So, I felt that I needed to add this filler chapter in here. It fit perfectly with the direction I have the story going in. A few flashbacks that I needed to pull out and a bit more info on what Skylar went through with Hydra.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel.
It has been 3 days since Skylar finally awoken from her unconscious state. Steve could still feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest at the memory of seeing her beautiful brown eyes filling with tears when she first awoke. He wasn't sure what to think but his mind was reeling in worry and terror, having thought that she had forgotten him just like Bucky did. He wasn't sure how he would have handled that, if he could at all. Almost positive he couldn't handle that.
Staring off the balcony of the Avenger's shared living quarters, his eyes staring at the view unblinking. Skylar was currently with Dr. Banner down in the lab, doing a few more tests to make sure that she was alright. But really, was she? Steve knew not to get his hopes up yet this was the woman he loved, the woman he would lay his life down for whenever need be, all he had was hope.
His grip on the metal railing of the balcony tightened ever so slightly as the memory of when she first awoke, thundered through his head. She was now an enhanced as they had once called Wanda and her brother. She was taken, a hard-headed trained agent only to return half the woman she had once been. Natasha had laid it on him when he had confessed that bit. She made sure to rip him a new one mentioning how lucky they were just to get her back in one piece, physically, especially considering Bucky's case.
He hung his head.
The two people that meant more to him then his life, he had let them down. Both of them.
Bucky was now on the run from SHIELD and about every known organization in the world while the woman he loved beyond reason was suffering because he couldn't save her. If this was some sick joke by the gods, he knew he deserved it. He didn't want this and neither did she.
"How are you feeling today?" He asked as he took up his usual chair beside her bed. She smiled exhausted in his direction, her platinum hair fanned over the navy blue pillows piled under her back, helping to prop her up.
"As good as I did yesterday." Her small voice answered, showing him how truly exhausted she really was though she tried not to show it. After having test after test done, Dr. Cho and Dr. Banner had informed Steve that her body was exhausted beyond her natural ability to cope. That whatever Hydra had done to her, they did it with the intention of running her bone dry. Even now, she was being pumped with blood that they were able to retrieve for her and resting as best as she could to gain back her strength.
"You should rest then." He smiled back softly in her direction, reaching over to brush a stray hair from her face before resting his hand on her cheek. She chuckled lightly, leaning into his touch before pecking his hand.
"Still such a worry wort." She teased lightly, smiling a bit brighter when she noticed the laugh crinkles forming at the corners of his eyes.
"I have reason to be worried about you doll." He added back proudly, watching equally amused as her own laugh crinkles began to form.
"I've missed you….soo much." She whispered, now looking at him seriously, her eyes panning over every inch of his face.
"After the first month or so, I began to think I would never see you again." Her voice got soft while tears began to fill her eyes, spilling over onto the pillows.
"Hey….shhhh, you're here now and safe. I'm not letting you out of my sight ever again, promise." Steve quickly stood from his seat, slipping beside her careful of the machines before wrapping his arm around his shoulder, pulling her to his chest. She let out a choked sob as her uninjured hand lifted up to grasp the front of his shirt, afraid that he would disappear if she didn't have any physical hold of him. Steve on the other hand, shut his eyes tightly in despair, burying his nose in her familiar scented hair before kissing the crown of her head.
He would burn the world to the ground if anything more happened to her.
It was quiet for some time as Steve held her gently to his chest, his hand rubbing up and down her arm.
"We never stopped looking for you sweetheart. Never. We sought you out every day and night, every country and looked into every tie we could get our hands on. We searched endlessly for you." Steve whispered into her hair, feeling her grip on him tighten as he spoke.
"I would never give up on you. Never. Even in death." He promised, planting his lips against the top of her head firmly.
"I love you."
"I love you too." She tilted her head back, welcoming the familiar feeling of his soft lips against hers as he kissed her. Pulling away, he smiled down at her, caressing her cheek before resting his cheek atop her head.
