∆ {1¹⁰} {THORNS AND ROSES} ∆
ROXI DIDN'T LIKE showing her emotions, but here she was, standing in a ring of dead Chitauri, a look of pure shock and fear painted on her face, her ice blue eyes wide as she looked at the scene around her. The Chitauri's metal armour was twisted and warped in a strange way, and judging by the way it sat on their bodies and the screeching sounds that had come from them, they had been crushed by their own armour. Her mind had gone numb, and her blood had run cold as it coursed through her veins. Her broken communicator was squealing and hissing static in her ear, but it felt as distant as the noise of the battle in the background to Roxi.
All she could hear was Loki's words, twisting and slithering through the air, repeated over and over in one phrase. Something like magic. She could hear him saying it so many times is a different way every time. One was a voice of utter malice, the other of praise, and as the three words pranced around her in the air, her wide, wild eyes wandered desperately over the wreckage, hoping desperately that Loki would pop up somewhere and claim responsibility, that he was actually chanting the phrase over and over, almost yelling it in her ear, before whispering from ten meters away, his voice carried by the wind. But she found nothing. It was just her. She had done this. Blood dripped from her chin once it had finally wandered down her face from her temple, landing on the dusty rubble below her. She couldn't feel it, her mind caught up in her actions like it was stuck in a thicket of rose thorns, grasping and desperate not to let go, spiking her now and then, sending slight jolts of pain through her head if she tried to process what had happened. Try as she might, she couldn't find the rose through the thorns. The quarterstaff in her hand, retracted back into the handle and slick with blood, both red and purple, was beginning to fall out of her hand, as her fingers hung down as she stood, frozen in shock. Eventually it fell, and it hit a chunk of cement, covered with shattered glass that had probably been part of one of the office building either side of the street, bouncing a few times before settling, stirring up a slight cloud of dust, the clunking of the impact barely registering in her tangled mess of a head.
Roxi didn't know how she stayed like that. All she knew was shock, numbness, and a pain in her head, different to any she'd ever felt before. What brought her out of it was something quite trivial. The comms device nestled in her right ear screamed at her, and she realised that it had gone quiet while she'd been caught up in her own mind. Voices began to filter through again, as if the shock-wave from whatever Roxi had done, had fixed it. The first broken voice she heard was Clint's, but she only caught a few words of what he was saying.
"R- where i- der?" He sounded exhausted, and slightly in pain, meaning he'd probably received some kind of injury. The next voice she heard was Steve's, and she subconsciously wondered if his hair was still slicked back like it had been earlier.
"She was fi- t- th us last t- saw- her." He sounded similar to Clint, his breathing heavy and his voice slightly strained, in the background, Roxi could faintly hear Thor yelling at the dead Chitauri. The earpiece crackled again, releasing a harsh whine, almost strong enough for Roxi to take it out; almost.
"I saw her fighting earlier, she was a way away from us, she must have drifted while fighting," Natasha's voice broke through the near-silent chaos erupting around her, clear, although the volume wavered and the comms crackled a little. It was at that point that Roxi found the metaphorical rose. She'd didn't know how long she'd been pushing away the thorns as they cut into her skin, but she had found the clearing, and she could see the rose.
Her mind cleared, like it never had before, completely calm, like a sea that had never seen a storm, no emotions gathering in the blue sky like a dark thundercloud, just sunshine, clouds and smooth sailing. Roxi raised a hand to her bleeding temple and shook her head slightly, before bending down and picking up the discarded quarterstaff.
"Agent Ryder, do you copy?" Natasha's stern voice drifted through the speaker into her ear, and after a short moment when Roxi brushed the dust off the weapon, and wiped the blood from her chin, she could hear everyone waiting tensely for a response, even though she could hear gunshots and Steve's shield ricocheting off of the Chitauri's metal armour.
"Yeah," she spoke wearily, pressing a hand to the comms in her right ear, fingers coated with half-dry blood, "I copy." She heard Clint let out a breath of relief, close to a sigh.
"Where are you?" Steve asked quickly, grunting slightly as he hurled his shield - she presumed. Natasha had been making her way to Stark Tower on the Chitauri speeder, occasionally swerving wildly to avoid pieces of buildings that seemed to be trying their best to aim for her, when she realised that she hadn't heard Ryder's cool, calm voice through the comms for a moment, and had inquired about where she was.
