I HAVE RETURNED WITH THE SPOILS FROM THE NEW COUNTRY! Just kidding, I didn't go to a new country but I wish I did... I just went to a dance and now all I want to do is sleep but I got this chapter up for y'all anyway because I love you!

Chapter Ten

Rosie:

I watched as the doors closed behind Tony. There were no words for how I felt. He'd cut me open, tore my heart out, set it on fire, and stomped on it. How could he bring himself to say those things? That I wasn't going near him or anything he cared about? I mean, I knew I was a monster, but I was still his child!

I must've been showing pain in my eyes or my expression, because Steve shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Hey," he said softly from the corner. "I'm sorry."

My head snapped to his direction. Did he just…

"Are you… Are you apologizing to me?" I asked, astonished. Steve gave what could be considered a nod. I raised an eyebrow, startled. "Why?"

"For fighting you back in New York," he said. "I didn't want to, you know."

"But you did anyway."

"Technically, you attacked him first," Clint said. I snapped my gaze to his, glaring at him.

"I did," I said. "Which means you didn't have to get involved."

Steve mashed his lips together awkwardly, and Clint simply glared right back at me. There was a deadly silence between us. I rolled my eyes, turning my gaze back to them.

"Can you both just leave me alone?" I said, my orange hair swooshing behind me. It was nice to have orange hair again. "My father just told me he doesn't want or care about me, so I'd rather not I feel like an animal in a zoo right now."

"Nice try," I heard Clint say. "But Fury told us not to leave you alone. Not after your outbreak back at S.H.I.E.L.D. tower."

I glanced over my shoulder. "I thought you said I couldn't escape from this?" I tossed the words over my shoulder at him. Clint rose to his feet.

"I never said that," he said calmly. "Tony did. And you can't escape it, but Fury's not taking chances. Not with you. Not with a level seven."

Dammit. Fury had all the loopholes covered. I didn't want to admit it, but the man was good. He knew what he was doing… Most of the time. I lowered myself back onto the floor, which was surprisingly warm. My hands went to my leg, unwrapping the bandages from my calf. Whoever had spoken before was right—my wound had healed.

"How did you get that?" Steve asked, striding towards the glass. I kept my eyes focused firmly on my leg, like I was checking to make sure the wound was healed.

"Your buddy shot me, remember?" I said. I couldn't bring myself to look up at him. The light was dim, no doubt cloaking his face in a perfect glow. I wished he wasn't so handsome. When I looked at him, I had to constantly remind myself that he was the enemy.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Steve shaking his head. "That's not what I meant," he said. "I meant the… Stuff inside you. How did that happen, if you don't mind my asking, that is," he added quickly.

I sighed, shrugging my shoulders lazily. "I don't know for sure. I really can't remember a lot from that night. It's kind of all a blur, ya know?" I blew the hair out of my eyes. "All I know is that when my parents were killed, I wasn't like this. But afterwards, I had this stuff inside me."

"What happened that night?" he asked. His voice wasn't prying or aggressive, like Fury's, but instead soothing and compassionate. I wasn't falling for it. I flipped my hair out of my eyes again. I doubt I could find a hair tie in this place.

"That night was a result of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

I looked up at him, and immediately wished I hadn't. I was right before when I thought that the dim light would only make his handsome features even more perfect. He looked like some sort of fallen angel with his golden hair swept back, several strands falling into his eyes. There was a small cut on his forehead no bigger than a paper cut, and his uniform dirty and wrinkled after our battle. I stared up at him, and he stared back, silence flowing fluidly between us. We were communicating soundlessly, expressing ourselves with only the looks in our eyes.

"Why didn't you kill me?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, my eyes not leaving his. All of my rage was gone. I was just a girl now, an innocent, broken little girl, who just wanted answers.

"I couldn't," he said, his words just as low and delicate as mine had been.

"Why?" I asked. "I could've killed you. I probably would've killed you, actually, if he hadn't intervened," I told him honestly, motioning to Clint with a jerk of my head. The solider shook his head.

"No. You wouldn't have."

"What makes you so sure?"

"You and I," the solider said. "We're a lot alike, Roslyn."

"It's Rosie," I said, cocking my head to the side. "How so?"

Steve ran a hand through his hair, giving a deep sigh. "Well, we're both experiments."

I gave a light scoff at that. "Wrong," I said. "You were created for the greater good of mankind, to stop things like me from happening. As far as we all now, I'm a ticking time-bomb ready to go of if I let my emotions out of hand." I paused thoughtfully for a moment. "I'm a PMS-ing Hulk." I heard Clint chuckle.

"Actually," Steve said, smiling at my Hulk comment. "I was created to stop a war."

