CHAPTER FIVE
Don't Take From My Pile
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Ana stepped down onto the grass after getting cleaned up and changing into a few of Laura's old clothes. She walked over to the quinjet, passing Steve and Tony who were chopping wood further down the path. She gave them a small wave as she went by and opened up the ramp.
She let out a breath before stepping inside and going to her backpack. She zipped it open and looked at the file. She closed her eyes for a second before taking it and flipping through it. She crossed her legs and sat in the corner of the quinjet as she read it.
It had her name, her birth date, and her biological parents' name. Tears pooled in her eyes as she read Lillian Kravinoff and Marcus Michaels for the first time. She smiled slightly, she found them. But it soon dropped when she read they died when she was born. Her mother was Russian and her father was born in the neighbourhood she grew up in, Queens. He was a surgeon at the hospital while her mother was a KGB agent.
Ana wondered how two very different people met. Then she went on and thought about how they fell in love, where did they go for their first date, what kind of people were they. She looked for any photographs and only came across one of her father. She smiled at it, she looked a lot like him.
"Ana?"
Ana looked up at Natasha as she entered the quinjet. She sat up as the red head approached her, a warm smile on her face. "Hey there." She greeted and sat down next to Ana with a sigh.
Ana stayed silent as Natasha took the file out of her hands. She glanced at the woman, watching her mouth part open slightly as she shifted through the pages. "Oh my... is this real?" She questioned, looking up at Ana.
She nodded and rubbed her eyes, "Yeah, when Tony took Strucker's files, this was in one of the boxes. I found it a while back but didn't open it until now. I guess I wasn't ready, but now that I remember..." She answered.
Natasha smiled at her softly and brought the picture of Lillian up to her face and compared the mother and daughter. "You look like her." She hummed.
Ana smiled. "Mom, Lillian, she was a KGB agent. And dad was a surgeon at the hospital in my neighbourhood. One of the best." She told Natasha as she flipped through the pages, stopping on one particular page.
"Not only that. Look," Natasha showed her the paper, "Uh, Marcus. He had enhanced strength. Lillian, she was fast and her senses were heightened. Just like you." She said.
Ana breathed out a chuckle, "So, it's genetic. My abilities, they're not an experimental disaster." She said, taking the file.
Natasha patted her shoulder, "I'm glad you found them. Sorry that they're not here, but at least you know their names." She smiled.
Ana nodded, glancing at the file. She still needed to know who here adoptive family was, and where they were right now. Maybe they were taken down with the rest of the Hydra agents, or maybe they hid from her now that she knew who they really were.
Ana then hesitantly looked at Natasha before shaking her head and closing the file, putting back in her pack. Natasha caught the look and stood up with her, "What is it?" She asked.
They walked out of the quinjet. Ana shoved her hands in the jean jacket Laura gave her, "It's just, uh, when I saw Strucker back in Sokovia, he said something to control my actions. They put safe words into my mind when I was young, I can't remember them all but at least I know one," She sighed before pursing her lips.
"Kosmos."
Natasha furrowed her eyebrows, "Kosmos? What does that mean?" She said, unknowingly setting off Ana's mind.
Ana blanked. She stopped walking and replied, "It was the first Russian satellite to launch in March sixteenth, 1962. It represents one of their greatest achievements. And I am one of their greatest achievements." She said.
Natasha looked at her shocked, bringing a hand to her mouth after finding out what she did. Ana then blinked and grinned at Natasha like nothing happened, "I just totally blanked there for a second, my bad. What was it that I said again?" She questioned tilting her head to the side.
Natasha grabbed her hand and dragged her to Tony and Steve, "Nothing, you just said you wanted to break a few things." She replied. She was worried if she brought it up it would happen again. And she had no idea how to even fix it.
Ana laughed and let herself be pulled along, "That sounds like me."
Natasha gently pushed Ana to Tony's side before walking back inside the house. Ana smiled at the men, "Hey. You need some help?" She specifically asked Tony who had a smaller pile compared to Steve's.
Steve got that and chuckled. She smiled at him before taking of her jacket, revealing her black t-shirt and took a log of wood, nodding at Tony. Tony smirked at her and rested his axe against his shoulder, "Free country. Just don't go through the whole thing, I need to stretch." He said.
Ana smiled before grabbing each side of the wood and tearing it in half. Steve and Tony watched her drop the two piece in front of her surprised. She then scoffed, "It's like you forgot I have super strength guys." She said.
"How you holding up?" Steve asked, his eyes showing his concern.
Ana's face fell for a second before giving him a smile, "I'm fine. Really."
Tony sighed, and turned to face Steve. "Thor didn't say where he was going for answers?"
"Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things." Steve said, glancing back at the house. "I was kind of hoping Thor would be the exception."
"Yeah, give him time. We don't know what the Maximoff kid showed him." Tony said.
Ana decided to sit down and watch them rather than get splinters in her hands. "She showed me. Next time I see her, I'm going to thank her. Saved me a whole lot of stress in finding out the hard way." She mumbled.
Steve chopped a piece of wood with his axe and placed it down on the ground, as he turned to pick up another. "'Earth's Mightiest Heroes.' Pulled us apart like cotton candy."
Tony reached for his axe and held it in between his hands. "Seems like you walked away all right." He said. Ana raised an eyebrow at that.
