This story could probably read on its own, but I suggest reading "No More Memories" if you want to understand references like 'evil purple minion', Marie-Grace, and the left-handed photographer. This time around, the story revolves around Maria, Steve, and Natasha, told from Maria's point of view. Resumes at the "No More Memories" epilogue.
Maria didn't understand why these two people thought they knew her. She was certain she had never talked with the famous Tony Stark and his wife, and she had no idea why they thought she was the Maria Hill they were looking for.
"Maria Hill?" Stark said disbelievingly. "But you're dead."
"I assure you, Mr. Stark, I am not dead. In fact, I'm perfectly alive and I have no idea why I would be dead in the first place." Maria said. "I have to get back to work. It was a pleasure meeting you all. Mrs. Stark. Mr. Stark." she nodded politely.
"It's not funny, Maria. We thought you were dead for five years, and now you're here. Did Fury send you?" Stark demanded. Maria turned, her brunette hair blowing across her face.
"I'm not joking, sir. Maria Hill is a common name. You must mistake me for someone else." she insisted. "Please, I need to get back to work. Some people still need to make a living." She spun on her heel and walked away, clutching her camera in one hand.
"How do you explain the last twenty-five years, Maria?" Stark called after her. "What happened before you moved here?" Maria paused, and slowly she turned.
"The car accident wiped most of my memories, Mr. Stark. I have flashes of my friends, my life, but I never saw you." Maria replied coldly. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. It was a pleasure meeting Marie-Grace." Stark's eyebrows were lowered.
"We named her after you, Maria. We aren't mistaken. Come back to the Avengers Tower, and we'll try and help you get your memories back." he said. Maria knew the tone of voice. It was the one that her boss used when he wanted something and he wasn't taking 'no' for an answer.
"I don't need your help!" Maria spat. "I don't understand this, Mr. Stark, and with all due respect, I don't want to waste my life trying to be the Maria Hill that's dead!"
"SHE IS NOT DEAD!" Stark shouted. "YOU ARE THE MARIA HILL." Maria started walking away. Stark whipped out a photograph. Maria kept walking, her eyes ahead, facing the other side of the bridge. Stark caught up to her quickly.
"Look at this." he snarled. "Tell me it's not you." Maria had to look. It was being shoved in her face.
There, in the picture, were all the Avengers. Natasha Romanoff. Steve Rogers. Clint Barton. Wanda Maximoff. Vision. Bruce Banner. Tony Stark. Thor. The Avenger's partners- Elizabeth Ross, Pepper Potts and Jane Foster. Finally, on the end, wearing a white cashmere turtleneck, was Maria Hill. By the way her arm was held, Maria knew that it was after her mysterious injury that had been hidden from the public. The body was hers, and the face was even hers. But Maria remembered nothing of the picture, nor the people in it.
"It's not me. I don't remember when that picture was taken." Maria said, but now she was doubtful. How many people looked like Maria Hill? Was it a coincidence that they both took left-handed pictures? That they dressed the same?
"Come back to the Avengers Tower and let me talk to you about the Maria Hill five years ago." Stark offered. Maria hesitated. "We're not going to kidnap you."
"I have a job." Maria hedged.
"It will be taken care of. From now on, you're the Stark Industries publicist and photographer. National Geographic won't be needing your services." Stark said immediately. "You'll have access to Maria's previous account and money will be wired into it."
"I can't take a stranger's money, Mr. Stark, just because I look like Maria Hill." Maria protested.
"You're not a stranger, Maria. Not to me."
"Steve, get your butt down here now. Bring Spidergirl with you." Tony said through JARVIS's speaker. Steve frowned and set his book down. Natasha looked up from where she was painting. Steve held his hand out to her.
"Okay, Spidergirl." Steve laughed. Natasha wiped her hands on her smock and untied it.
"Alright, let's see what Tony wants." she said, her eyes sparkling.
When they got downstairs, Steve almost had a heart attack. He doubled over and had to put his hands on his knees.
"Careful, Tony, you're going to give the old man a heart attack." Natasha said, leaning up casually against the counter. "What is this, some kind of joke? It's not even funny. I don't appreciate the past being brought back." Tony looked agitated.
"I found her on the bridge. Gracie scraped her knee-"
"I can talk for myself, thanks, Mr. Stark." the figure of Maria Hill said. Steve could hardly believe what he was looking at. It was like an exact replica of Maria Hill was standing in front of them, with the same Midwestern accent and the ocean-blue eyes. It was perfect down to the curl of her hair.
"I was taking pictures on the bridge-"
"Left-handed, might I add." Stark said. Maria shot him a withering glare.
