I don't own anything but the Plot and My OCs. The header is also mine and if you hadn't guessed it's a Natasha Romanoff aesthetic.
There is no coming to consciousness without pain. - Carl Jung
~~~~Cosmos POV~~~~
I knew I was gonna get an ass-kicking at some point. I'd be nieve if I thought I wouldn't. But Nic loves food more than anything else, except music, which meant I was safe for a while. We walked back into the kitchen with the large crowd in tow.
"Hey, Cody can you ask mu... Woah, that's a lot of people, do you know all these guys dad?" Cooper turned to Clint with a shocked expression, Lila mirroring him, probably feeling slightly intimidated.
"Most of them, yes. Most of them are Cody and Blaise's family, but the rest are the people I work with or similar." It was weird hearing him use my actual name, I guess I was just used to hearing my assasi...work name.
"Okay. Anyway, Cody, can you ask mum if we can go and play on the old tractor? Pleeease?" I laughed, shaking my head slightly.
"Alright kid. Although, you could do it yourself?" Cooper pouted.
"Yes, but she's more likely to agree if you ask and we'll be allowed to for longer. Actually, you might manage to persuade her to let us stay up for longer! Can you? Please?" This one is definitely some form of a businessman in the future, I can tell.
"Actually kiddo, I need to borrow Cody and Blaise for a bit, so we can figure out sleeping arrangements and other things." Bearing in mind that I know Nic would have said we would sleep (or not in their case) literally anywhere, and likely all together, the emphasis had to be on the other things, which meant they wanted to know about our life story. I almost forgot we were meant to be telling them to be honest... Anyway, I looked at Clint and gave a sharp nod of my head.
"Okay. But, before we do that, food? Because I'm hungry, and I'm pretty sure Nic is too." I looked at them for confirmation. They tilted their head to the left in what could only be interpreted as 'you're not wrong'. Clint just laughed and carried on making whatever he was making - with me hoping like hell it was pizza - while I was hit with the questions.
"Which one's Nic?" Cooper and Lila stared up at me curiously. I looked at Blaise.
"Y'know what? Why doesn't everyone just introduce themselves? That would be easier, right?"
"That is the first time I have ever heard a good idea come out of your mouth, Code." I glared at Nancy.
"No, it's not! Remember that time in Germany when we were trapped in that weird Government building and I had an idea to get us out without anyone catching us? That was a good idea!"
"Code, your idea was to blow up the entire cazzo building." Nic deadpanned.
"So? It would have worked." Mark stared at me.
"Cosmos Pollux McElroy-Zanetti, our entire family, including you, were still inside the building, as were all our contacts in the government. Everyone would have died. It was not a good idea. Don't try to pretend it was. And Nic? Stop being hypocritical." By this point, everyone was staring at us.
"Yeah, I definitely need to sort out the other things," Clint muttered.
"ANYWAY, We should probably introduce ourselves. I apologise for my siblings, they are idiots." This cued a significant amount of protests, but she carried on anyway. "I'm Tania. Next to me with the black hair is Nancy, and next to her is Markus." They waved. "Next to Markus is Nic, Cody, and Blaise - two of which you already know. And behind Blaise is Alex, the taller one, and Zac, the shorter one." She smiled at them.
"Okay, so, I think I got it, Tania, Nancy, Markus, Nic, Cody, Blaise, Alex, and... No, Alex, and Zac." Copper pointed to them in turn, while Tania nodded every time he got it right. He then pointed at the Avengers.
"Okay, so, Who are you lot? I mean, I know who you are, mostly, I just wanna know your actual names." Clint stood up - when did he crouch down? - and turned around.
"In that case: Steve, Tony, Bruce - you know him as the hulk, James Rhodes or Rhodey, Sam, Pepper, and you already know Nat." He pointed at them in turn. Cooper nodded vigorously.
"Okay, so Steve, Bru... No, Tony, Bruce, Rhodey, Sam, Pepper, and Auntie Nat. Got it." Clint ruffled his hair.
"Okay, why don't you two go and play on the grounded tractor for a while, so we can sort things out. Tell your mother I said you could if she asks." They cheered and ran out of the room. Damn, I wish there was a point in time when I could have done that, but I never got the chance. However, It was at that moment when a loud beeping sound echoed around the room.
"Turn it off! Now!" Mark screamed over the noise. I turned quickly to see him crouched over Nic, who had curled themself against the wall with their hands over their ears, shaking. I whispered the first thing that came to mind.
"Merda." At that second, Clint managed to turn the cooker's timer off. Nic began to slowly calm down. I could see Mark muttering to them in Italian, so they could ground themself in the present day.
"What the hell was that?" Stark stared at them as he asked his question. Sighing, Nancy turned to him.
"PTSD-induced panic attack. What else would it have been Stark?" They all looked at us with wide-eyes.
"What the hell happened that a 16-year-old kid has PTSD?" Sam's eyes were filled with petrifying terror. I looked towards Mark and Nic.
"It's a long story, but I think it's one we're going to finally have to tell." Markus looked up at me, an unreadable expression on his face. He nodded once, his eyes hardening and jaw clenching. It was time.
~~~~Pepper POV~~~~
Clint took us out of the house to one of the unused barns. We settled in a circle, the kids sitting on one side, us adults on the other. Nic looked rather shaken, but I guess it's understandable. At that moment, they looked up with determination.