Broken or not, this was the woman he was bound determined to spend the rest of his life with.
"Steve?" Her soft voice perked up a few minutes into their silent sitting.
"Hm?" He hummed, continuing to run his fingers through her soft hair.
"My hair, do you hate it?" She whispered, the clear sound of self-consciousness obvious on her tone. Steve pulled away, glancing down at her in surprise.
"You're hair?" He asked confused as she nodded, looking down to a platinum lock hanging down her shoulder. Steve watched as she fiddled with the lock before smiling as he kissed her forehead.
"Platinum hair, white hair, pink hair, blue hair. Doesn't matter what color your hair is doll, I'd still love you more than life itself."
He smiled slightly to himself as the memory of her worry about her hair color teased him. She had suddenly been so self-conscious about her hair color, that she had thought he would react badly to it. Honestly, she could be 100 pounds over weight with bright pink hair and he'd still think she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Chuckling, he glanced down at his shoes before peering back up at the scene. The things this woman made him feel.
Aside from that, he had been so angry when she finally was able to tell him what she could remember about her stay with Hydra. Originally Fury had intended to question her but neither Steve, Tony or Clint was having it. If they needed answers, they would send one of their own in to ask.
"Every once in a while, I'm not sure how long in between sessions it was, they would place me in this chair with a metal helmet that came over the top." She lifted her uninjured hand to demonstrate how it came over and what it covered on her face.
"A metal helmet?" Tony's brow perked in anger as she silently nodded.
"What was it for?" Natasha hesitantly asked though something inside of her was telling her exactly what it was used for.
"They would….." She swallowed heavily, taking in a shaky breath while Steve tightened his grip around her shoulder.
"It's alright doll. You don't have to say anything you don't wish to say." Steve whispered down at her as she shook her head, a few platinum locks falling out of her braid.
"Tell us in your own time babe." Clint added back, his nickname from when they had been dating, slipping though no one seemed to notice.
"They would slip a piece of wood into my mouth and use the helmet to mess with my head." She whispered, unable to lift her eyes to meet theirs.
Their bloods ran cold as they all stared at each other in horror. Especially Steve. It was beginning to sound a lot like what happened to Bucky. Swallowing back the bile, he moved his hand once more, up and down her arm to comfort her.
"Mess with your head? Erase your memories?" Natasha then whispered as Skylar bit her lip and nodded, the dull pain of the machine returning to the forefront of her mind.
"How often did they do that?" Bruce then spoke up as she sniffled and shrugged.
"I can only remember a few instances but I'm sure there were more. They liked their assets to be well-behaved and easy to comply." Her voice grew shaky.
"Is there anything else you can tell us Sky? Anything at all?" Bruce carefully asked as the woman lifted her eyes from her sheets to meet his concerned eyes.
There was lots to tell them, tons. But at what cost? She had gone through hell and back, surprising even herself when she was still sane enough to be around people longer than a few seconds. She bit the inside of her cheek, wondering what sort of things she was at liberty in telling them, not wanting to push her limits, especially while she herself refused to live through specific memories that were continuing to taunt her, again.
Sighing softly, she looked down to Steve's hand intertwined with her uninjured one.
"Every other day, they injected me with something. They told me it was the beginning of their new world order." She explained, feeling the room tense around her at her words. But before anyone could interject into her explanation, she did it herself.
"I asked what it was but not once did they tell me what it was. They tied me down to a table, had 3 doctors restraint me and hold my arm down before they injected this glowing blue liquid into my elbow." Hesitantly she slipped her hand from Steve's to lift the sleeve of the oversized shirt she was wearing, showing the group the ever permanent look of burnt skin that laid at the crook of her elbow.
"The first injection was the most painful. I screamed and cried till I passed out. It felt like they were filling my veins with acid." She whispered, tears spilling from her eyes as her voice shook, her eyes tightening shut against the memories.