Steve turned to face Tony. "Is that a problem?" He asked.
"I don't trust a guy without a dark side." Tony said, and split open another piece of wood with his axe. "Call me old fashioned."
"Well let's just say you haven't seen it yet." Steve said.
"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?" Tony said, walking up closer to Steve.
"Well I guess you'd know. Whether you tell us is a bit of a question." Steve said. He raised the axe over his head and lowered it down, slamming it into the wood, breaking it apart.
"Banner and I were doing research." Tony said.
"That would affect the team." Steve said.
"That would end the team," Tony replied, "Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the 'why' we fight, so we can end the fight, so we get to go home?"
Steve reached for another wood stump and tore it apart with his bare hands. "Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time." Steve said.
Tony listened to his words. He was about to respond, but Laura had come out to join them. "I'm sorry. Mr. Stark, uh, Clint said you wouldn't mind, but, our tractor, it doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought maybe you might..."
"Yeah, I'll give her a kick." Tony said.
Laura smiled, and turned to look at Ana who was deep in thought. She frowned but thought it was best to leave her to her thoughts.
"Don't take from my pile." Tony said, pointing to his smaller pile against Steve's bigger pile.
Ana stood up, brushing the grass off her jeans. She walked to Steve as he readied for another swing. "You know Tony just did what he thought was right. He has different views on things, he sees the world form a different perspective that the rest of us. Ultron wasn't his fault. He didn't mean for this to happen." She told him, trying to get him to see it from Tony's point of view. She didn't think Ultron was Tony's fault, he just wanted to make the world a safer place for all of them.
Steve chopped the wood in half and sighed, glancing at her. "I know, Ana. Believe me, I understand Tony's view on things. It's just every time I think we made the world a safer place, something new comes up and destroys that image. And this time it's Ultron." He said, shaking his head.
Ana clapped his back and gave him a smile, "That's why it's our job to keep fighting. That's what Ultron is, a job. And when we finish it, I guess we'll wait for the next big bad and take that down too." She said.
Steve gave her a smile in return, "Together."
Ana nodded. She then looked at Steve's huge pile, "I think that's enough wood to last two winters, Steve." She joked.
Steve crossed his arms as he looked at the broken wood, "I didn't realise." He mumbled.
Ana heard Clint call her name and motioned for Steve to follow her, "Come on, I can smell the food from here." She said as they walked to the house.
"Who are you bunking with?" Steve asked her.
Ana shrugged, "Maybe the little ones. The last time I was here, they made me tell them my mission stories. I am quite the agent." She said in false arrogance.
Steve smirked, his eyes sparkling with mischief, "Like that time you accidentally lost an arms dealing gang?"
Ana gaped at him, "Natasha told you?!"
Steve laughed as they entered the house, "She also told me you wouldn't leave Mexico until you found them and you did. You stopped their business for good." He smiled. Ana rolled her eyes with a smile and pulled him along,
"Let's go, Captain."
- - -
"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time." Fury explained, taking his last bite out of his sandwich. "My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked. Ana was finishing her dinner as Fury sat down next to her. "Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere." Fury said, taking a sip of his drink. "Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."
Tony looked at Fury. "He still going after launch codes?"
"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Fury said.
"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare." Tony said, yanking the dart out of the dart board. Ana looked at him wide eyed, "Are you serious?" Tony just smirked in response as Fury narrowed his eyes at him.
"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." Fury said.
"Nexus?" Steve asked.
"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." Bruce said.
"So what'd they say?" Clint asked, glancing at the darts in his hands.
"He's fixated on the missiles," Fury said. "But the codes are constantly being changed."
"By whom?" Tony asked just as Clint's arrow came zooming across the room, nearly scraping against Tony's cheek if it hadn't been for Tony to move out of the way. Tony whirled his head around to stare at who threw the dart, and Clint raised his hands in the air, giving him a sheepish grin on his face.
Ana looked over at Clint and couldn't help but chuckle. She got off her seat and handed him the dishes.
"Party's unknown." Fury said.
"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.
"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing." Fury said. "Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."
"I might need to visit Oslo, find our unknown." Tony said, leaning his hands against the threshold, as he stood in between the doorway.
"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha said.
Ana nodded. "I'm with Nat on this one," Ana said, walking out from underneath Tony's arms. He clapped her shoulder and followed her to the table.
"I do, I have you." Fury said. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world." Fury said as he crossed the kitchen. Clint had turned around and leaned against the counter, listening to him speak. Everyone looked at each other.
"Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission," Fury continued. "And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand," Fury said. "Outwit the platinum bastard."
Natasha pouted in a teasing manner. "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." She grinned slightly at Steve. Ana smirked at her and they shared a small laugh.
"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve asked, glancing at her with a grin on his face.
"So what does he want?" Fury asked.
"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve replied.
"Person bodies," Tony said. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."
"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha said sarcastically.
Ana looked at her with a nod, "You bet your ass."
Clint smirked to himself.
"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve." Bruce said, walking up next to Natasha. He looked at Nicole's painted butterfly. "Ultron's going to evolve."
Ana and Fury looked up at Bruce. "How?" They asked at the same time.
"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"
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Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter and please tell me what you thought about it!
Q- What do you think about this whole Captain America was always Hydra in the comics?