"Before we start, I'm going to remind you, I have a habit of projecting memories. Some of them aren't nice and if I start doing so, I may have to leave and come back when I've calmed down, for your protection." Tony looked at them incredulously.
"What, you think you, a 16-year-old kid can hurt us?" I looked at him scandalised.
"Tony!" Nic held up their hand.
"Don't worry Miss Potts, I'm used to it. As for you, Stark, I am solely responsible for over 50,000 deaths in the past 13 years. My first kill was when I was 3-years-old. I think I could decimate all of you by accident." These kids kept shocking me. I dreaded to think of what they were going to say. Markus cleared his throat.
"I may as well start this off. Don't worry if you get confused about where people are, our stories collide fairly quickly. Ask questions at the end, please." We all nodded our agreement. "Our story starts with two high-class families. The patriarch's of those families decided to marry their children off so that their power was increased. By their third year of marriage, the two had fallen in love. However, one day a strange man approached their home. He spoke of a world where the 'lower class animals' were no more and powerful creatures roamed the world. He said whoever could control them were the most powerful beings on the planet. He asked them to join his cause, to create the world he spoke of. And they agreed. In their 5th year of marriage, the woman discovered she was pregnant. The two agreed that when the child was 1-year-old they would introduce him into the group. When the child was born, they named him Markus Tyberious Flinton." Markus inhaled deeply. Steve leaned forwards.
"Keep going." Nic placed their hand on their bother's arm in an act of comfort.
"When he turned 1, they introduced him to the man who encouraged them to join the cause. He looked at the child thoughtfully before telling them that their son was special. That he had the ability to survive the worst torture known to man. He said that with the right experimentation, he could become one of the creatures of the story and that because they were his parents, he would be compelled to obey them." He chuckled wetly. "So the next day, the experiments began. The child became stronger, faster, and better. He never knew what love felt like, never knew what it was like to know someone. Until he was 3-years-old, he was alone." Markus opened his mouth to carry on talking, but all that would come out was a choked whimper. I immediately felt sorry for him, it must have been hard to be alone for the first three years of your life. Nancy pulled him closer to her and slung her arm around his shoulder.
"Nic, could you...?" Nic nodded once.
"When Markus was 2-years-old, his parents discovered they were going to have a second child. When Markus turned three, they and one of the other couples working on him stopped coming in. When he was four, both couples returned, both with 1-year-old children. These children were called Nicole Regan Flinton and Tania Kyla Lamont. According to the man, both were a formidable force and would be an even larger asset than Markus, so they joined him in experimentation. However, Markus became protective of them. He wouldn't let them go through the pain he went through. And that's when it started." They took a shaky breath. "They..." Suddenly my vision went dark. When I could see again, we were in a room with three metal tables set down in the middle of it. A metal door opened and three young children were dragged in. Each was laid on a table and chained to it.
"No..." Steve whispered in shock. He recognised the room. A man dressed in white walked in. He stood over the smallest child, looking at them with an impassive expression.
"I swear if you touch my sibling I will tear you apart with my bare hands, family or not." The man looked at the largest child, whose face was thunderous. He chuckled.
"Can't I touch my own daughter Markus?" I could hear Tony take a deep breath next to me.
"No, no you fucking can't! You're just going to hurt her you fucking ass-hole!" The man tutted.
"You should learn to shut up son. One day you'll see, this is for the greater good." The man produced a scalpel from his pocket and brought it near to the girl's head. The next thing I knew, a grey light had swept across the room, knocking me over backwards forcefully. When I sat up, we were back in the barn and Markus was crouched on the ground, chest heaving and eyes narrowed. Nic was kneeling next to him whispering in a language I didn't understand. It was at this moment that I realised we had just seen one of the projections Nic was talking about, which meant they were the one who had a scalpel to the head. This knowledge shook me a lot, my sympathy for them was expanding by the second. At this point, I decided I needed to see the reactions of others in the group. I turned around to see a shocking sight - Steve was in a similar position to Markus with Tony in a similar position to Nic, calming him down, whispering reassurances that he wasn't there anymore, mirroring the words I assume were being spoken by Nic somewhere across the room. It was at this point I realised I couldn't be the one to stop them from being happy. But that could wait, we had to finish here first. I took a deep breath - this wasn't going to be easy for me to say.
"I... I hate to be 'that' person, but we need to continue. None of us want to take longer than we need to over this, so much as I can tell." Tania looked over at me with a hard look in her eyes.
"Nic, take Mark outside. Stark, if you think it will help, take Rogers out as well. I'll continue the story." Nic did as they were told, nodding thankfully towards her, but as soon as Tony started to move Steve towards the entrance of the barn, Steve spoke up.
"No."
I'M BACK WITH AN ACTUAL CHAPTER! Anyone proud of me? I'm so sorry I took so long over it!
I had a bad case of writers' block... but while I had this problem I made a large amount of digital art, aesthetics, and character profiles which can be found on my Pinterest: Rouqat Arael (If that name doesn't work try - PuncBruscar). Hopefully, that is enough to satisfy those who actually read this for now?
Sorry Again!
Please R&R - I need to know how I can make this better...Then the writers' block might stop happening...
MK