A/N: Well, here we go, part two of my Avengers series, Requiem of Heroes. This one, for the most part, will be told from Quicksilver and Wasp's point of view. It starts up two weeks after the final events of The Masters.

If you haven't read The Masters yet, please, I strongly urge you to do so in order to understand what's going on in this story. Promise you won't regret it ;-)


A Sad, Sad Song

Hydra Base, New Mexico

The Avengers were dead.

Dead, dead, dead.

It had been two weeks since they died and it still seemed like a sick joke. Janet Van Dyne had been watching it live from the outpost when Baron Zemo executed them in front of the New York and the world.

She had locked eyes with Steve before he entered the room the Masters of Evil had assembled in. He looked so calm, so collected, even though he had to have known what was about to happen. She tried to look strong, for herself and him, but ended up looking like a scared kid.

She watched every minute, every long, agonizing minute. Her heart felt like it weighed a hundred pounds in her chest, and was thumping nonstop. While the room grew silent when it seemed that the Hulk had arrived in a nick of time, she erupted into cheers. The exact opposite happened when that stupid cartoon (which she now had no intention of ever watching) ad rolled by.

Why didn't the Hulk show up like he was supposed to? Why didn't they free themselves and beat up the bad guys like they were supposed to? They were the good guys. They were supposed to win no matter the odds. The bad guys win the battles, but the good guys win the war. It was the law! Everyone knew that.

Everyone except Baron Zemo. He had been strutting around the base for the last two weeks while his team took over the world. He was notorious, a celebrity for killing the Avengers; more specifically for killing Tony Stark and Captain America. She broke down when Tony died. She couldn't be consoled no matter how much Henry tried when Steve died, and it got progressively worse as the minutes rolled by.

By the time Quicksilver offed Scarlet Witch, she was a blubbering mess lost in the throes of the rowdy, cheering agents of Hydra.

She spent the next five days in complete denial. It was as if the event hadn't happened and they were still alive and kicking somewhere. Her reasoning for thinking so, and she still kind of did, was that flash of red light from the Scarlet Witch. She was the one that made all kinds of crazy shit happen, so why not? Why not believe that they were still alive and just in hiding?

Once Henry caught wind of it, he brought her back to her unfortunate senses. 'They aren't alive, Janet,' he said. 'Believing so is only setting yourself up for heart wretching disappointment,' he said. And he was right. Damn it, was he right. It seemed that she was the only one who even believed it to begin with.

The following night, there was a big celebration in honor of the Masters of Evil. Attendance was ironically stated to be optional. Every agent of Hydra, plus other enemies of the Avengers showed up. Important people from AIM, Justin Hammer and General Thunderbolt Ross, albeit only to discuss the Hulk, all showed up.

She didn't go. Neither did Henry or Scott.

She had never seen a man more distraught than when Scott returned. He didn't eat or sleep for days, and just looked as though a mountain of guilt had settled on his shoulders. She told him every chance she got that it wasn't his fault, but he refused to listen.

Watching him beat himself up, sometimes literally, was heartbreaking.

Henry suspected that he may commit suicide, but as long as Cassie was still around, she doubted it. Needless to say, he wasn't taking it well. None of them, that being the four of them, were taking it well. It was the worst case scenario.

Even if they managed to escape, which was becoming more and more likely with each day, then who would they go to? Everyone with any pull at SHIELD was dead, the Avengers were gone, hell, even Stark Tower was a pile of rubble.

Not to mention that they were in the Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico. Even if they got away, big if, Janet wasn't feeling up to trekking for days in the middle of the desert under the hot July sun while being chased by Hydra goons.

But anything was better than being anywhere in the general vicinity of Madame Hydra. She didn't like thinking about Viper too much; the woman was a nutjob and was just plain creepy. Maybe it was teeth, or the fact that she kept smiling at her in the most spine chilling way possible during her long, difficult training sessions, but something made Janet feel uncomfortable around her.

