May 2016
Lagos, Nigeria
"All right, what do you see?" Those were the first words that were heard in the comms after they had split up. They came from Steve Rogers watching inside an apartment in front of the police station.
"Standard beat cops," Wanda mentioned from her position in a local café near the station. "Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target."
The not-so-new group of Avengers was on a mission regarding Robinson and Rumlow. It had been over a year since both of them had burned all their belongings and disappeared from the map. Rumlow had escaped from prison whilst Daniel had stayed with Beth when she was being experimented on until he left to another base. They finally had good intel on what the two were up to after Rose had drawn them in this exact city and they had recent facial confirmation. Their main suspicion was that they were hitting the local police since they already had done the same several times before and taken modified and normal weapons from different places.
"There's an ATM in the south corner, which means..." Steve began.
"Cameras," Wanda responded again. She was the youngest and out of the group, she was the only one who was in agent training rather than just "avenger shaping" seeing that everyone else had already been on missions. Though she already had advanced plenty since said training started ever since Sokovia, one year ago.
"Both cross streets are one way," Rose observed.
"So, compromised escape routes," the Maximoff concluded.
"Means our guys don't care about being seen," Steve added, "they aren't afraid to make a mess on the way out. You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"
"Yeah, the red one? It's cute."
"It's also bulletproof," Nat told her seating by herself two tables away, "which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody."
"Probably us," Beth said reclining against a wall near the café.
Sipping her coffee, Wanda pointed out, "You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?"
"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Nat responded.
"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Sam asked her walking on a rooftop. "Almost as much as Rose."
"Thanks," the Thompson woman said dryly watching the street five buildings ahead of Sam almost on the next street. Her original spot was across from him, but she had moved without noticing, intuitively.
"Not to my face," the Russian answered. "Why? Did you hear something?"
Steve brought them back to the mission. "Eyes on target, folks. This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow and Robinson in six months. I don't want to lose them."
"Talking calms me down," Beth defended.
"If they see us coming that won't be a problem," Sam said at the same time. "They kind of hate us."
"Let them come," the Walters answered.
A garbage truck caught Rose's eye, Steve's too. It was advancing without being careful of people or other vehicles. "Sam, see that garbage truck? Tag it."
Sam sent one of his new drones, a new addition to his suit from Tony, to the truck. "Give me X-ray." After a moment he said, "That truck's loaded for max weight," Sam informed. "And the driver's armed."
"It's a battering ram," Nat realised.
Closing her eyes frustrated, Rose leapt from the rooftop to the next before jumping downwards to follow the truck.
"Everyone," Rose called them, "go now."
"What?" Wanda asked confused.
"He's not hitting the police," Steve finished.
The only place that could be of potential use for the rogue agents, fugitives, was the Institute for Infectious Diseases. If they got anything from there, it wouldn't be good.
Rose watched from a distance as the truck slammed through the gates of the place. Two more trucks followed as several armed and black-armoured people got out. Out of her view, they threw gas bombs inside the building as others headed with masks inside.
Steve arrived first, being the fastest, taking out some soldiers. He slammed one with his shield and pushed another harshly when he kicked one of the cars, a truck. He threw his shield which bounced on another soldier and then blocked the bullets from a different one before kicking him into the concrete building. "Body armour, AR-15's. I make twelve hostiles."
Before others could attack, Rose sent a soundwave to the ones near him, the energy didn't do much damage as she'd hoped, perhaps they reinforced their uniforms, but it did throw them away. Rose somersaulted in the air before landing steadily beside Steve.
"Seven."
Right on cue, Sam flew to the rooftop blocking out gunfire with his extended metal wings before taking two soldiers out. "I make five."
A soldier sneaked out of a car shooting at them but his shots were caught by a red mist announcing the arrival of Wanda. She lifted one soldier in the air. "Sam," she said before throwing him to the man. Sam pushed him in the air to the ground knocking him out.
"Four."
Two Beths appeared fighting independently with two soldiers near the entrance, a skill that she was mastering successfully. She grabbed one's weapon and then wrapped her legs around the person's neck throwing them down. Her second body, which was fighting close to the original one, twisted her opponent's arm turning them towards her original body who shot at them.
