embedded into Vision's head, she found herself glaring at it. How much pain had it caused? More than she could imagine, and she knew the Stone well after all these years of run-ins with it, the effect it had on people and the power it gave the wielder.
"I'm saying that if we take out the Stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts."
"Can we do that?" Roxi and Natasha spoke together, linking their hands together again, but rather in despair, this time was in hope.
"Not me, not here," the scientist denied quickly, and Roxi felt her hope deflate slightly. Despite her dislike of the man using her name, he was the only scientist they still had on Earth who had worked with the Stone.
"Well, you better find someone, and somewhere fast. Ross isn't just gonna let you have your old rooms back." Roxi scoffed to herself. Ross would be happy to let her have her room back, as long as it was the one on the Raft, where he felt that the liability that she was in his eyes was locked up.
"I know somewhere."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I did it, after three months. If I'm being honest I just don't like writing Infinity War much. Anyway I'm not gonna publish this straight away caus I wanna write the next few chapters so I can finally move onto Endgame (I have so many plans) but yeah. Even though it's short, hope you enjoyed :))
JABBERJAY_011
WORDS [2035]
WRITTEN [30.12.2021]
PUBLISHED [1.1.2021]