As soon as the words had left her mouth, she felt Steve stiffen from beside her, his breath coming in and out in short and heavy intervals before a loud clank echoed through the room. Skylar couldn't help but flinch as her eyes shot open to see Tony striding out of the room, the chair he had been sitting in, knocked completely to the ground where Clint was now staring out the window with anger growing in his orbs. Slowly, she turned her head when she felt a hand on her knee and met Natasha's concerned eyes, her thumb rubbing along the skin there in silent comfort.
"Rest. We'll talk later, hm." Natasha pressed as she stood from her spot on the edge of Skylar's bed, hugging the woman momentarily before brushing past Bruce and Clint.
Bruce had nothing to say as he glanced at the woman he had come to consider as his little unrelated sister with heartbreak in his eyes before it was too much. He soon followed Natasha's footsteps out of the room.
The room grew quiet again before she felt Steve's arm wrap around her waist, carefully pulling her completely flush against his side, his lips quickly descending onto her forehead, though a bit harsher than she had expected. Even so, she knew he wasn't in his right mind to even notice how tightly he was holding her.
"Cap, when you have time, I'd like to speak to you." Clint's voice pulled the pair from their silent cocoon. The pair glanced up as the archer approached the empty side of the bed, leaning down far enough to peck Sky's cheek before brushing his fingers across her cheek.
Steve ignored the gesture the man showed the woman in his arms and nodded.
After learning that those bastards had indeed tried to erase their existence from her memory and continued to inject some unknown substance into her, everyone was set on finding the nearest Hydra base and burning it to the ground with everyone inside.
They were bound determined to make those pay.
Skylar was soon returned to her room where she was left to her own devices that consisted of the large television screen plastered to the opposite wall and a Stark Pad that her cousin had so graciously made up for her. It was silent for some time as she stared down at the blank screen of her cousin's version of an IPad, unsure what to do with it.
She was happy to be home, to be around those she loved and cherished, but she couldn't help that nagging feeling in the back of her head that she wasn't truly out of Hydra's grasp yet. No. She knew she wasn't. Though she was physically out of their reach, she knew, mentally, everything they did to her, connected the two without much trouble.
Everything they did to her, was for a reason. Not only to destroy the world and take it for their own, but to destroy those she loved. The Avengers.
Sure, they saw one thing that she was now able to do. Telekinesis, from what she was told, kind of like the Avenger's newest member, Wanda. But that wasn't all she could do. She knew, within time they would find out but she didn't want them to. Just the Telekinesis alone scared her, quietly brought up memories of how she used it against Hydra enemies and the innocent while under their control. She had used it to kill a lot of innocent people. She was scared. Afraid what they would think of her once they found out about her other engineered abilities.
Narrowing her eyes in anger, she glared at the IPad sitting in her lap and snorted. Lifting her uninjured hand, she watched as the IPad easily floated off her lap before hanging in mid-air in front of her.
They designed her into a monster to kill those most important to her. She turned her hand slightly, watching as the IPad spun in the air effortlessly.
They made her kill innocent people. Families, mothers, fathers and children. Her hand snapped still, her palm facing the electronic.
They made her watch unwillingly as she killed those people, their screams still filling her mind.
Feeling a dull thump in her mind, she watched as the IPad began to splinter off in pieces, each piece continuing to float until the entire device was dismantled and floating in front of her. If they dared to hurt her family, she would use the very things that gave her, against them.
Knock Knock
"Sky? Can I come in kid?" Tony's voice rang through the door as her eyes shot over to the still shut door. Panicked, she twisted her hand, watching as the device quickly puzzled back together before it dropped into her lap just as the door opened showing her cousin.
"There she is." Tony grin split from ear to ear as he stepped into the room.
She would protect them, at all costs.
So, this was a filler chapter, working up to what I have in store for the next chapter. Action and a bit more plot movement in the next one.
What did you guys think?