"I'd say two."
"Rumlow's on the third floor," Sam told them after one of his drones scanned the IFID Headquarters. "Robinson is not in sight."
"Wanda, just like we practised," Steve told her.
"What about the gas?" she asked regarding the dangerous substance inside the building.
"Get it out."
With a nod, Wanda lifted Steve's body into the building. Rose surveilled the outside, deeming it safe, and confident that the rest of the group could handle it. Aside from Steve, there was one other person strong enough to handle a toxic gas.
"Wanda, care to lift me up?" Rose asked with a determined look. The older teenager didn't argue against her and just did as she was told.
Rose felt strange as she was lifted up and scrunched up her nose at the putrid smell before she landed seamlessly and soundlessly inside.
She felt and heard the grunts and slams from the people inside from Steve's attacks as she walked through the unconscious scientists and other workers.
Rose fought the agents that came at her as Steve went to find Rumlow. The gas was swept out by a red mist. Her eye caught glimpse of a thick wire coming out of the building. Her mind worked fast and she ran over to the window seeing someone sliding from it just when she heard Steve say: "Rumlow has a biological weapon."
Echo jumped out the window wrapping her arms around the man with metal armour that was sliding out of the building. They landed on top of a truck. She deflected the first punch fighting expertly and kept using her powers as she moved her body but the level of energy she usually fought with wasn't affecting him.
"I'm gonna be harder to crack, sweetheart," she heard Rumlow's voice right when Natasha arrived on her motorcycle and began fighting several agents.
Romanoff had kicked, thrown down soldiers, jumped across cars and swiftly thrown electrical bullets at different people while Echo still fought Rumlow, although, in her defence, he had a more reinforced uniform.
Rose pushed his arm to the side when he aimed at her with a gun, the bullet ricocheted on the ground. He was losing now and he knew it. Her focus would've stayed the same if it weren't for the words he said next.
"Seems like our little agent is doing well with the powers we gave her."
His words destabilized her for just a second, but it was enough. She blocked one knife that appeared from his left arm gadget but was punched with a metal stump hard that sent her off the truck. After shooting a grenade at her, which she dodged, Rumlow started fighting Agent Romanoff who had taken out most of his remaining soldiers.
It would be alright though, he thought. More were on the way.
Nat was thrown with a grenade inside a truck with two other soldiers, but she managed to escape unscathed, albeit tired and breathless.
Another truck arrived in the place. The wheels screeched as it stopped and a grenade launcher popped out at the same time the back doors opened and half a dozen men came out, not so covered as the rest. Rumlow jumped into the truck holding the weapon in his hands aiming and firing at Captain America who was still inside the building.
Rose was targeted by several guns, most bullets were blocked by her suit absorbing their energy, whilst the ones sent to her face were blocked by her gloves. Beth, who had covered Wanda with Sam as she took out the gas earlier, moved towards the upcoming men multiplying herself as well as her weapons giving Rose a chance to take cover.
She fought well until her blood ran cold once her eyes recognised one of the men she was fighting. The same man that was to blame for her current situation and previous martyrdom. Daniel Robinson.
Her doubles flickered as they retreated to her original body and then she was pushed away by Rose just in time to avoid a grenade being thrown at her. A few seconds earlier, Steve had been blasted away from the building. His body being flung out a window, then landing on a vehicle, then on the ground.
The minute of the Avengers incapacitation was taken by the terrorists to run away.
"Sam. He's in an AFV heading north."
Sam was the first one to leave flying, followed by Nat on her motorcycle. Beth and Rose jumped into a car and followed by Wanda and Steve.
Rose felt the vibrations of the sound before everyone heard a crash. "I got six, they're splitting up," Sam informed. Great, now they would have to guess who was the one carrying the biological weapon.
Rose stepped on the breaks getting close to the crash and a small market. "I got the two on the left," Nat mentioned.
Steve, who had jumped ahead, notified through the comms, "They ditched their gear. It's a shell game now. One of them has the payload." Rose saw briefly the shield in the air before a bomb attached to it exploded, the former remained intact.