"I'm on East 41st," Roxi replied, after glancing around for a street sign, and ended up finding it on the floor twisted and damaged, half buried beneath a pile of rubble.
"Alright, make your way to Lexington where it crosses 42nd," he instructed, and after another glance around to get her bearings, Roxi set off, over the twisted carcasses of the Chitauri and the huge boulders of rubble that littered the street, her bloody fingers covering her stinging, bleeding left forearm, trying to protect it from any further infection that it might've already gained, she stumbled around a couple of corners and jumped from vehicle to vehicle to reach the bridge. When she had finally made it up, blood dried and caked on her face, dark hair hanging limply and her eyes clouded, she manoeuvred over the rubble, being careful not to twist her ankle of break her leg before she finally reach the spot where Thor and Steve were fighting.
"Hey boys," she called, taking her hand off the injury and swapping the quarterstaff into her right hand, either end shooting out of the handle, as she came close enough to be heard, "leave some for me!" And so they fought. Roxi had never fought so long, against so many opponents with such advanced weapons before. She could feel every fibre of her body screaming at her, her muscles ached and her head pounded, but she kept going, putting as much force as she could behind every thrust and cut, because she wasn't fighting just for herself. She was fighting for the Avengers, for S.H.I.E.L.D, for the people of Manhattan and possibly the world. She couldn't lose. If she did, hundreds of thousands of people could die. It was a heavy weight to carry on her shoulders, but she was prepared to do it if she had to.
But she didn't have to. She had a team Here she was, fighting with Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, the Hulk and Hawkeye, together. They would share the burden. With that realisation, it felt like some of that weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and her movements became slightly quicker and stronger, fighting back the hordes of Chitauri desperate to claim a world where they didn't belong. But they kept coming. Roxi hated to admit it, but the only way that they might make it out of this alive was if the portal closed. So she kept fighting, waiting, hoping. Finally, Natasha's voice crackled through the comms line once more.
"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." A wave of cold relief ran through Roxi's body, and she shuddered slightly as Steve practically yelled through the comms
"Do it! "
"No, wait," Tony instructed, and Roxi strengthened her grip on the handle of her quarterstaff as the relief began to drain from her body and as the next group of Chitauri grew nearer.
"Stark these things are still coming," Cap argued as she thrust the tip of her weapon into a Chitauri's face.
"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow up in less than a minute," Tony told them with no hesitation. Roxi spun on the spot to gain momentum before slamming the tip of the quarterstaff into an alien's temple, through its helmet. She withdrew it , leaving a gaping hole that quickly filled with blood. She heard a clang behind her, and turned to see a Chitauri crumpling as Steve hit it on the head with his shield, sending her a nod before quickly moving on. She heard an alien grunt behind her just in time and ducked as a bolt of energy soared through the air where her head head been moments before. She turned, quarterstaff extended like a bat, and stood up as she did so, slamming the weapon into the underside of the Chitauri's chin, probably breaking it's jaw, before it crumpled and she moved onto her next opponent.
"And I know just where to put it," Tony continued. It didn't quite click in Roxi's head what he was talking about until Cap intervened with his own comment.
"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." Tony didn't answer Steve directly, instead commanding JARVIS, his A.I and making an attempt to call Pepper Potts, his girlfriend and CEO of Stark Industries. He was going to take it through the portal, the idiot. Roxi saw him shoot over head just as she pushed another Chitauri off the end of her quarterstaff with her foot, glancing up at the hole in the sky just in time to see Stark rocket through it, holding the nuke as he did so. The following moments seemed impossibly long. They watched, and they watched, and they watched. No Iron Man came shooting out of the hole, cocky as ever and ready to boast about his act of heroism, and even though she didn't really like him, Roxi began to worry. They were a team after all.
Eventually, she had to tear her gaze from the portal and onto a Chitauri that was a few feet away (luckily, one without an energy gun) so she could try not to die. But just as she strengthened her grip on her weapon, ready to fight, the alien collapsed in a heap on the rubble, the glowing purple mass from inside it seemed to die out, and the rest of the Chitauri followed suit moments later. The speeders crashed into buildings, courtesy of their limp drivers, the leviathans fell from the sky, landing down on the streets wit ha huge crash and rumble, crushing cars and parasols that one sat outside the quaint restaurants that had lined the street, and the ground forces simply collapsed, as if someone had hit a giant kill button. But there was still no Tony. There was a kind of deafening silence as they all waited for Tony to come out proudly, his armour gleaming, even when the paint was scratched and chipped and the suit itself was nearly half-destroyed. Instead of waiting any longer, Steve gave an order.