Take her visit last night, for instance. While Henry gave her the last serum for her Wasp's Stings (to be explained later), all Viper did was stare at her with those disgusting green eyes. Well one eye; the other was always covered up by her hair, as if she were Jessica Rabbit. Why? Was her other eye deformed? Was she blind in her right eye? Did she even have a right eye? Was it actually some kind of mystical Egyptian artifact that allowed her to suck people's souls out and possess their bodies as mindless slaves?

These were serious questions that needed to be considered. Janet didn't want to have her soul sucked out and have Viper do God knew what to her poor, soulless body.

"Janet!"

She jumped. Lunch time at the Hydra base. She was sitting across from Henry, playing over a french fry while he was explaining something that wasn't pertaining to her or her own experiments, so she tuned him out in preference of Viper and her maybe mystical eyeball. "Yeah, what?"

"You sound irritable. You're not on your menstrual cycle, are you?" he inquired with the most serious expression ever.

She straightened out and looked at him as if he had just grown another head. "You did not just ask me that."

"It's a valid question. Anyway, there's a whole microscopic universe all around us. If I can just concentrate the Pym Particles enough, I can actually explore it. There's has to be thousands, maybe millions of untold secrets there. Just imagine the possibilities."

"Fascinating."

"I know, right! I should be able to set something up within a week. For an evil organisation, Hydra's labs are amazingly well equipped."

"Mmhmm."

"Can you imagine seeing actual oxygen molecules the size of planets?"

"Uh huh."

"Although, if we're smaller than an oxygen molecule, that will make breathing impossible."

"Yep."

He pulled out a pen and a napkin. "Maybe if I can rig the suits up with an pre-filled oxygen tank, then that will take care of that. But then the amount of time we'll be able to spend in the microverse will be reduced. Oh, that's what I'm calling it. Pretty clever, huh?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You're smart or whatever."

"You're not listening to a word I'm saying, are you?"

"I'm sure Tony would be ecstatic about this, too."

"It amazes me how unintentionally clever you are."

She looked up from her half eaten hamburger. "Hm? What about me?"

"You want to talk about Tony?"

"I wanna talk about the elephant in the room."

He looked around the room, and then flashed her a confused look. "What elephant?"

She restrained herself from smacking him. "I mean how are we getting out of here? If you want to stay and explore dust particles, fine, but I'm getting while the getting's good. Viper is barely here and the guards are too busy fingering their asses to notice."

Henry sighed. "I'd prefer if we talked about Tony."

"Why? Well, yeah, but don't you want to leave? I mean, they're mistreating us. They have Scott's daughter in a cell. They've turned him into an accomplice in the biggest execution in history. If they did that to them, what will they do to us?"

"…I don't know." He was quiet for a long while. Janet resigned herself to staring at her plate again. Her food was cold, but who cared, it was shit anyway. "There's nothing we can do anyway."

She looked up and frowned at him. "Why does that matter? And how do you even know?"

"Look at what they did. Who they beat. We're not gods. We're not spies. We're not supersoldiers. We're not rage monsters. We're not witches with powerful powers. We're just two smart people who really don't want to be here. You know as well as I do that if they wanted to find us, they'd more than be able to."

"Tony was just a smart guy." She frowned and sat back in her chair. Damn him, he was right and she knew it. "Still don't want to be here."

"And you think I do?" He stood and went to throw his untouched onion soup away. Janet followed him and strode out into the main hallway.

"I don't know, Hank. You were about to jizz your pants going on about their labs."

He sighed and shoved his hands into his lab coat. "That was just science talk. Janet, I don't like seeing them mistreat you and Scott. I don't like that Cassandra spends all day in a barren, token playpen and all night in a cell. I…"

Him not liking being forced to turn her into a freak was left unsaid. "Then let's do something about it. No more variables. No what-ifs or maybes. Let's just throw it all against the wind and go."

"Careful Janet, your heiress is showing," he replied dryly. She rolled her eyes. "I get it. But… just let me think on it."

"Think? About what? See, you're being a scientist, when you need to be an heiress. Stop thinking, and just do things. You'd be amazed at how much you'd actually accomplish if you planned nothing."

"And you would be amazed at how much more smoothly these things go when you do plan. Listen, I know you want to get out of here, but going about this half-assed is only going to get us killed, or worse. Just have some patience is all I'm asking."