She would've gone to help but she was on the prosecution of another man. Paths away, Beth had jumped onto one of the men making him fall to the ground. She duplicated herself and a figure of her appeared in front of a second man who had kept running making him halt. Her original body took care of the first soldier and stood up, multiplying herself two more times.
The man in front of her chuckled sinisterly, amused. He stared at the Beth in front of him. "Agent Walters," said Daniel. "You know you'll get tired if you use too much of your power."
"We'll see," and she threw the first punch.
Rose used the shoulders of the man she was fighting to jump on the wall and walk on it, propelling herself to kick the approaching one. Moving her hand to the first man's shoulder, she leaned and pushed his body over her to send him down. She kicked him against the floor knocking him out and used some of the energy stored in her suit to create a soundwave against the second one. She didn't want to seriously hurt his brain so she just used enough to render him incapable of fighting before knocking him out.
She had checked both men as soon as she saw them, and now she did it again. Neither of them was carrying the weapon. "I've got two. Neither of them has it."
"You son of a bitch," Beth growled as she kicked her former colleague, she threw a punch that was blocked. Daniel's face was reddened and had a cut from which Beth had managed to slice him, it wasn't deep. "All of this is because of you!"
He knew she hadn't been fighting as strongly as she could. He was still standing. She wanted to take a long time. Better for him. If she was occupied with him the others could run. "You see, you complain but you're using what we gave you." He was going to kick her but she dodged his move, he did the same with the hits other doubles were giving him. She'd always been a good fighter but so was he, however, he was struggling to keep up even if her doubles weren't as good as if she was fighting by herself.
"I never asked for this," she glowered but her voice cracked.
"And yet, you are making use of it. You're welcome."
Her multiplications went back into her body. "Here's my thanks." X twirled in the air with extended legs before hitting him with them making him fall abruptly to the floor.
Beth grabbed the former agent turning him around making him look at her before she lifted her arm and began punching him. "We worked together." Punch. "I trusted you." Punch. "You tortured me." Punch. "You—ah!" she growled and punched him again.
She didn't know how long she brought her fist down his face. She was lost in her pain and anger. Images of her trauma flashed back through her. She thought she'd be alright, this wasn't the first mission looking for Daniel, but it was the first time she saw him after he left the base she had been kept in.
"Beth!" The woman in question stared first at the hand that was tightly wrapped around her wrist and then at the person holding it. It was Rose. Unbeknownst to her, she had been calling her several times.
Rose had reached the scene after she decided that none of the men she fought with would wake up, and found Beth mercilessly hitting Daniel. She'd called her twice before she ran towards her after she didn't hear her.
"It's over," Rose said kindly this time.
Beth realised what was happening, glancing in between them to her bruised hand. Her face became half horrified and half relieved before turning into a scowl when the man pinned by her legs laughed.
"And mother hen arrives. Your chickens straying away from you? ... How's the search for your friend going? Your powers not working or s'mthin'?"
Rose's finger twirled fastly and he grimaced at the screeching sound in his ears that barely lasted three seconds. "Shut up," she told him as Beth stood up.
"Payload secure. Thanks, Sam," Nat thanked. There was a small conversation between the two about Sam's drones which he was too fond of.
Neither of the women paid attention as Rose lifted Daniel up roughly not caring if he was injured. She positioned him as she wanted and whispered mockingly, "On your knees. I think you know what happens if you don't behave."
Rose informed they had Robinson through the comms, but the feeling of accomplishment lasted very little for there was an explosion in the closest building. Dread filled Rose and she felt little pieces of her being ripped away, extremely small pieces but noticeable nonetheless.
Rose and Beth shared a downcast expression whilst Daniel chuckled.
"Sam . . . we need . . . Fire and Rescue . . . on the south side of the building. We gotta get up there."
Rose sighed hearing Steve's appalled and worried tone. The mission was successful but at a cost.
HOURS LATER
Avengers Facility, New York
"Hey, don't put this upon yourself, alright?" Rose told Wanda. There had been a small meeting about the recent mission amongst them. The weapon was retrieved and two ex-Hydra terrorists were captured but no one was happy. Wanda was visibly shaken.
"I was the one moving the bomb."