"Close it." A moment later, Natasha complied, because their was the sound of fighting energy through the comms line, before the blue beam faltered, and then died out. The portal closed quickly, almost too quickly. Almost.
There were a couple of things that Roxi wasn't keen on. The first was falling. She didn't know why, but she'd developed a mental block when it came to falling. Maybe it was because she always ended up doing it in her nightmares. The second was arrogant people. She'd always found them hard to deal with, and her habit of sneaking sarcastic remarks into conversations never helped when you were in a room with someone who had an ego the size of their house. The last, was rather trivial. Olives on pizza. She liked pineapple on pizza, but she had never been particularly keen on olives anyway (so maybe that had contributed to it). And now, two of them were happening at once. A man with the ego the size of his private jet was falling from a thousand feet in the air. Tony's armour glinted as he plummeted in a dead drop, and all Roxi could do was trace his progress with her eyes, hoping someone would catch him, or he would somehow wake up.
"He's not slowing down."
A few feet away, Thor began to swing his hammer, preparing to fly up and stop the arrogant billionaire from dying, but before he could, Tony was snatched out of the air by the Hulk, who slammed into the side of the building before, jumping off, with Stark safely in his arms. The Hulk landed on the ground with a great thud a little way away, and almost threw Tony away from him. Roxi would've commented on it, but it didn't feel like the right time. She ran over, just behind Steve and Thor to check on their ally clad in red and gold, crouching next to him as soon as she reached him. Thor flipped him over, and yanked off the faceplate of his mask, throwing it to the side as they all scanned Stark for any sign of life. Steve leaned in and listened, hoping to hear breathing, before he sat back on his calves, a dejected look on his face. His hand wandered over the area of Tony's ark reactor, jumping from one spot to another over the dented armour, searching for who knows what. He withdrew his hand when he realised that he couldn't do anything. They all watched his un-moving form for a few moments, and Roxi felt something dark stir deep inside her, and her stomach dropped like a pebble at the top of a canyon. Her feelings bounced around a bit, between, guilt ,fear worry and determination, before landing on a mixture of all of them. The Hulk let out a loud, short yell, and Tony's head jerked up, his breathing fast and hard. The Hulk had scared him back to life. The Hulk let another roar, this one triumphant. Stark looked around for a few moments, calming down as he did so.
"What the hell?" He scanned the faces above him, before saying, "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me." Roxi rolled her eyes slightly, but the comment didn't annoy her as much as his others had, she was just secretly glad he wasn't dead.
"We won." The simple two words from Steve's mouth made Roxi's feelings change as quickly as they had fallen, as if a balloon had been attached to the pebble, and flew it up, back out of the canyon. Euphoria, relief, and exhaustion were the prominent feelings now, as Roxi relaxed, the quarterstaff shooting back into its handle, before she wiped off a layer of blood and grime on her torn, bloody combat suit. Until now, she had practically forgotten about her head injury and the burn on her left forearm, but now that the adrenaline began to wear off, the pain lanced through like a snake. It left her breathless for a second, before she refocused on what Tony was saying.
"Alright, yay!" he said halfheartedly, raising one arm feebly, "All right, good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow, let's just take a day. You ever tried Shawarma?" The last question attracted the small group's attention as they sent him quizzical looks.
"There's a Shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."
"We're not finished yet," Thor interrupted Ton's ramble, though it didn't seem to phase him. There was a few seconds of silence, filled by heavy breathing, before
"And then Shawarma after."
Once they had made their way up to the Avengers tower via various routes; Roxi had had to catch a lift from the Hulk, seeing as Tony's suit wasn't in the best condition, and Thor simply didn't want to, they approached Loki, who was crawling out of a dent on the ground. They stood as a group, waiting for him to turn around, Clint's bow pointed directly at his face, with Roxi looming like a presence in the back, next to Tony. Loki let out a short breath.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."
And then they had Shawarma.