"And a little girl tripped and fell. I showed her my pictures and took her back to Mr. and Mrs. Stark." she continued. Steve thought it was strange that Maria was calling Tony Mr. Stark... It was like she didn't like him anymore, or didn't tolerate him.
"I introduced myself to the Starks and they started freaking out." Maria finished. "They seem to think that I'm their long-lost friend. I'm sorry, but I think you're wrong." Natasha's eyebrows had contracted so much that she looked almost sinister.
"Your arm is injured, correct?" Natasha asked. Maria hesitated and nodded.
"It was injured in a car crash about five years ago." she said.
"I did it. Steve, Coulson, Fury and I were in a meeting. You were there too. I was angry at Fury, so I threw a knife at him. You intercepted it and as a result, your artery was severed and the doctors sealed it shut. A while later, you opened it again carrying Pepper Potts back to a safehouse. Clint Barton was forced to open the wound a second time to burn the edges of the artery shut." Natasha said crisply. Maria sat down.
"You're saying that I'm not a normal person." she said, her voice shaking a little bit.
"You've never been a normal person." Steve replied, finally recovered from the shock of seeing Maria Hill again.
"I can't be her, because you buried her body somewhere." Maria said triumphantly. "There's no way that I can be her."
"Actually, no body was ever found."
Natasha wasn't sure what to make of Maria, who seemed alive and healthy. She was oddly... happy... and surprisingly open to the Avengers. The Maria Hill of five years ago would never have trusted the group so fully if they had claimed to know her. Maria's eyes were a duller shade of blue, as if there was a film over them, hiding the real color of her eyes. But the eyes were still the same blue, just faded, like they had been in the sun too long.
None of the other Avengers regarded Maria with suspicion. Tony and Pepper were thrilled to have Maria back, and Steve had immediately extended an invitation to dinner. Natasha hated this. Steve, her boyfriend for five years, should not be going out with other girls, even if they came back from the dead. Natasha thought Steve seemed a little too thrilled at Maria's return, and very enthusiastic about their dinner date.
Wanda was on a mission, so Natasha volunteered to be the one to pick her up from the airport. The Sokovian had been undercover as a journalist to track down two SHIELD agents that had joined HYDRA.
"Wanda, we need to talk." Natasha said. Wanda cocked her head at the assassin. Natasha had taken on an uncharacteristic tone of voice, and Wanda immediately read the suspicion in the Russian's mind.
"Maria Hill has returned from the dead. She's at the Avengers Tower now, and I want you to be prepared. I saw her and she is almost nothing like the Maria Hill we knew five years ago. I think there's something wrong with her. It's like she's sick or something. She also claims to have forgotten who we are, but something makes me think otherwise."
"Maria's alive?" Wanda repeated incredulously. "That's impossible. She fell a hundred feet into the gorge! She'd have been pulled under by the current. There's no way that someone could have survived that."
"I know. Keep track of her, and I will, too. I don't trust someone who comes back from the dead." Natasha said darkly. "And why, after all these years, have we only just seen her in New York City? She claims to have been around for five years."
"People see only what they expect to see. None of you expected to see Maria- so you didn't." Wanda said. "I think that Maria really does have amnesia. I really do think she's the Maria that we lost, just hidden under all that confusion. She's a fighter. She could have survived that fall, and if she's truly at the Tower, then I'll believe whatever I like. Thanks for sharing your doubts, though, Natasha. I'll look for what you've seen.
Maria was alive. Steve could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the brunette standing in the common room of the Avengers Tower, looking just like his long-dead friend. He hated that she had no idea of who he was, but he was determined to get to the bottom of her amnesia.
"We could go see Phantom of the Opera!" he told her as he walked her to a guest room. "We saw that five years ago, with all the Avengers. It might help you remember." Maria only nodded, oddly quiet.
"I just don't understand how I could know you all." she said wonderingly. "You're all so famous, and I'm just a photographer from National Geographic. I don't know how we would have known each other."
"All that matters is that you're here now, and you're safe. I've missed you a long time, Maria. I'm not letting you go again." Steve said forcefully. Maria blinked.
"The sentiment is appreciated, Mr. Rogers." she said politely. "I can't accept that, though, until I figure out who you actually were in my formal life."
Maria's back! WOO HOO. I have another grand scheme on the way, and I don't think you guys will like it! XD Or maybe you'll enjoy a plot twist to shake it up.
It takes place five years after the mission in Russia, and for the people who just are reading this without first looking at No More Memories, Maria was presumed dead after falling into a gorge in Russia. Her arm, three months prior to that, had been accidentally injured by Natasha Romanoff, who had flashbacks following intense torture sessions. Steve and Natasha are in a relationship.
Someone asked me where War Machine and Falcon were in this story. Let's just pretend they never existed, because I really don't feel like adding them into 23 already published chapters.