"Yeah...if you hadn't the people who would've died would've been a lot more. Everyone close to and at the market," Rose pointed out, "the toxic gas in the IFID's building would've remained in there too." Wanda stayed silent. "You have the power to do great things, Wanda. But you're still a kid, there's still a lot you need to learn about yourself and your powers...it does not mean that what you do right now isn't good. We all make mistakes, but you weren't the only one in that mission, we were there together. What's left for us now is help the people that suffered the damage and do better so others don't."
Rose knew what it was like to be young with powers others couldn't understand. Their situations and abilities were extremely different nonetheless.
"You can mourn now, but tomorrow...you try and do better. Otherwise, you go on a point of no return," she advised.
Wanda looked at her with slight admiration and comfort, but the guilt and pain were still engrained in her eyes. "Okay...I'll try."
"That's what matters," she smiled and nodded at Vision who was approaching Wanda. The two had become close during their time together, Rose didn't fully understand it, but she knew better than to question it, after all, you didn't need to understand something for it to be good.
She sure as hell didn't understand most of the good things in her life.
Like the one she was currently going to check on.
"You know that was not your fault, right?" Rose said leaning against Steve's doorframe. He'd disappeared after the meeting.
"I got distracted. I should've clocked that vest."
Rose nodded. "Then why didn't you?"
"He mentioned Bucky."
Rose breathed deeply in understanding moving closer to sit on the bed next to him. "As I said, it was the mission of a team. It's not just on you. It was just a second, I heard what Wanda said in the meeting."
"It cost people's lives."
She sighed. "Yeah, but...you know you did more good than bad, we can try to save everyone but...we can't. You know that," she nudged his arm gently. The self-punishment was still evident in his face. "You're human, Steve. Your job is not to be a perfect soldier but a good man, you're allowed a moment of weakness. You always get back on track."
She truly meant every word. And she believed wholeheartedly that Steve wasn't just a good man, but the best one she'd ever met, that's why she admired him so much and was grateful for having him in her life.
That reminded him of something Dr Erskine said to him the night before he received the serum. Though his voice didn't carry the same type of affection Rose's currently did. He turned his head to look at her.
Not reading his intent stare, she kept talking. "Besides, we're both in charge of the team. Whatever happens in the mission, we share it," she told him.
Regardless of what she said to the others, she too, also felt responsible of what happened and was quite good at blaming herself for things that weren't truly entirely her fault even when she said to others that they shouldn't.
"We live with this so we can keep saving lives the next time," he said softly. Something that he'd known and repeated himself for a long time, he just needed to remind himself again when things didn't look good for him.
She nodded pleased. "Yes, we do. And as for Bucky...we'll find him, I'm sure of it. We're close now, aren't we?" He nodded.
Rose laid a hand on his shoulder not quite thinking. When she realised what she'd done, she grew slightly hot at the stare he was giving her. Recently, she'd been overthinking every single action she made around him. "I'll, uh, check on Beth," she nodded nervously, and he didn't have a chance to reply before she left the room.
Her pulse slowed down as she looked for Beth in the facility. After two minutes she ended up using her location powers to find the tether that tied them together and walked following the pull towards her.
She ended up in one of the labs.
"Dammit!" Beth slammed a tool on the table as she spilt what was thankfully a non-harmful solution.
Rose walked silently to help.
"I need to finish this by the end of the week."
"I've heard taking a break and then going back to work helps to focus."
Rose knew Beth had recently been having trouble keeping a pain-free mindset whenever she wasn't working.
Beth was silent.
"You should've told them about Daniel at the meeting, it's not like it wasn't evident or anything, but it's one of the things that went wrong," Beth said nonchalantly cleaning the space.
"Daniel wasn't the priority, and there was nothing to say."
"I almost beat him to death, Rose."
"But you didn't."
Beth looked at her irritated. "Because you stopped me. You shouldn't have had needed to be worried about me. I'm an agent, I'm supposed to be able to not let my emotions cloud my judgement...That's not me, I don't—beat people to death, I—" her eyes filled with tears anxiously.
The man certainly deserved it, but she wasn't the kind of person to seek revenge or be violent. She didn't like the person she became during those minutes when they fought.
"No, you don't. Everyone knows that, Beth. No one's blaming you."
