21.
"I don't want it," Sophia stated crossing her arms and turning away.
Charlotte rubbed her forehead, "Can you at least tell me why you want to kill me?"
"Who said anything about killing you?" Sophia asked her face twisting in disgust.
Charlotte stood there staring at the raven haired women wearing a satiny gold dress. The woman looked fine but Charlotte had been in her shoes. She understood what it felt like to think you have control then all of a sudden you don't. That feeling when you lose control was the worst. Charlotte was and this woman is now, a boiling pot of water. The water was on low, manageable and not done yet, but soon it would bubble over and spill.
And that spill could potentially cause someone to get burned. She had to know that she can't repress her emotions especially with their emotion-centric curse.
Charlotte bit her lip at the question Sophia posed, "You weren't going to kill me?"
"No," Sophia said drawing her eyebrows together before straightening them with a smug smirk, "Just to hurt you, maiming you was also allowed, then drag your unconscious body to the van we had out back and bring you back to our boss."
Charlotte's eyes widened and her upper lip curled up in disgust, "Well that sounds lovely. Why do you need me, because if it's important you could just ask."
"Cute," Sophia nodded, her smirk still in place, "But all I was called for was to capture you."
"That's so sad," Charlotte said shaking her head with a small smirk. She thought back to what Bruce had told her when she was the lowest part of the month when she still couldn't transform no matter how hard she tried and she just wanted to give up.
Apparently, too many tries without succeeding to transform caused her emotions to wreak havoc on her mental state. So after the sixth failed try, she was blubbering like an idiot, heart beating but not transforming and she looked up at Bruce and asked, "What is the point? I'm never going to get it right. I'm going to be saddled with this for the rest of my life, why does it matter if I use it or not?"
Her face was streaked with tears and she had crumpled onto the floor, her body racked with sobs. She looked up at him and he crouched down with the softest smile she had seen him make and wiped away her tears.
"I'm going to tell you something, someone once told me," Charlotte said taking a step towards the slightly younger woman, "You have powers for a reason. If you think you're using them right then so be it. Do you think you're using them right?"
Sophia stared at the curly blonde haired woman wearing a black cocktail dress and a cross yet nostalgic expression.
"So," Charlotte said starting to walk backwards, "I'm just going to let you here until we find out your employer."
"What?" Sophia asked scooting off the edge of the lab table, "Why can't I leave?"
Charlotte stood by the elevator, "Seriously? You think I'm just going to let you go so you can go back to your boss who wants me maimed or seriously injured. You wait here."
The elevator slid open, "Just want you to know," Charlotte called out before she stepped out of the lab room, "There are other options."
With a final smile Charlotte walked into the room and pressed the up button.
When the door finally closed she spoke, "JARVIS I need you to lock the lab room down completely and make the elevator password access only."
"Yes, Dr. Carlson," came the reply.
The elevator doors opened and Charlotte walked into the room above the one she was just in. The group of men she was with just an hour previous, joined by Natasha and Clint were hovering around a computer-probably the video security feed.
Tony looked up, "Are you out of your mind?"
Charlotte chuckled, she knew there would be at least one reaction like that. Confusion, slight outrage, a 'what do you think you're doing you fool'. But while Tony was just shaking his head in front of the video feed, his eyes alternating between her face with disbelief to the computer screen with confusion.
Charlotte shrugged, "It might work. I can see the eyes of a broken soul when I see one."
Bruce gave her a small smile which Charlotte returned, "Takes one to know one right?"
"Definitely," Charlotte said.
"I don't know," Tony said, "I have very little faith in the probability this will work."
"Where did the spangled man go?" Thor boomed looking around their immediate group.
Charlotte turned around not noticing the blonde man had snuck past her towards the not yet closed elevator. She spun back to look at the shocked faces, hers matching theirs to a T.
"Did we all seriously miss that?" Tony asked looking at the two assassins in particular.
"We're off duty," Clint said with a shrug.
"But," Tony stuttered, "That doesn't make any sense."
Charlotte saw Natasha smirk at Clint. And she understood. They wanted Steve to sneak by to talk to Sophia. They were assassins, used to direct questioning not waiting for things to fall into place. Probably they had more patience when they were quote on duty unquote. They probably wanted to get this over with, question the woman they were not affected by since they had already done their part with the questioning, and leave.
Charlotte walked over to the computer screens and leaned over a seated Bruce's shoulder to watch the live time footage.
She saw Steve, with his full suit still perfectly in place along with his hair, approach the woman with the mused raven hair and slightly dusty gold dress with a rip at the hem from the heels she had tripped over. Both looked like polar opposites. One blonde haired, one raven colored; innocent compared to underlying tension she had; calm and on edge. But both were lost souls like everyone else in the Avengers. That's how Charlotte knew she would ponder her offer because the Avengers was a team of superheroes that didn't see themselves as heroes, but as people who survived different circumstances that opened their eyes to the evils of the world. And they wanted to help.
Charlotte knew that Sophia has been exposed to her own evils. She still was.
...
Steve was nervous as the elevators slid open and the interior of the experimental lab filled his vision. His footsteps in were sharp and planned, his eyes fixed on the raven haired woman, Sophia.
Sophia saw a blonde haired blue eyed man that would have blended in with all the other men in the city, especially the upper crust but she knew this man. This was Captain America.
There was a slight tug on her guy. Mark loved Captain America. Sophia shook her head and sniffed, not now. She needed to get this job done. If she didn't. God she didn't know what to think.
Author's Note (one on the bottom now!):
Not a long chapter but I'm having midterms right now and I'm freaking out because I can't math. So sorry...during Christmas break expect uploads!
Buttt...I will still be on Tumblr...because it takes less effort and the best procrastinating method.
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