"And I was probably created to start one," I replied, not missing a beat. "Face it, Captain. Your argument is invalid. We're from different worlds."

"It's Steve, ma'am," Steve said in a tone that was rather respectful. "And our worlds couldn't be more similar."

I sat back, stretching my legs in front of me, resting my weight on my elbows. "Please, do tell."

"I know what you're feeling, Rosie," Steve said, his face mere centimeters from the glass that separated us. "Because I felt it, too, when I went through my transformation. You feel so strong, but you're still left wondering why you feel so weak. It's like you have all this limitless power, but you can't use it because if you do, you might use it the wrong way, and you could end up hurting a lot of innocent people. You don't understand yourself yet, and you feel like if you try, you'll only end up being afraid and that's the last thing you want." He swallowed hard. "You just feel…" He paused as his voice trailed, searching for the right word.

"Broken," we said the word together. My eyes locked with his, the both of us somewhat startled. I had to make a conscious effort to keep my mouth from dropping open. He knew. He was reading me like an open book. Everything he said, pinpointed exactly what I was going through. I stared up at him, completely in awe. Then I mentally shook myself.

What are you doing, Rosie? This is probably one of Fury's plans.

"I don't need a sympathy speech," I said coolly. "But thanks anyway."

Steve just shook his head, turning on his heel. "You don't have to act with me, Rosie," he said, his legs carrying him further and further away. "Fury didn't put me up to this."

Wait, what?

I sat up, my eyes watching him closely as he pushed open the door. "Then why are you being so nice to me?" I asked. "I mean, we practically just had a death match a couple hours ago."

Steve looked back at me, then did the truly unexpected. He smiled. "It wasn't a death match, Rosie," he said. "I wouldn't be able to kill you, even if Fury told me to."

Before I could open my lips to say anything else, he answered the question I was about to ask. "Because you remind me of a girl I used to know."

Fury wiped the thin layer of sweat that was forming on his brow, sinking back deeply into his chair. He'd just finished a very difficult meeting with the government, one that required a dozen too many screens on the Helicarrier to be occupied. The government officials were furious with him about the fact that a level seven had escaped from right under his nose.

"If a level seven can escape, then it should be no problem for a dozen level fives," one senator had said. "Soon we'll have hundreds of your prisoners running through the streets!"

Fury brought his hand up to his head, soothing his temples, trying to rid himself of their words that were still echoing through his brain. The press was already showing footage of Rosie and the Iron Man, then Rosie and the Captain. They were dying to know who she was, and what else she was capable of. They were close to sending everyone into a frenzy with talk of another alien invasion.

Fury ceased nursing his oncoming headache as Steve came out of the prison chamber. "What are you so happy about?" Fury asked, clearly irritated by the large smile plastered on the soldier's face.

Steve only smiled brighter, making Fury's scowl deeper. "I tried a different approach," Steve said. Fury's ears perked.

"Rogers," he said in a low growl. "What did you do?"

Steve didn't stop his rapid pace, but continued walking right past the other man. "I told you to just try talking to her, Fury," Steve said over his shoulder. "For everything she is, she's just a regular girl."

Okay, first of all, I can't believe I got to chapter ten! I usually don't make it this far into stories this is to exciting! Moving on... So this chapter was supposed to be very loosely based off of a song called Just A Little Girl by Trading Yesterday. (Awesome song, go check it out!) But when I have writer's block I put my iPod on shuffle and it helps me figure out how the chapter should go based on the song. It's a weird technique I use, but hey, it works! On a different note, I'm seriously loving the Steve/Rosie conversation here! You kind of get a glimpse of how she's just really scared of what she's capable of. I mean, I'd be pretty scared, too! But I, for one, quite liked how they could relate to each other... Hmm... maybe I'll make something out of that! If you liked the StevexRosie stuff going on totally let me know. I'm not sure where I'll go with their relationship… maybe it'll be romantic or maybe he'll just be like a big brother to her! Keep reading and you'll find out! And special thanks to all those who favorite/follow/review Dancing In the Darkness! I seriously love you all and here! Have pie! *throws pie out to all of you* I love pie… Anyways, love y'all! Keep favoriting/following/reviewing and until next time!

-Charlotte

In response to reviews…

Ninjaonfire—Yes, she knew Tony was her dad all along! I was sitting there wondering if it would be too much of a plot twist and then I just said, "Fuck it! More plot twists!" And I'm happy you liked the throwback to Rosie and Fury's first conversation because there's going to be a lot more of those! I wanted Fury to be like super up-in-her-business and know almost everything about her and then throw back to it in later chapters! And I totally agree, Rosie needs to calm the hell down! All fiery and such and not giving anyone answers, she's frustrating! I think maybe she just needs some chocolate… and maybe a hug from Steve *wink wink*