{~}
THEY WERE MEETING up for what Roxi hoped would be the last time in a while. She had arrived on a motorbike she'd bought a few years ago when she'd had more free time. It wasn't a flashy bike, but it did it's job. She had her leather jacket on again, her left hand in her pocket as she fiddled with the wolf key ring, the burn scar across he forearm still visible. Her right hand hung loosely by her side, and the bruise on her temple was beginning to fade. Tony was dressed in a suit, with a stereotypical briefcase by his side, as he walked away from his sports car. Natasha, Bruce and Clint had arrived in a S.H.I.E.L.D car, and Steve on his own bike. She wasn't entirely sure how Thor and Loki had arrived, but she did know that she'd been waiting for twenty minutes and had ended up tuning into a radio discussion about the battle on her phone.
All the speculation going back and forth was rather amusing, as well as the texts that Tony kept sending her when he though of a first name that would 'suit her'. He'd been trying to guess for a couple of days now, since he'd asked what it was, and she'd told him that if he needed to know, he would know. Since then, she had sometimes received up to 50 messages in a couple of messages, all of which were Tony's guesses at her first name. At least she had something to annoy him with.
Loki had shackles on with long chains that trailed down to his mid-shin, even when he held his wrists out in front of him. They all walked towards the circle on the ground slowly, each dressed in their own definition of casual clothes, except Tony. Selvig, who had apparently tagged along, revealed a glass cylinder about ten inches wide, with ornate, gold-coloured stops at each end, while Tony opened his case to show the Tesseract. The stone was placed into its holder and handed to Thor on Loki, one handle each, just after Natasha whispered something in Clint's ear, making him smirk. Thor gave them a nod, before he twisted the handle, and harnessed the power to arrive back on Asgard. With a beam and flash of bright blue light, the pair disappeared, leaving the Avengers and Selvig behind.
Roxi watched the people around her say their goodbyes, and made her way over to make a few of her own. She called after Clint, who turned around and waited for her. She held out her hand, and he took it, while she said playfully
"You're luckily I didn't tell them that you scream like a girl," grinning at the agent. He scoffed, before answering,
"You would never."
"Don't test me, Hawkeye," she teased him, before dropping his hand.
"Goodbye Clint, I'll see you around."
"Don't get yourself in too much trouble," he called over his shoulder as he made his way to the car. Roxi felt someone behind her and turned calmly to find a certain redhead waiting patiently.
"You'll have to tell me that story sometime," she mused, watching Clint' retreating form.
"At some point," Roxi countered, her hand stilling as she gripped the keyring in the palm of her hand.
"It's been nice to get to know you a little, Agent Romanoff," she teased lightly, attracting Natasha's forest green eyes back to her.
"It has, and I hope to learn more about you, Agent Ryder," she countered. Roxi laughed lightly, before shaking Natasha's hand and making her way over to her bike, throwing her right hand up in a wave over her shoulder. The redhead watched her go, smiling slightly. The ice-eyed agent was hard to read, and she liked the occasional challenge. Figuring out Agent Ryder was certainly that. Natasha watched her get on the bike, start the engine, kick up the stand and driver away, before finally joining Clint in the car.
On her way back to her apartment, Roxi though about the incident at the battle. Had Loki done something to her? That seemed to be the only thing that made sense. Whatever happened, it couldn't be reversed now, she was fairly sure. The best thing she could do was at least learn to beat back her.. 'powers', and the safest way to do that, would be alone. She preferred that no-one else would find out, because that would just make everything more complicated, so that meant that she needed to be alone when she practised, and she needed to be careful.
Roxi had never been one to run from her problems, and she wasn't going to start now. Instead, she would run head-first towards it. She had to leave. Not entirely, but she had to get off the map. That meant she had to move out of her apartment, into a more secluded house if she could, preferably with lots of space in case something went wrong. She wouldn't let anyone else get hurt because of her. She had to do it alone. She made up her mind as she drove along on her motorbike, determined to minimise the amount of people getting injured by her. If anyone should get hurt as a result of her experimentation, it should be her, she reasoned.
So she left, and dropped off the map, but she never stopped practising.
{A/N:} Ugh.
Writer's Block.
Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, but it took me a while because it wasn't following the main story, this one was mostly about Roxi. Let me know what you think because it's not my best chapter, but I'm pretty happy with it. I finally reached the end of Avengers: Assemble! This is the furthest I've got with a book of Wattpad and I'm very proud of this one. Next up is Winter Soldier. Let me know if you see any errors or mistakes.
JabberJay11
3835 Words
Written: 20/ 08 / 2020
Published: 20/ 08 / 2020