"If I hadn't been too preoccupied with him, if I'd just captured him quickly instead of taking my time... you and I would've been able to help."
Rose sighed. At least neither of the team was blaming each other, she supposed. But she wasn't sure if that was preferable to self-blame.
"You don't know that, Beth."
"How am I supposed to be an Avenger if I let things get personal like that...maybe next time is not a bomb but something worse, or maybe, I kill the person or gets other people killed in my rage."
"Hey," Rose protested. "I know you. You are a good agent, a good scientist and a good person. I know what your strengths are as well as your weaknesses. Trust me, you won't. If you don't believe in yourself then who will?" Something clicked in Beth but Rose wasn't convinced she got through to her. "I told you to stop, and you did, you could've kept going, but you didn't. What he did to you was horrible, you're entitled to be affected. And you didn't kill him, he's locked up and he will remain as such. And you'll keep doing what you do best, alright?"
With a weak nod, Beth put away her things and they went to look for Nat and Wanda to see if they were feeling up to grab a bite.
DAYS LATER
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
Rose clenched her jaw trying to keep her eyes open as she tried not to cry. She was standing at the side of the stage watching Tony's presentation of his recent project, she knew it was a device to help cope with trauma, but he hadn't told her exactly what he was going to show.
Imagine her astonished and broken expression when she saw Howard and Maria's holograms appear as well as Tony in his early 20s. She'd only seen them like that in pictures, it had been the closest she'd ever been to see Tony young but grown in those years she was stolen. Aside from when he was a kid, this would be the only time she saw him really young, perhaps an adult, but still young.
It not only broke her heart to see all of them again but also to see how distant and cold the interaction between Tony and Howie was. She knew Howard had tried doing his best, but she couldn't accept how cold he'd treated his son after she was gone. Even in a hologram, Rose could tell that behind Maria's kind expression and acceptance there was frustration and pain behind the strayed relationship of the men she loved most.
"He does miss you when you are not here," Maria's hologram said to young Tony. "And frankly, you're going to miss us. Because this is the last time we're all going to be together."
Rose froze in her place.
"You know what's about to happen... Say something. If you don't, you'll regret it."
Rose?
Her chest constricted and she had to remind herself how to breathe. The man from MIT close to her didn't notice her reaction too invested in staring in awe and amazement, perhaps fangirling over the billionaire, but Tony's assistant was giving her concerned glances.
She clenched her fists and focused on the slight pain.
"I love you, Dad," young Tony told his dad when he came in again. "And I know you did the best you could."
But Rose knew that wasn't what it happened. Any chance of Tony reconciling with his father was taken away by her fist. She could feel at that moment the flesh and bones breaking in her still hand as she remembered how she took her best friend's life.
The holograms of Howie and Maria left and she saw the couple one last time, their clothes exactly the same as the last time she'd seen them, but their appearance had been rugged and bloody then. Pained expressions and cries.
Especially Maria's when she realised her husband had been killed. Her expression as she was being choked to death and she realised her disappeared and presumed dead friend was there. The godmother of her son.
Tony appeared next to his younger self's hologram and started to explain his device but the only thing that Rose did was direct her eyes to him not watching, for she was too busy trying to push the memories back into her mind.
"It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport . . . or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief..." his voice faded.
Tony's traumatic memory had been caused by her. And her best friend.
Breathe.
She moved to the back and leant against the wall.
Breathe.
Big applause brought her back to reality, yells of excitement filled the place. Ironically enough, it was the sound of them that soothed her. The feeling of her body sensing and interacting with the soundwaves.
"No strings, no taxes... just re-frame the future!" That's right, he was going to fund the students' projects. "Starting now."
Rose walked back in again and saw Tony staring at the teleprompter with a hidden painful look. She realised that he was meant to introduce Pepper.
Though Tony hadn't been participating in all of the missions, it was seldom really, he was still helping and spending a lot of time in the compound. That had caused a rift between him and Pepper considering he had promised her that he wouldn't be Iron Man anymore but the whole thing with Hydra had happened, then Ultron, and he always kept coming back.