Worse than dying? What could be worse than being dead? Janet considered him silently for the remaining time until they reached their quarters. "How long?"

"A week."

"A week! Hank –"

"I need time to plan for as many eventualities as possible. Plus, we have a lot of variables to compensate for. Give me seven days, and then I'll get back to you."

She sighed and nodded.

"You know, I really love how you two are talking about escape plans in the middle of a crowded base." They both turned, the same shocked expressions etched on their faces, to see Scott leaning against the doorframe to his quarters. "You'd think two people with four PhDs between them would know that's not a good idea."

"Heh," Henry chuckled, "so, are you…"

"Still suicidal?" Henry winced. "No. I'm… I'm doing better." He motioned for them to come inside. He closed the door after them.

His quarters were small, like all of the sleeping quarters at the Hydra based, formerly SHIELD base. Madame Hydra thought it good to move into a larger facility instead of being cooped up in the outpost.

The one thing Janet was thankful for. She was tired of freezing her ass off every night in the frozen tundra that was northern Canada. "Look," he started, "I'll cut to the chase. I want in on whatever you two are planning. I don't like my daughter being her. She's too easy a prey for that predator, Viper. I don't care if I make it, just get her out of here."

Janet and Henry didn't even need to consult one another. "We just naturally assumed you were coming with us. Or at least I did," she said.

"Yeah, there was no way we were leaving without you two."

Scott allowed himself a small, but unmistakably gracious smile. "Thanks, guys. I…" He sighed shakily and slumped down onto his bed. "I'm not sure I'll last much longer here."

"You? You're not the one getting bedroom eyes from Viper. I seriously worry that I'm going to wake up one morning with her tongue inches deep in my –"

"We get it, Janet. She scares us too. We'll just have to stick together and continue to do whatever she says."

"That's the problem. I did what she said, and look what happened." Scott buried his head in his hands. His fingers raked the edge of his strawberry blonde hair.

She sat down next to him on the bed and patted his thigh. "But you didn't actually –"

"But I was there! I was right there, and I just stood there! Like a statue! One …one of them actually promised to save my daughter, and I stood there and watched him die." Tears cascaded down his cheeks as his breath hitched every so often. "I can't even imagine how ashamed Cassie will feel of me when she gets old enough to understand this. And I don't blame her."

"Cassandra will never feel ashamed of you, Scott," Henry said firmly. "You're a good man, and a better father. An inordinate amount of people wouldn't have gone to the lengths you did to make sure you're child stayed safe. That alone is worthy of her appreciation, not to mention everything else you do for her.

"Listen. You may not want to hear this, but it's the truth. Had you interfered, you'd be dead, as well. There is no fallacy in that statement. You'd be dead, and Viper would be preparing Cassandra for whatever the hell she has her agents do. We don't want that, and neither do you."

"Yeah, it was a damned if you do, damned if you don't. You made the only decision you could make to keep your family safe."

Scott didn't look like he had even heard them, let alone believed them. His shoulder shook with silent sobs stemming from nearly two weeks of built up guilt.

Janet sat awkwardly on the bed, her armed wrapped around his shoulders and an ambivalent look on her face. No matter what she or Henry said, Scott felt that he was just as responsible as those monsters were. And them congratulating him every chance they got didn't help matters. He said he was wasn't suicidal, but she knew better than most that situations could change in an instant.

One moment, she was sitting in her office at Van Dyne Industries, the next, a hot blonde hunk was sitting across from her, blushing at every little thing she said. Now, that hunk was dead and she was stuck in the base of a terrorist wackjob who made her friend pluck her out of a car.

There was no reason to be certain that Scott would still be alive the next morning, let alone by the end of the week. People have offed themselves for much less. "Scott, just give Hank a week. I promise, we'll be out of here by then."

He didn't answer, but nodded despondently.

She glanced at Henry. Reluctant to leave him, she stood slowly. "I have to go. See you later, Scott."

"Bye."

She sighed sadly and stepped out with a passing glance at Henry, who appeared that he was going to stay with him for a little while longer. Just as well, she had hell to get ready for.