Rose remembered that about a month ago Tony had disappeared for a couple and she had been worried about him. She'd call Pepper to see if there was something wrong but she only said to talk to him. She had gone to Tony's apartment after calling several times and he wasn't there, Happy ended up telling her that he had left for a few days.
Rose found Tony anyway. He was in one of his houses, he hadn't slept in days and had been working on new devices. She'd cleaned up and taken care of Tony for about two hours before he started blabbering about relationships and how he was doing the exact thing he had promised not to do but that it didn't really matter anyway because Pepper had already left.
Then Rose got the story that Pepper had asked for a time off. Rose understood why, she knew it wasn't easy to be with someone who always came back to his work, though both of them knew there was more to it than Tony let everyone know, but that was part of the problem.
She knew that Pepper still loved Tony, he loved her too that was clear as day. It would take time but Rose knew they would figure it out. This personal time wouldn't last that long. But in the meantime, Rose had been checking on Tony to make sure he would be okay.
He was doing fine, for the most part.
Getting rid of his sad expression, he delivered, "Go break some eggs."
As soon as Tony came back the man beside her went straight to talk to him but Tony walked directly to his aunt. "You did great," Rose told him.
"Just a second," he gestured to the other man not even glancing at him. "You should tell that to your eyes," he said jokingly, but he could tell that she was proud. He didn't know how to react every time she looked that way at him so he focused on the concealed feeling she was keeping in instead of her gratification.
They walked away as she rolled her eyes. "You know I think it was amazing, the memory just caught me by surprise is all. It'll be alright," Rose said knowingly and he noticed she realised what had happened at the end of the speech.
He nodded as the other man kept talking. "Wow. Wow. That, uh... that took my breath away. Oh, Tony! So generous. So much money! Wow! Out of curiosity... will any portion of that grant be made available to faculty? I know, 'Ooh, gross' but hear me out. I have got this killer idea for a self-cooking hot dog. Basically, chemical detonator embedded..."
Neither of the two listened.
"Restroom's this way, yeah?"
"Yeah. Embedded in the meat shaft," the MIT teacher responded.
"You should find Happy, go back to the car, Aunt Rosie."
"Mr Stark, I am so sorry about the teleprompter," his assistant chimed in. "I didn't know Miss Potts had cancelled. They didn't have time to fix it." Most of the people in the company weren't aware that they had taken a time off.
"It's... fine. I'll be right back. Auntie?"
"I'll look for Happy, don't worry."
Rose watched her godson leave slightly frantic. "We'll catch up later," the teacher said. "Wow...Tony Stark's godmother...you knew his father right? Isn't that weird? How was he like? Decades have passed since then and you are... How does your condition even work?" he asked following Rose, if he couldn't get through to Stark maybe convincing his family would work.
The woman didn't spare him a glance.
"Not a scientist, sorry."
"You know I've been thinking—"
"Rose!" Happy called walking through a group of people. "I need to get Miss Thompson back to her job," he said seriously to the man. She didn't have to get back to the compound any time soon but she knew Happy only said it as an excuse.
He didn't wait for the man to finish before he escorted Rose out. "Thank you." Rose glanced around at the rest of the workers as she went out. "Who's that?" she asked staring at a man in a black suit and beetle neck. She had seen him earlier watching Tony's presentation as well, not just looking though, observing critically, with resentment even.
Happy squinted his eyes glancing briefly at the man. "Don't know. Why?"
"I don't know..." she said feeling a tug on her stomach, "he seems sketchy. Might be trouble in the future."
"I'll ask."
It was almost ten minutes later that Tony arrived at the car looking shaken. "You okay?"
Tony looked back at his aunt. "Oh, yeah, yeah."
"You seem off," she observed. His eyes were big, focusing on a single spot as they did when he was thinking intently about something, something that disturbed him.
He glanced away trying to get the attention of himself. "It's going around."
He responded calmly, without bitterness, but Rose felt the jab.
She said nothing.
━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━━━━
IT HAS BEGANNNN
Ok so...this chapter was meant to be about 2500 words long but I ended up writing the double ups. It was a good place to start though, things aren't bad (in relationships at least), they're good for the most part but there's still tension that no one will speak of so...yeah
Hope you liked the beginning of this. Thank you for reading!